which has no communication with other seas, and lies between the
Caspian and Hyrcanian mountains, at the north of Parthia, receiving
in its capacious bed the tribute of several large rivers. Ancient
authors assure us that it produced enormous serpents and fishes,
different in colour and kind from those of all other waters. The
eastern parts are more particularly called the _Hyrcanian sea_, and
the western the _Caspian_. It is now called the sea of _Sala_ or
_Baku_. The Caspian is about 680 miles long, and in no part more
than 260 in breadth. There are no tides in it, and on account of
its numerous shoals, it is navigable to vessels drawing only nine
or ten feet of water. It has strong currents, and, like inland seas,
is liable to violent storms. Some navigators examined it in 1708, by
order of the Czar Peter, and after the labour of three years, a map
of its extent was published. Its waters are described as brackish,
and not impregnated with salt so much as the wide ocean. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 202, &c.――_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 2; bk. 6, ch. 4; bk. 7,
ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 3, chs. 5 & 6.
――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 13.――_Dionysius Periegetes_, li. 50.
=Caspius mons=, a branch of mount Taurus, between Media and Armenia,
at the east of the Euphrates. The Caspiæ portæ are placed in the
defiles of the mountain by some geographers.
=Cassandāne=, the mother of Cambyses by Cyrus. _Herodotus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Cassander=, son of Antipater, made himself master of Macedonia
after his father’s death, where he reigned for 18 years. He married
Thessalonica the sister of Alexander, to strengthen himself on his
throne. Olympias the mother of Alexander wished to keep the kingdom
of Macedonia for Alexander’s young children; and therefore she
destroyed the relations of Cassander, who besieged her in the town
of Pydna, and put her to death. Roxane, with her son Alexander, and
Barsane the mother of Hercules, both wives of Alexander, shared the
fate of Olympias with their children. Antigonus, who had been for
some time upon friendly terms with Cassander, declared war against
him; and Cassander, to make himself equal with his adversary, made
a league with Lysimachus and Seleucus, and obtained a memorable
victory at Ipsus, B.C. 301. He died three years after this victory,
of a dropsy. His son Antipater killed his mother; and for his
unnatural murder he was put to death by his brother Alexander, who,
to strengthen himself, invited Demetrius the son of Antigonus from
Asia. Demetrius took advantage of the invitation, and put to death
Alexander, and ascended the throne of Macedonia. _Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 15.――_Diodorus_, bk. 19.――_Justin_, bks. 12, 13, &c.
=Cassandra=, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, was passionately loved by
Apollo, who promised to grant her whatever she might require, if she
would gratify his passion. She asked the power of knowing futurity;
and as soon as she had received it, she refused to perform her
promise, and slighted Apollo. The god, in his disappointment, wetted
her lips with his tongue, and by this action effected that no credit
or reliance should ever be put upon her predictions, however true or
faithful they might be. Some maintain that she received the gift of
prophecy with her brother Helenus, by being placed when young one
night in the temple of Apollo, where serpents were found wreathed
round their bodies and licking their ears, which circumstance gave
them the knowledge of futurity. She was looked upon by the Trojans
as insane, and she was even confined, and her predictions were
disregarded. She was courted by many princes during the Trojan war.
When Troy was taken, she fled for shelter to the temple of Minerva,
where Ajax found her, and offered her violence, with the greatest
cruelty, at the foot of Minerva’s statue. In the division of the
spoils of Troy, Agamemnon, who was enamoured of her, took her as
his wife, and returned with her to Greece. She repeatedly foretold
to him the sudden calamities that awaited his return; but he gave
no credit to her, and was assassinated by his wife Clytemnestra.
Cassandra shared his fate, and saw all her prophecies but too truly
fulfilled. _See:_ Agamemnon. _Aeschylus_, _Agamemnon_.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 13, li. 363; _Odyssey_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 117.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 246, &c.――_Quintus Calaber
[Smyrnæus]_, bk. 13, li. 421.――_Euripides_, _Trojan Women_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 16; bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Cassandria=, a town of the peninsula of Pallene in Macedonia, called
also _Potidæa_. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 23.
=Cassia lex=, was enacted by Cassius Longinus, A.U.C. 649. By it no
man condemned or deprived of military power was permitted to enter
the senate house.――――Another, enacted by Caius Cassius the pretor,
to choose some of the plebeians to be admitted among the patricians.
――――Another. A.U.C. 616, to make the suffrages of the Roman people
free and independent. It ordained that they should be received upon
tablets. _Cicero_, _de Amicitia_.――――Another, A.U.C. 267, to make
a division of the territories taken from the Hernici, half to the
Roman people and half to the Latins.――――Another, enacted A.U.C. 596,
to grant a consular power to Publius Anicius and Octavius on the day
they triumphed over Macedonia. _Livy._
=Cassiodōrus=, a great statesman and writer in the sixth century. He
died A.D. 562, at the age of 100.――His works were edited by Chandler,
8vo, London, 1722.
=Cassiŏpe= and =Cassiŏpea=, married Cepheus king of Æthiopia, by
whom she had Andromeda. She boasted herself to be fairer than the
Nereides; upon which Neptune, at the request of these despised
nymphs, punished the insolence of Cassiope, and sent a huge sea
monster to ravage Æthiopia. The wrath of Neptune could be appeased
only by exposing Andromeda, whom Cassiope tenderly loved, to the
fury of this sea monster; and just as she was going to be devoured,
Perseus delivered her. _See:_ Andromeda. Cassiope was made a
southern constellation, consisting of 13 stars called Cassiope.
_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 43.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 738.――_Hyginus_, fable
64.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 17, li. 3.――_Marcus Manilius_, bk. 1.
――――A city of Epirus near Thesprotia. Another in the island of
Corcyra. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――――The wife of Epaphus. _Statius_,
_Sylvæ_.
=Cassitĕrĭdes=, islands in the western ocean, where tin was found,
supposed to be the _Scilly_ islands, the _Land’s End_, and _Lizard
Point_, of the moderns. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 22.
=Cassivelaunus=, a Briton invested with sovereign authority when
Julius Cæsar made a descent upon Britain. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 5, ch. 19, &c.
=Caius Cassius=, a celebrated Roman, who made himself known by being
first questor to Crassus in his expedition against Parthia, from
which he extricated himself with uncommon address. He followed the
interest of Pompey; and when Cæsar had obtained the victory in the
plains of Pharsalia, Cassius was one of those who owed their life
to the mercy of the conqueror. He married Junia the sister of Brutus,
and with him he resolved to murder the man to whom he was indebted
for his life, on account of his oppressive ambition; and before he
stabbed Cæsar, he addressed himself to the statue of Pompey, who had
fallen by the avarice of him whom he was going to assassinate. When
the provinces were divided among Cæsar’s murderers, Cassius received
Africa; and when his party had lost ground at Rome, by the superior
influence of Augustus and Marcus Antony, he retired to Philippi,
with his friend Brutus and their adherents. In the battle that was
fought there, the wing which Cassius commanded was defeated, and his
camp was plundered. In this unsuccessful moment he suddenly gave up
all hopes of recovering his losses, and concluded that Brutus was
conquered and ruined as well as himself. Fearful to fall into the
enemy’s hands, he ordered one of his freedmen to run him through,
and he perished by that very sword which had given wounds to Cæsar.
His body was honoured with a magnificent funeral by his friend
Brutus, who declared over him that he deserved to be called the last
of the Romans. If he were brave, he was equally learned. Some of his
letters are still extant among Cicero’s epistles. He was a strict
follower of the doctrines of Epicurus. He was often too rash and
too violent, and many of the wrong steps which Brutus took are
to be ascribed to the prevailing advice of Cassius. He is allowed
by Paterculus to have been a better commander than Brutus, though
a less sincere friend. The day after Cæsar’s murder he dined at
the house of Antony, who asked him whether he had then a dagger
concealed in his bosom. “Yes,” replied he, “if you aspire to
tyranny.” _Seutonius_, _Cæsar_ & _Augustus_.――_Plutarch_, _Brutus_
& _Cæsar_.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 46.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 40.
――――A Roman citizen who condemned his son to death, on pretence
of his raising commotions in the state. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5,
ch. 8.――――A tribune of the people, who made many laws tending to
diminish the influence of the Roman nobility. He was competitor with
Cicero for the consulship.――――One of Pompey’s officers, who, during
the civil wars, revolted to Cæsar with 10 ships.――――A poet of Parma,
of great genius. He was killed by Varus, by order of Augustus, whom
he had offended by his satirical writings. His fragments of Orpheus
were found and edited some time after by the poet Statius. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 10, li. 62.――――Spurius, a Roman, put to death on
suspicion of his aspiring to tyranny, after he had been three times
consul, B.C. 485. _Diodorus_, bk. 11.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6,
ch. 3.――――Brutus, a Roman who betrayed his country to the Latins,
and fled to the temple of Pallas, where his father confined him, and
he was starved to death.――――Longinus, an officer of Cæsar in Spain,
much disliked. _Cæsar_, _Alexandrine War_, ch. 48.――――A consul, to
whom Tiberius married Drusilla daughter of Germanicus. _Seutonius_,
_Galba_, ch. 57.――――A lawyer whom Nero put to death, because he
bore the name of Julius Cæsar’s murderer. _Suetonius_, _Nero_, ch.
37.――――Lucius Hemina, the most ancient writer of annals at Rome.
He lived A.U.C. 608.――――Lucius, a Roman lawyer, whose severity in
the execution of the law has rendered the words _Cassiani judices_
applicable to rigid judges. _Cicero_, _For Sextus Roscius of
Ameria_, ch. 30.――――Longinus, a critic. _See:_ Longinus.――――Lucius,
a consul with Caius Marius, slain with his army by the Gauls Senones.
_Appian_, _Gallic History_.――――Marcus Scæva, a soldier of uncommon
valour in Cæsar’s army. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――――An
officer under Aurelius, made emperor by his soldiers, and murdered
three months after.――――Felix, a physician in the age of Tiberius,
who wrote on animals.――――Severus, an orator who wrote a severe
treatise on illustrious men and women. He died in exile, in his 25th
year. _See:_ Severus. The family of Cassii branched into the surname
of Longinus, Viscellinus, Brutus, &c.
=Cassōtis=, a nymph and fountain of Phocis. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 24.
=Castabala=, a city of Cilicia, whose inhabitants made war with their
dogs. _Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 40.
=Castabus=, a town of Chersonesus.
=Castălia=, a town near Phocis.――――A daughter of the Achelous.
=Castălius fons=, or =Castalia=, a fountain of Parnassus, sacred to
the Muses. The waters of this fountain were cool and excellent,
and they had the power of inspiring those who drank of them with
the true fire of poetry. The Muses have received the surname of
_Castalides_ from this fountain. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 293.――_Martial_, bk. 7, ltr. 11; bk. 12, ltr. 3.
=Castanea=, a town near the Peneus, whence the _nuces Castaneæ_
received their name. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 9.
=Castellum menapiōrum=, a town of Belgium on the Maese, now _Kessel_.
――――Morinorum, now _mount Cassel_, in Flanders.――――Cattorum, now
_Hesse Cassel_.
=Casthĕnes=, a bay of Thrace, near Byzantium.
=Castianira=, a Thracian, mistress of Priam and mother of Gorgythion.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 8.
=Castor= and =Pollux=, were twin brothers, sons of Jupiter by Leda,
the wife of Tyndarus king of Sparta. The manner of their birth is
uncommon. Jupiter, who was enamoured of Leda, changed himself into
a beautiful swan, and desired Venus to metamorphose herself into an
eagle. After this transformation the goddess pursued the god with
apparent ferocity, and Jupiter fled for refuge into the arms of
Leda, who was bathing in the Eurotas. Jupiter took advantage of his
situation, and nine months after Leda, who was already pregnant,
brought forth two eggs, from one of which came Pollux and Helena;
and from the other, Castor and Clytemnestra. The two former were
the offspring of Jupiter, and the latter were believed to be the
children of Tyndarus. Some suppose that Leda brought forth only one
egg, from which Castor and Pollux sprung. Mercury, immediately after
their birth, carried the two brothers to Pallena, where they were
educated; and as soon as they had arrived at years of maturity, they
embarked with Jason to go in quest of the golden fleece. In this
expedition both behaved with superior courage: Pollux conquered and
slew Amycus in the combat of the cestus, and was ever after reckoned
the god and patron of boxing and wrestling. Castor distinguished
himself in the management of horses. The brothers cleared the
Hellespont and the neighbouring seas from pirates, after their
return from Colchis, from which circumstance they have been always
deemed the friends of navigation. During the Argonautic expedition,
in a violent storm, two flames of fire were seen to play around the
heads of the sons of Leda, and immediately the tempest ceased and
the sea was calmed. From this occurrence their power to protect
sailors has been more firmly credited, and the two before-mentioned
fires, which are very common in storms, have since been known by
the name of Castor and Pollux; and when they both appeared, it was
a sign of fair weather; but if only one was seen it prognosticated
storms, and the aid of Castor and Pollux was consequently solicited.
Castor and Pollux made war against the Athenians to recover
their sister Helen, whom Theseus had carried away; and from their
clemency to the conquered, they acquired the surname of _Anaces_
or benefactors. They were initiated in the sacred mysteries of the
Cabiri, and in those of Ceres of Eleusis. They were invited to a
feast when Lynceus and Idas were going to celebrate their marriage
with Phœbe and Talaira the daughters of Leucippus, who was brother
to Tyndarus. Their behaviour after this invitation was cruel.
They became enamoured of the two women whose nuptials they were
to celebrate, and resolved to carry them away and marry them. This
violent step provoked Lynceus and Idas: a battle ensued, and Castor
killed Lynceus, and was killed by Idas. Pollux revenged the death of
his brother by killing Idas; and, as he was immortal, and tenderly
attached to his brother, he entreated Jupiter to restore him to life,
or to be deprived himself of immortality. Jupiter permitted Castor
to share the immortality of his brother; and consequently, as long
as the one was upon earth, so long was the other detained in the
infernal regions, and they alternately lived and died every day; or,
according to others, every six months. This act of fraternal love
Jupiter rewarded by making the two brothers constellations in heaven,
under the name of _Gemini_, which never appear together, but when
one rises the other sets, and so on alternately. Castor made Talaira
mother of Anogon, and Phœbe had Mnesileus by Pollux. They received
divine honours after death, and were generally called _Dioscuri_,
sons of Jupiter. White lambs were more particularly offered on their
altars, and the ancients were fond of swearing by the divinity of
the _Dioscuri_, by the expressions of _Ædepol_ and _Æcastor_. Among
the ancients, and especially among the Romans, there prevailed many
public reports, at different times, that Castor and Pollux had made
their appearance to their armies; and mounted on white steeds, had
marched at the head of their troops, and furiously attacked the
enemy. Their surnames were many, and they were generally represented
mounted on two white horses, armed with spears, and riding side
by side, with their head covered with a bonnet, on whose top
glittered a star. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 109; _Fasti_,
bk. 5, li. 701; _Amores_, bk. 3, poem 2, li. 54.――_Hyginus_,
fables 77 & 78.――_Homer_, _Hymn 33 to the Dioscuri_.――_Euripides_,
_Helen_.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6,
li. 121.――_Marcus Manilius_, _Astronomica_, bk. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 2.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 6.――_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 3.
――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 1, li. 27.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 12.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 8, 9; bk. 2, ch. 4; bk. 3, ch. 11.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 24; bk. 4, chs. 3 & 27.――――An ancient
physician.――――A swift runner.――――A friend of Æneas, who accompanied
him into Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 124.――――An orator of
Rhodes, related to king Dejotarus. He wrote two books on Babylon,
and one on the Nile.――――A gladiator. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 18,
li. 19.
=Castra Alexandri=, a place of Egypt about Pelusium. _Curtius_, bk. 4,
ch. 7.――――Cornelia, a maritime town of Africa, between Carthage and
Utica. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――Annibalis, a town of the Brutii, now
_Rocella_.――――Cyri, a country of Cilicia, where Cyrus encamped when
he marched against Crœsus. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――――Julia, a town
of Spain.――――Posthumania, a place of Spain. _Hirtius_, _Hispanic
War_, ch. 8.
=Castratius=, a governor of Placentia during the civil wars of Marius.
_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 2.
=Castrum Novum=, a place on the coast of Etruria. _Livy_, bk. 36,
ch. 3.――――Truentinum, a town of Picenum. _Cicero_, _Letters to
Atticus_, bk. 8, ltr. 12.――――Inui, a town on the shores of the
Tyrrhene sea. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 775.
=Castŭlo=, a town of Spain, where Annibal married one of the natives.
_Plutarch_, _Sertorius_.――_Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 41.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 3, lis. 99 & 391.
=Catabathmos=, a great declivity near Cyrene fixed by Sallust as
the boundary of Africa. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_, chs. 17 & 19.
――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 5.
=Catadūpa=, the name of the large cataracts of the Nile, whose immense
noise stuns the ears of travellers for a short space of time, and
totally deprives the neighbouring inhabitants of the power of hearing.
_Cicero_, _Somnium Scipionis_, ch. 5.
=Catagogia=, festivals in honour of Venus, celebrated by the people of
Eryx. _See:_ Anagogia.
=Catamenteles=, a king of the Sequani, in alliance with Rome, &c.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Catăna=, a town of Sicily at the foot of mount Ætna, founded by a
colony from Chalcis, 753 years before the christian era. Ceres had
there a temple, in which none but women were permitted to appear.
It was large and opulent, and it is rendered remarkable for the
dreadful overthrows to which it has been subjected from its vicinity
to Ætna, which has discharged, in some of its eruptions, a stream
of lava four miles broad and 50 feet deep, advancing at the rate of
seven miles in a day. Catana contains now about 30,000 inhabitants.
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 53; bk. 5, ch. 84.――_Diodorus_,
bks. 11 & 14.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Thucydides_, bk. 6, ch. 3.
=Cataonia=, a country above Cilicia, near Cappadocia. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Datames_, ch. 4.
=Cataracta=, a city of the Samnites.
=Cataractes=, a river of Pamphylia, now _Dodensoui_.
=Catĕnes=, a Persian by whose means Bessus was seized. _Curtius_,
bk. 7, ch. 43.
=Cathæa=, a country of India.
=Cathări=, certain gods of the Arcadians.――――An Indian nation, where
the wives accompany their husbands to the burning pile, and are
burnt with them. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Catia=, an immodest woman, mentioned _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2,
li. 95.
=Catiēna=, a courtesan in Juvenal’s age. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 133.
=Catiēnus=, an actor at Rome in Horace’s age, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 61.
=Lucius Sergius Cătĭlīna=, a celebrated Roman, descended of a noble
family. When he had squandered away his fortune by his debaucheries
and extravagance, and been refused the consulship, he secretly
meditated the ruin of his country, and conspired with many of
the most illustrious of the Romans, as dissolute as himself, to
extirpate the senate, plunder the treasury, and set Rome on fire.
This conspiracy was timely discovered by the consul Cicero, whom
he had resolved to murder; and Catiline, after he had declared his
intentions in the full senate, and attempted to vindicate himself,
on seeing five of his accomplices arrested, retired to Gaul,
where his partisans were assembling an army; while Cicero at Rome
punished the condemned conspirators. Petreius, the other consul’s
lieutenant, attacked Catiline’s ill-disciplined troops, and routed
them. Catiline was killed in the engagement, bravely fighting, about
the middle of December, B.C. 63. His character has been deservedly
branded with the foulest infamy; and to the violence he offered to
a vestal, he added the more atrocious murder of his own brother,
for which he would have suffered death, had not friends and bribes
prevailed over justice. It has been reported that Catiline and the
other conspirators drank human blood, to make their oaths more firm
and inviolable. _Sallust_ has written an account of the conspiracy.
_Cicero_, _Against Catiline_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 668.
=Catilli=, a people near the river Anio. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 4,
li. 225.
=Catilius=, a pirate of Dalmatia. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 5, ch. 10.
=Catillus=, or =Catilus=, a son of Amphiaraus, who came to Italy with
his brothers Coras and Tiburtus, where he built Tibur, and assisted
Turnus against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 672.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 18, li. 2.
=Catīna=, a town of Sicily, called also Catana. _See:_ Catana.
――――Another of Arcadia.
=M. Catius=, an epicurean philosopher of Insubria, who wrote a
treatise in four books, on the nature of things, and the _summum
bonum_, and an account of the doctrine and tenets of Epicurus.
But as he was not a sound or faithful follower of the epicurean
philosophy, he has been ridiculed by _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 4.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――――Vestinus, a military tribune in
Marcus Antony’s army. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 10,
ch. 23.
=Catizi=, a people of the Pygmæans, supposed to have been driven from
their country by cranes. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.