[1] The Via Traiana Nova, or the (_viae_) tres Traianae, mentioned in
inscriptions with the Cassia and Clodia as under the same _curator_,
are not certainly identifiable.
[2] Having regard to the military importance of Arretium during the
Punic wars, it is difficult to believe that no direct road existed to
this point before 187 B.C.
CASSIANUS, JOANNES EREMITA, or JOANNES MASSILIENSIS (?360-?435), a
celebrated recluse, one of the first founders of monastic institutions
in western Europe, was probably born in Provence about 360, but he spent
the early part of his life in the monastery of Bethlehem with his friend
Germanus, and his affinities were always Eastern rather than Western. In
company with Germanus he visited Egypt, and dwelt for several years
among the ascetics of the desert near the banks of the Nile. In 403 he
repaired to Constantinople, where he received ordination as deacon at
the hands of Chrysostom. At Marseilles (after 410) he founded two
religious societies--a convent for nuns, and the abbey of St Victor,
which during his time is said to have contained 5000 inmates. In later
times his regulations enjoyed a high reputation, and were adopted by the
monks and nuns of Port Royal. He was eventually canonized; and a
festival in his honour long continued to be celebrated at Marseilles on
the 25th of July. Cassianus was one of the first and most prominent of
the Semi-Pelagians, maintaining that while man is by nature sinful, he
yet has some good remaining in him, and that, while the immediate gift
of God's grace is necessary to salvation, conversion may also be begun
by the exercise of man's will. He further asserted that God is always
willing to bestow his grace on all who seek it, though, at the same
time, it is true that he sometimes bestows it without its being sought.
These views have been held by a very large part of the church from his
time, and embrace much of the essence of Arminianism. The style of
Cassianus is slovenly, and shows no literary polish, but its direct
simplicity is far superior to the rhetorical affectations which
disfigure most of the writings of that age. At the request of Castor,
bishop of Apt, he wrote two monumental and influential treatises on the
monastic life. The _De Institutione Coenobiorum_ (twelve books)
describes the dress, the food, the devotional exercises, the discipline
and the special spiritual dangers of monastic life in the East
(gluttony, unchastity, avarice, anger, gloom, apathy, vanity and pride).
The _Collationes Patrum_, a series of dialogues with the pious fathers
of Egypt, deal with the way in which these dangers (and others, e.g.
demons) may be avoided or overcome. At the desire of Leo (then
archdeacon of Rome) he wrote against Nestorius his _De Incarnatione
Domini_ in seven books.
EDITIONS.--Douay (1616) by Alardus Gazaus, with excellent notes;
Migne's _Patrol. Lat._ vols. xlix. and l.; M. Petschenig in the Vienna
_Corpus Script. Eccles. Lat._ (2 vols., 1886-1888). See A. Harnack,
_History of Dogma_, v. 246 ff., 253 ff.; A. Hoch, _Die Lehre d. Joh.
Cassian von Natur und Gnade_ (Freiburg, 1895); W. Moeller, _History of
the Chr. Church_, i. 368-370.
CASSINI, the name of an Italian family of astronomers, four generations
of whom succeeded each other in official charge of the observatory at
Paris.
GIOVANNI DOMENICO CASSINI (1625-1712), the first of these, was born at
Perinaldo near Nice on the 8th of June 1625. Educated by the Jesuits at
Genoa, he was nominated in 1650 professor of astronomy in the university
of Bologna; he observed and wrote a treatise on the comet of 1652; was
employed by the senate of Bologna as hydraulic engineer; and appointed
by Pope Alexander VII. inspector of fortifications in 1657, and
subsequently director of waterways in the papal states. His
determinations of the rotation-periods of Jupiter, Mars and Venus in
1665-1667 enhanced his fame; and Louis XIV. applied for his services in
1669 at the stately observatory then in course of erection at Paris. The
pope (Clement IX.) reluctantly assented, on the understanding that the
appointment was to be temporary; but it proved to be irrevocable.
Cassini was naturalized as a French subject in 1673, having begun work
at the observatory in September 1671. Between 1671 and 1684 he
discovered four Saturnian satellites, and in 1675 the division in
Saturn's ring (see SATURN); made the earliest sustained observations of
the zodiacal light, and published, in _Les Elements de l'astronomie
verifies_ (1684), an account of Jean Richer's (1630-1696) geodetical
operations in Cayenne. Certain oval curves which he proposed to
substitute for Kepler's ellipses as the paths of the planets were named
after him "Cassinians." He died at the Paris observatory on the 11th of
September 1712.
A partial autobiography left by Giovanni Domenico Cassini was
published by his great-grandson, Count Cassini, in his _Memoires pour
servir a l'histoire des sciences_ (1810). See also C. Wolf, _Histoire
de l'observatoire de Paris_ (1902); Max. Marie, _Histoire des
sciences_, t. iv. p. 234; R. Wolf, _Geschichte der Astronomie_, p.
450, &c.
JACQUES CASSINI (1677-1756), son of Domenico Cassini, was born at the
Paris observatory on the 8th of February 1677. Admitted at the age of
seventeen to membership of the French Academy of Sciences, he was
elected in 1696 a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and became
_maitre des comptes_ in 1706. Having succeeded to his father's position
at the observatory in 1712, he measured in 1713 the arc of the meridian
from Dunkirk to Perpignan, and published the results in a volume
entitled _De la grandeur et de la figure de la terre_ (1720) (see
GEODESY). He wrote besides _Elemens d'astronomie_ (1740), and died on
the 18th of April 1756 at Thury, near Clermont. The first tables of the
satellites of Saturn were supplied by him in 1716.
See C. Wolf, _Histoire de l'observatoire de Paris_; Max. Marie,
_Histoire des sciences_, vii. 214; R. Wolf, _Geschichte der
Astronomie_, p. 451; J.C. Houzeau, _Bibl. astronomique_; J. Delambre,
_Histoire de l'astronomie au XVIII'e siecle_, pp. 250-275 (unfairly
depreciatory); J.F. Montucla, _Hist. des mathematiques_, iv. 145, 248.
CESAR FRANCOIS CASSINI, or CASSINI DE THURY (1714-1784), son of Jacques
Cassini, was born at the observatory of Paris on the 17th of June 1714.
He succeeded to his father's official employments, continued the
hereditary surveying operations, and began in 1744 the construction of a
great topographical map of France. The post of director of the Paris
observatory was created for his benefit in 1771, when the establishment
ceased to be a dependency of the Academy of Sciences. Cassini de Thury
died at Thury on the 4th of September 1784. His chief works
are:--_Meridienne de l'observatoire de Paris_ (1744), _Description
geometrique de la terre_ (1775), and _Description geometrique de la
France_ (1784).
See C. Wolf, _Histoire de l'observatoire de Paris_, p. 287; Max.
Marie, _Histoire des sciences_, viii. 158; J. Delambre, _Histoire de
I'astronomie au XVIII'e siecle_, pp. 275-309; R. Wolf, _Geschichte der
Astronomie_, p. 451; J.J. de Lalande, _Bibliographic astronomique_.
JACQUES DOMINIQUE CASSINI, Count (1748-1845), son of Cesar Francois
Cassini, was born at the observatory of Paris on the 30th of June 1748.
He succeeded in 1784 to the directorate of the observatory; but his
plans for its restoration and re-equipment were wrecked in 1793 by the
animosity of the National Assembly. His position having become
intolerable, he resigned on the 6th of September, and was thrown into
prison in 1794, but released after seven months. He then withdrew to
Thury, where he died, aged ninety-seven, on the 18th of October 1845. He
published in 1770 an account of a voyage to America in 1768, undertaken
as the commissary of the Academy of Sciences with a view to testing
Pierre Leroy's watches at sea. A memoir in which he described the
operations superintended by him in 1787 for connecting the observatories
of Paris and Greenwich by longitude-determinations appeared in 1791. He
visited England for the purposes of the work, and saw William Herschel
at Slough. He completed his father's map of France, which was published
by the Academy of Sciences in 1793. It served as the basis for the
_Atlas National_ (1791), showing France in departments. Count Cassini's
_Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de l'observatoire de Paris_ (1810)
embodied portions of an extensive work, the prospectus of which he had
submitted to the Academy of Sciences in 1774. The volume included his
_Eloges_ of several academicians, and the autobiography of his
great-grandfather, the first Cassini.
See J.F.S. Devic, _Histoire de la vie et des travaux de J.D. Cassini_
(1851); J. Delambre, _Histoire de l'astronomie au XVIII'e siecle_, pp.
309-313; _Phil. Mag._ 3rd series, vol. xxviii. p. 412; C. Wolf,
_Histoire de l'observatoire de Paris_ (1902), p. 234 et passim.
(A. M. C.)
CASSIODORUS (not _Cassiodorius_), the name of a Syrian family settled at
Scyllacium (Squillace) in Bruttii, where it held an influential position
in the 5th century A.D. Its most important member was FLAVIUS MAGNUS
AURELIUS CASSIODORUS SENATOR (c. 490-585), historian, statesman, and
monk. "Senator" (not a title) is the name used by himself in his
official correspondence. His father held the offices of _comes
privatarum_ and _sacrarum largitionum_ (controller of the emperor's
private revenue and the public exchequer) under Odoacer, and
subsequently attached himself to Theodoric, by whom he was appointed
_corrector_ (governor) of Bruttii and Lucania, and _praefectus
praetorio_. The son at an early age became _consiliarius_ (legal
assessor) to his father, and (probably in 507) _quaestor_, an official
whose chief duty at that time consisted in acting as the mouthpiece of
the ruler, and drafting his despatches. In 514 he was ordinary consul,
and at a later date possibly _corrector_ of his native province. At the
death of Theodoric (526) he held the office of _magister officiorum_
(chief of the civil service). Under Athalaric he was _praefectus
praetorio_, a post which he retained till about 540, after the triumphal
entry of Belisarius into Ravenna, when he retired from public life. With
the object of providing for the transmission of divine and human
knowledge to later ages, and of securing it against the tide of
barbarism which threatened to sweep it away, he founded two
monasteries--Vivarium and Castellum--in his ancestral domains at
Squillace (others identify the two monasteries). The special duty which
he enjoined upon the inmates was the acquisition of knowledge, both
sacred and profane, the latter, however, being subordinated to the
former. He also collected and emended valuable MSS., which his monks
were instructed to copy, and superintended the translation of various
Greek works into Latin. He further amused himself with making scientific
toys, such as sun-dials and water-clocks. As he is stated to have
written one of his treatises at the age of ninety-three, he must have
lived till after 580. Whether he belonged to the Benedictine order is
uncertain.
The writings of Cassiodorus evince great erudition, ingenuity and
labour, but are disfigured by incorrectness and an affected
artificiality, and his Latin partakes much of the corruptions of the
age. His works are (1) historical and political, (2) theological and
grammatical.
1. (a) _Variae_, the most important of all his writings, in twelve
books, published in 537. They contain the decrees of Theodoric and his
successors Amalasuntha, Theodahad and Witigis; the regulations of the
chief offices of state; the edicts published by Cassiodorus himself
when _praefectus praetorio_. It is the best source of our knowledge of
the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy (ed. T. Mommsen in _Monumenta
Germaniae Historica: Auctores Antiquissimi_, xii., 1894; condensed
English translation by T. Hodgkin, 1886).
(b) _Chronica_, written at the request of Theodoric's son-in-law
Eutharic, during whose consulship (519) it was published. It is a dry
and inaccurate compilation from various sources, unduly partial to the
Goths (ed. T. Mommsen in _Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. Ant._ xi. pt. i.,
1893).
(c) Panegyrics on Gothic kings and queens (fragments ed. L. Traube in
_Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. Ant._ xii.).
2. (a) _De Anima_, a discussion on the nature of the soul, at the
conclusion of which the author deplores the quarrel between two such
great peoples as the Goths and Romans. It seems to have been published
with the last part of the _Variae_.
(b) _Institutiones divinarun et humanarunt litterarum_, an
encyclopaedia of sacred and profane literature for the monks, and a
sketch of the seven liberal arts. It further contains instructions for
using the library, and precepts for daily life.
(c) A commentary on the Psalms and short notes (_complexiones_) on the
Pauline epistles, the Acts, and the Apocalypse.
(d) _De Orthographia_, a compilation made by the author in his
ninety-third year from the works of twelve grammarians, ending with
his contemporary Priscian (ed. H. Keil, _Grammatici Latini_, vii.).
The Latin translations of the _Antiquities_ of Josephus and of the
ecclesiastical histories of Theodoret, Sozomen and Socrates, under the
title of _Historia Tripartita_ (embracing the years 306-439), were
carried out under his supervision.
Of his lost works the most important was the _Historia Gothorum_,
written with the object of glorifying the Gothic royal house and
proving that the Goths and Romans had long been connected by ties of
friendship. It was published during the reign of Athalaric, and
appears to have brought the history down to the death of Theodoric.
His chief authority for Gothic history and legend was Ablavius
(Ablabius). The work is only known to us in the meagre abridgment of
Jordanes (ed. T. Mommsen, 1882).
COMPLETE WORKS.--_Editio princeps_, by G. Fornerius (Paris, 1579); J.
Garet (Rouen, 1679; Venice, 1729), reprinted in J.P. Migne,
_Patrologia Latina_, lxix., lxx. On Cassiodorus generally, see
_Anecdoton Holderi_, excerpts from a treatise of Cassiodorus, edited
by H. Usener (Bonn, 1877), which throws light on questions connected
with his biography; T. Mommsen, preface to his edition of the
_Variae_; monographs by A. Thorbecke (Heidelberg, 1867) and A. Franz
(Breslau, 1872); T. Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_, iii. p. 280,
iv. p. 348; A. Ebert, _Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des
Mittelalters_ i.; Teuffel-Schwabe, _Hist. of Roman Literature_ (Eng
trans.), S 483; G.A. Simcox, _Hist. of Latin Literature_ (1884); W.
Ramsay in Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography_ J.B.
Bury's edition of Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, iv. 180, 522; R.W.
Church in the _Church Quarterly Review_, x. (1880); J.E. Sandys in
_Hist. of Classical Scholarship_ (2nd ed., 1906); A. Olleris,
_Cassiodore, conservateur des livres de l'antiquite latine_ (Paris,
1891); G. Minasi, _M.A. Cassiodoro ... ricerche storico-critiche_
(Naples, 1895); and C. Cipolla in _Memorie della r. Accademia delle
scienze di Torino_ (2nd ser. xliii. pt. 2, 1893); L.M. Hartmann in
Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_, iii. pt. 2 (1899), with note on
the musical section of Cassiodorus' _Institutions_ by C. von Jan.
CASSIOPEIA, in Greek mythology, the wife of Cepheus, and mother of
Andromeda; in astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere,
mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.).
Ptolemy catalogued 13 stars in this constellation, Tycho Brahe 46, and
Hevelius 37. Its most interesting stars are:--_Nova Cassiopeiae_, a
"new" star, which burst out with extraordinary brilliancy in 1572, when
it was observed by Tycho Brahe, but gradually diminished in brightness,
ultimately vanishing in about eighteen months; _[alpha]-Cassiopeiae_ and
_R-Cassiopeiae_ are variable stars, the former irregular, the latter
having a long period; _[eta]-Cassiopeiae_, a binary star, having
components of magnitudes 3-1/2 and 7-1/2; _[sigma]-Cassiopeiae_, a
double star, one being white and of magnitude 5, the other blue and of
magnitude 7-1/2.
CASSITERIDES (from the Gr. [Greek: kassiteros], tin, i.e.
"Tin-islands"), in ancient geography the name of islands regarded as
being situated somewhere near the west coasts of Europe. Herodotus (430
B.C.) had dimly heard of them. Later writers, Posidonius, Diodorus,
Strabo and others, call them smallish islands off (Strabo says, some way
off) the north-west coast of Spain, which contained tin mines, or, as
Strabo says, tin and lead mines--though a passage in Diodorus derives
the name rather from their nearness to the tin districts of north-west
Spain. While geographical knowledge of the west was still scanty and the
secrets of the tin-trade were still successfully guarded by the seamen
of Gades and others who dealt in the metal, the Greeks knew only that
tin came to them by sea from the far west, and the idea of tin-producing
islands easily arose. Later, when the west was better explored, it was
found that tin actually came from two regions, north-west Spain and
Cornwall. Neither of these could be called "small islands" or described
as off the north-west coast of Spain, and so the Cassiterides were not
identified with either by the Greek and Roman geographers. Instead, they
became a third, ill-understood source of tin, conceived of as distinct
from Spain or Britain. Modern writers have perpetuated the error that
the Cassiterides were definite spots, and have made many attempts to
identify them. Small islands off the coast of north-west Spain, the
headlands of that same coast, the Scillies, Cornwall, the British Isles
as a whole, have all in turn been suggested. But none suits the
conditions. Neither the Spanish islands nor the Scillies contain tin, at
least in serious quantities. Neither Britain nor Spain can be called
"small islands off the north-west of Spain." It seems most probable,
therefore, that the name Cassiterides represents the first vague
knowledge of the Greeks that tin was found overseas somewhere in or off
western Europe.
AUTHORITIES.--Herodotus iii. 115; Diodorus v. 21, 22, 38; Strabo ii.
5, iii. 2, 5, v. 11; Pliny, _Nat. Hist_, iv. 119, vii. 197, xxxiv.
156-158, are the chief references in ancient literature. T.R. Holmes,
_Ancient Britain_ (1907), appendix, identifies the Cassiterides with
the British Isles. (F. J. H.)
CASSITERITE (from the Gr. [Greek: kassiteros], tin), the mineralogical
name for tin-stone, the common ore of tin. It consists of tin dioxide,
or stannic oxide (SnO2), and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. The
crystals are usually 4-sided or 8-sided prisms, striated vertically, and
terminated by pyramids (fig. 1). Twins, with characteristic re-entrant
angles, such as figs. 2 and 3, are common. Certain slender prismatic
crystals, with an acute 8-sided pyramid, are known in Cornwall as
"sparable tin," in allusion to their resemblance to sparable nails,
whilst very slender crystals are termed needle-tin. Occasionally the
mineral occurs in fibrous forms, which pass under the name of
"wood-tin," and these, though not unknown in the matrix, are generally
found as rolled pebbles. By the disintegration of tin-bearing rocks and
vein-stones, the cassiterite passes into the beds of streams as rolled
fragments and grains, or even sand, and is then known as stream tin or
alluvial tin. This detrital tin-ore was probably used as a source of the
metal before the primitive miners had learnt to attack the solid
tin-bearing rocks.
[Illustration: Fig. 1]
[Illustration: Fig. 2]
[Illustration: Fig. 3]
Pure cassiterite may be colourless, or white, as seen in certain
specimens from the Malay Peninsula; but usually the mineral is brown or
even black, the colour being referred to the presence of ferric oxide or
other impurity. Occasionally the tin-stone is red. In microscopic
sections the colour is often seen to be disposed in zones, following the
contour of the crystal. A brown variety, with rather resinous lustre, is
termed "rosin tin." The usual lustre of crystals of cassiterite is
remarkably splendent, even adamantine. The mineral has a high refractive
index, and strong bi-refringence. Certain transparent yellow and brown
specimens, cut as gem-stones, exhibit considerable brilliancy. The
hardness of cassiterite is 6.5, so that it cannot be scratched with a
knife, and is nearly as hard as quartz. Its specific gravity is about 7;
and in consequence of this high density, the tin-stone is readily
separated during the process of dressing, from all the associated
minerals, except wolframite, which may, however, be removed by magnetic
separators.
Cassiterite usually occurs as veins or impregnations in granitic rocks,
and is especially associated with the quartz-mica rock called greisen.
The usual associates of the tin-stone are quartz, tourmaline, apatite,
topaz, beryl, fluorite, lithia-mica, wolframite, chalcopyrite, &c. The
presence of fluorine in many of these minerals has led to the opinion
that the tin has been derived in many cases from an acid or granitic
magma by the action of fluorine-bearing vapours, and that cassiterite
may have been formed by the interaction of tin fluoride and water
vapour. Cassiterite occurs as a pseudomorph after orthoclase felspar in
some of the altered granite of Cornwall, and it has occasionally been
found as a cementing material in certain brecciated lodes.
Among the localities yielding cassiterite may be mentioned Cornwall,
Saxony, Bohemia, Brittany, Galicia in Spain; the Malay peninsula, and
the islands of Banca and Billiton; New South Wales, Queensland and
Tasmania. Fine examples of wood-tin, occurring with topaz, are found in
Durango in Mexico. Deposits of cassiterite under rather exceptional
conditions are worked on a large scale in Bolivia; and it is notable
that cassiterite is found in Liassic limestone near Campiglia Marittima
in Tuscany. Cassiterite has been worked in the York region, Alaska.
(F. W. R.*)
CASSIUS, the name of a distinguished ancient Roman family, originally
patrician. Its most important members are the following.
1. SPURIUS CASSIUS, surnamed _Vecellinus_ (_Vicellinus, Viscellinus_),
Roman soldier and statesman, three times consul, and author of the first
agrarian law. In his first consulate (502 B.C.) he defeated the Sabines;
in his second (493) he renewed the league with the Latins, and dedicated
the temple of Ceres in the Circus; in his third (486) he made a treaty
with the conquered Hernici. The account of his agrarian law is confused
and contradictory; it is clear, however, that it was intended to benefit
the needy plebeians (see AGRARIAN LAWS). As such it was violently
opposed both by the patricians and by the wealthy plebeians. Cassius was
condemned by the people as aiming at kingly power, and hurled from the
Tarpeian rock. Another account says he was tried by the family council
and put to death by his own father, who considered his proposal
prejudicial to the patrician interest. According to Livy, his proposal
to bestow a share of the land upon the Latins was regarded with great
suspicion. According to Mommsen (_Romische Forschungen_, ii.), the whole
story is an invention of a later age, founded upon the proposals of the
Gracchi and M. Livius Drusus, to which period belongs the idea of
sharing public land with the Latins.
See Livy ii. 33, 41; Dion Halic. v. 49, viii. 69-80; Cicero, _Pro
Balbo_, 23 (53), _De Republica_, ii. 27 (49), 35 (60); Val. Max. v. 8.
2.
The following Cassii are all plebeians. It is suggested that the sons of
Spurius Cassius either were expelled from, or voluntarily left, the
patrician order, in consequence of their father's execution.
2. GAIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS, consul 73 B.C. With his colleague, Terentius
Varro Lucullus, he passed a law (_lex Terentia Cassia_), the object of
which was to give authority for the purchase of corn at the public
expense, to be retailed at a fixed price at Rome. It is doubtful whether
this Cassius (who is often called by the additional name Varus) is
identical with the Varus who was proscribed by the triumvirs, and put to
death at Minturnae (43). According to Orosius he was killed at the
battle of Mutina.
See Cicero, _In Verrem_, iii. 70, 75, v. 21; Livy, _Epit._ 96; Appian,
_Bell. Civ._ iv. 28; Orosius v. 24.
3. GAIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS, prime mover in the conspiracy against Julius
Caesar. Little is known of his early life. In 53 B.C. he served in the
Parthian campaign under M. Licinius Crassus, saved the remnants of the
army after the defeat at Carrhae, and for two years successfully
repelled the enemy. In 49 B.C. he became tribune of the plebs. The
outbreak of the civil war saved him from being brought to trial for
extortion in Syria. He at first sided with Pompey, and as commander of
part of his fleet rendered considerable service in the Mediterranean.
After Pharsalus he became reconciled to Caesar, who made him one of his
legates. In 44 B.C. he became _praetor peregrinus_ with the promise of
the Syrian province for the ensuing year. The appointment of his junior,
M. Junius Brutus, as _praetor urbanus_ deeply offended him, and he was
one of the busiest conspirators against Caesar, taking an active part in
the actual assassination. He then left Italy for Syria, raised a
considerable army, and defeated P. Cornelius Dolabella, to whom the
province had been assigned by the senate. On the formation of the
triumvirate, Brutus and he, with their combined armies, crossed the
Hellespont, marched through Thrace, and encamped near Philippi in
Macedonia. Their intention was to starve out the enemy, but they were
forced into an engagement. Brutus was successful against Octavian, but
Cassius, defeated by M. Antonius (Mark Antony), gave up all for lost,
and ordered his freedman to slay him. He was lamented by Brutus as "the
last of the Romans," and buried at Thasos. A man of considerable
ability, he was a good soldier, and took an interest in literature, but
in politics he was actuated by vanity and ambition. His portrait in
Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_, though vivid, is scarcely historical.
See Plutarch, _Brutus_, passim, _Crassus_, 27, 29, _Caesar_, 62, 69;
Dio Cassius xl. 28, xlii. 13, xliv. 14, xlvii. 20; Vell. Pat. ii. 46,
56, 58, 69, 70, 87; Cicero, _Philippics_, xi. 13, 14, _ad Att._ v. 21,
xiv. 21, _ad Fam._ xi. 3, 15, 16; Appian, _Bell. Civ._ ii. 111, 113,
iii. 2, 8, iv. 60-62, 87, 90, 111-113, 132; Caesar, _Bell. Civ._ iii.
101.
4. QUINTUS CASSIUS LONGINUS, the brother or cousin of the murderer of
Caesar, quaestor of Pompey in Further Spain in 54 B.C. In 49, as tribune
of the people, he strongly supported the cause of Caesar, by whom he was
made governor of Further Spain. He treated the provincials with great
cruelty, and his appointment (48) to take the field against Juba, king
of Numidia, gave him an excuse for fresh oppression. The result was an
unsuccessful insurrection at Corduba. Cassius punished the leaders with
merciless severity, and made the lot of the provincials harder than
ever. At last some of his troops revolted under the quaestor M.
Marcellus, who was proclaimed governor of the province. Cassius was
surrounded by Marcellus in Ulia. Bogud, king of Mauretania, and M.
Lepidus, proconsul of Hither Spain, to whom Cassius had applied for
assistance, negotiated an arrangement with Marcellus whereby Cassius was
to be allowed to go free with the legions that remained loyal to him.
Cassius sent his troops into winter quarters, hastened on board ship at
Malaca with his ill-gotten gains, but was wrecked in a storm at the
mouth of the Iberus (Ebro). His tyrannical government of Spain had
greatly injured the cause of Caesar.
See Dio Cassius xli. 15, 24, xlii. 15, 16, xliii. 29; Livy, _Epit._
III; Appian, _B.C._ ii. 33, 43; _Bellum Alexandrinum_, 48-64.
5. GAIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS (1st century A.D.), Roman jurist, consul in
30, proconsul of Asia 40-41, and governor of Syria under Claudius 45-50.
On his return to Rome his wealth and high character secured him
considerable influence. He was banished by Nero (65) to Sardinia,
because among the images of his ancestors he had preserved that of the
murderer of Caesar. He was recalled by Vespasian, and died at an
advanced age. As he was consul in 30, he must have been born at the
latest in the year 3 B.C. Cassius was a pupil of Masurius Sabinus, with
whom he founded a legal school, the followers of which were called
Cassiani. His chief work was the _Libri Juris Civilis_ in ten books,
which was used by the compilers of the _Digest_ of Justinian.
See Tacitus, _Annals_, xvi. 7-9; Suetonius, _Nero_, 37; Dio Cassius
lix. 29; Teuffel-Schwabe, _Hist. of Roman Literature_, S 298, 3.
CASSIUS, AVIDIUS (d. A.D. 175), Roman general, a Syrian by birth, lived
during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He especially distinguished himself
during the Parthian War (A.D. 162-165), at the conclusion of which he
was apparently appointed military governor of Asia, though the actual
extent of his jurisdiction is doubtful. In 172 he was sent to Egypt,
where he put down a dangerous rising of the Bucolici, the robber
herdsmen of the delta of the Nile, after which he returned to Syria. In
175 the emperor Aurelius fell ill, and his wife Faustina, to secure her
position in case of his death, offered her hand and the throne to the
successful general. A rumour of Aurelius's death having reached Syria,
Cassius, without waiting for confirmation, proclaimed himself emperor;
when the report proved false, it was too late for him to draw back, and
he accordingly prepared for war. The senate declared him a public enemy,
although Aurelius even then expressed the hope that he might have the
opportunity of pardoning him. Deploring the necessity for taking up arms
against his trusted officer, Aurelius set out for the east. While in
Illyria, he received the news that Cassius had been slain by his own
officers. The murderers offered his head to Aurelius, who refused to
admit them, and ordered its immediate burial.
See Dio Cassius lxxi. 2-4, 17, 22-28, 30, 31; Fronto, _Letters_, i. 6;
Lives of Marcus Aurelius, Verus and Commodus in the _Scriptores
Historiae Augustae_, and the special biography of Avidius Cassius in
the same by Vulcacius Gallicanus. The various letters and documents in
the last-named are generally considered spurious, and the portions of
the narrative founded on them consequently untrustworthy. See also
article in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_, ii. pt. 2 (1896).
CASSIUS, GAIUS, Latin poet, general and politician, called Parmensis
from his birthplace Parma, was one of the murderers of Julius Caesar,
and after his death joined the party of Brutus and his namesake Cassius
the conspirator. In 43 B.C. he was in command of the fleet on the coast
of Asia, but after the battle of Philippi joined Sextus Pompeius in
Sicily. When Pompeius, having been defeated in a naval engagement at
Naulochus by the fleet of Octavian under Agrippa, fled to Asia, Cassius
went over to Antony, and took part in the battle of Actium (31). He
afterwards fled to Athens, where he was soon put to death by Octavian,
whom he had offended by writing an abusive letter (Suetonius,
_Augustus_, 4). Cassius is credited with satires, elegies, epigrams and
tragedies. Some hexameters with the title _Cassii Orpheus_ are by
Antonius Thylesius, an Italian of the 17th century. Horace appears to
have thought well of Cassius as a poet, for he asks Tibullus whether he
intends to compete with the _opuscula_ (probably the elegies) of Cassius
(_Epistles_, i. 4. 3). The story in the Horace scholia, that L. Varius
Rufus published his famous tragedy _Thyestes_ from an MS. which he found
amongst the papers of Cassius after his death, is due to a confusion of
Cassius's murderer, Q. Attius Varus, with the tragedian (Appian, _B.C._
v. 2, 139; Cicero, _ad Fam._ xii. 13; Veil. Pat. ii. 87; Orosius, vi.
19; see also the diffuse treatise of A. Weichert, _De L. Varii et Cassii
Parmensis Vita et Carminibus_, 1836). Cassius Parmensis must not be
confused with Cassius Etruscus (Horace, _Satires_, i. 10. 60), an
improviser, who is said to have used enough paper to furnish his funeral
pyre.
CASSIVELAUNUS, or CASSIVELLAUNUS, a British chieftain, ruler of the
country north of the Thames, who led the native tribes against Julius
Caesar on his second expedition (54 B.C.) (see BRITAIN). After several
indecisive engagements, Caesar took the camp of Cassivelaunus, who was
obliged to make peace on condition of paying tribute and giving
hostages. But these promises were not meant to be kept, and it appears
certain that the tribute was never paid. According to Bede (_Hist.
Eccles._ i. 2), the remains of Cassivelaunus's entrenchment were visible
seven or eight centuries later.
See Caesar, _B.G._ v. 11-22; Dio Cassius xl. 2, 3; Orosius vi. 9. 6;
Eutropius vi. 17; Polyaenus, _Strategemata_, viii. 23. For the
etymology of the name (which is Celtic in origin, and appears later as
Caswallon) see J. Rhys, _Celtic Britain_, pp. 289-290 (1904); C.I.
Elton, _Origins of English History _ (1890); and Stock's edition of
Caesar, _De Bella Gallico_ (1898).
CASSOCK (Fr. _casaque_, a military cloak), a long-sleeved, close-fitting
robe worn by the clergy and others engaged in ecclesiastical functions.
The name was originally specially applied to the dress worn by soldiers
and horsemen, and later to the long garment worn in civil life by both
men and women. As an ecclesiastical term the word "cassock" came into
use somewhat late (as a translation of the old names of _subtanea,
vestis talaris, toga talaris_, or _tunica talaris_), being mentioned in
canon 74 of 1604; and it is in this sense alone that it now survives.
The origin of the word has been the subject of much speculation. It is
derived through the French from the Italian _casacca_, which Florio (_Q.
Anna's New World of Words_, 1611) translates as "a frock, a horseman's
cote, a long cote; also a habitation or dwelling," and it is usually
held that this in turn is derived from _casa_, a house (cf. the
derivation of "chasuble," q.v.). This, however, though possible is
uncertain. A Slav origin for the word has been suggested (Hatzfeld and
Darmesteter, _Dic. gen. de la langue francaise_), and the Cossack
horseman may have given to the West both the garment and the name. Or
again, it may be derived from _casequin_ (Ital. _casecchino_), rather
than vice versa, and this in turn from an Arabic _kazayand_ (Pers.
_kashayand_), a padded jerkin; the word _kasagan_ occurring in Mid. High
Ger. for a riding-cloak, and _gasygan_ in O. Fr. for a padded jerkin
(Lagarde in _Gott. gelehrte Anzeiger_, April 15, 1887, p. 238).
The cassock, though part of the canonical costume of the clergy, is not
a liturgical vestment. It was originally the out-of-doors and domestic
dress of lay-people as well as clergy, and its survival among the latter
when the secular fashions had changed is merely the outcome of
ecclesiastical conservatism. In mild weather it was the outer garment;
in cold weather it was worn under the tabard or chimere (q.v.) sometimes
in the middle ages the name "chimere" was given to it as well as to the
sleeveless upper robe. In winter the cassock was often lined with furs
varying in costliness with the rank of the wearer, and its colour also
varied in the middle ages with his ecclesiastical or academic status. In
the Roman Catholic Church the _subtanea_ (Fr. _soutane_, Ital.
_sottana_) must be worn by the clergy whenever they appear, both in
ordinary life (except in Protestant countries) and under their vestments
in church. It varies in colour with the wearer's rank: white for the
pope, red (or black edged with red) for cardinals, purple for bishops,
black for the lesser ranks: members of religious orders, however,
whatever their rank, wear the colour of their religious habit. In the
Church of England the cassock, which with the gown is prescribed by the
above-mentioned canon of 1604 as the canonical dress of the clergy, has
been continuously, though not universally, worn by the clergy since the
Reformation. It has long ceased, however, to be their every-day walking
dress and is now usually only worn in church, at home, or more rarely by
clergy within the precincts of their own parishes. The custom of wearing
the cassock under the vestments is traceable in England to about the
year 1400.
The old form of English cassock was a double-breasted robe fastened at
the shoulder and probably girdled. The continental, single-breasted
cassock, with a long row of small buttons from neck to hem, is said to
have been first introduced into England by Bishop Harris of Llandaff
(1729-1738). The shortened form of cassock which survives in the
bishop's "apron" was formerly widely used also by the continental
clergy. Its use was forbidden in Roman Catholic countries by Pope Pius
IX., but it is still worn by Roman Catholic dignitaries as part of their
out-of-door dress in certain Protestant countries.
See the _Report_ of the sub-committee of Convocation _on the Ornaments
of the Church and its Ministers_ (London, 1908), and authorities there
cited.
CASSONE, in furniture, the Italian name for a marriage coffer. The
ancient and once almost universal European custom of providing a bride
with a chest or coffer to contain the household linen, which often
formed the major part of her dowry, produced in Italy a special type of
chest of monumental size and artistic magnificence. The cassoni of the
people, although always large in size, were simple as regards ornament;
but those of the nobles and the well-to-do mercantile classes were
usually imposing as regards size, and adorned with extreme richness. The
cassone was almost invariably much longer than the English chest, and
even at a relatively early period it assumed an artistic finish such as
was never reached by the chests of northern Europe, except in the case
of a few of the royal _corbeilles de mariage_ made by such artists as
Boulle for members of the house of France. Many of the earlier examples
were carved in panels of geometrical tracery, but their characteristic
ornament was either _intarsia_ or _gesso_, or a mixture of the two. Bold
and massive feet, usually shaped as claws, lioncels, or other animals
are also exceedingly characteristic of cassoni, most of which are of
massive and sarcophagus-like proportions with moulded lids, while many
of them are adorned at their corners with figures sculptured in high
relief. The scroll-work inlay is commonly simple and graceful,
consisting of floral or geometrical motives, or arabesques. The examples
coated with gilded _gesso_ or blazoned with paintings are, however, the
most magnificent. They were often made of chestnut, and decorated with
flowers and foliage in a relief which, low at first, became after the
Renaissance very high and sharp. The panels of the painted cassoni
frequently bore representations of scriptural and mythological subjects,
or incidents derived from the legends of chivalry. Nor was heraldry
forgotten, the arms of the family for which the chest was made being
perhaps emblazoned upon the front. These chests rarely bear dates or
initials, but it is often possible to determine their history from their
armorial bearings.
CASSOWARY (_Casuarius_), a genus of struthious birds, only inferior in
size to the emeu and ostrich, and, according to Sir R. Owen,
approximating more closely than any other living birds to the extinct
moas of New Zealand. The species are all characterized by short
rudimentary wings, bearing four or five barbless shafts, a few inches
long, and apparently useless for purposes of flight, of running, or of
defence; and by loosely webbed feathers, short on the neck, but of great
length on the rump and back, whence they descend over the body forming a
thick hair-like covering. They possess stout limbs, with which they kick
in front, and have the inner toe armed with a long powerful claw. The
common cassowary (_Casuarius galeatus_) stands 5 ft. high, and has a
horny, helmet-like protuberance on the crown of its head; the front of
the neck is naked and provided with two brightly-coloured wattles. It is
a native of the Island of Ceram, where it is said to live in pairs,
feeding on fruits and herbs, and occasionally on small animals. The
mooruk, or Bennett's cassowary (_Casuarius Bennettii_), is a shorter and
more robust bird, approaching in the thickness of its legs to the moas.
It differs further from the preceding species in having its head crowned
with a horny plate instead of a helmet. It has only been found in New
Britain, where the natives are said to regard it with some degree of
veneration. When captured by them shortly after being hatched, and
reared by the hand, it soon becomes tame and familiar; all the specimens
which have reached Europe alive have been thus domesticated by the
natives. The adult bird in the wild state is exceedingly shy and
difficult of approach, and, owing to its great fleetness and strength,
is rarely if ever caught. It eats voraciously, and, like the ostrich,
will swallow whatever comes in its way. (See EMEU.)
CAST (from the verb meaning "to throw"; the word is Scand. in origin,
cf. Dan. _kaste_, and Swed. _kasta_; "cast" in Middle Eng. took the
place of the A.S. _weorpan_, cf. Ger. _werfen_), a throw, or that which
is thrown, or that into which something is thrown. From these three
meanings come the main uses of the word; for the throwing of dice, with
the figurative sense of a chance or opportunity, as in "at the last
cast"; for the throwing of a fisherman's line in fly-fishing; for hounds
spreading out in search of a lost scent; or, with the further meaning of
a twisted throw or turn, for a slight squint in the eye. "Cast" is
applied to a measure of herrings or other fish, being the amount taken
in two hands to be thrown into a vessel, and similarly to a potter's
measure for a certain quantity of clay; in fishing, to the casting line
of gut with fly attached; to the hard refuse thrown out of the crop of a
bird of prey, and to the coils of earth thrown up by earth-worms. From
the old method, in making calculations, of using counters, which were
thus "thrown" up into a heap, is probably derived the meaning of "cast"
for the "casting up" of figures in an account. Further, the word is
found for a mould for the casting of metals, and more particularly for
the copy of an original statue or relief taken from a mould; similarly,
of fossils, for the mineral filling of the empty mould left by the
organism. Special uses of the word are also found in the theatrical term
for the assignment of particular parts to the actors and actresses in a
play, and in the many figurative senses of a type or stamp, as of
features or characters.
CASTAGNO, ANDREA DEL (1390-1457), Italian painter of the Florentine
school, was born in 1390, probably at Castagno, in the district of
Mugello, and died in August 1457. He imitated Masaccio and the
naturalists of his time in boldness of attitude, but was deficient in
grace and colouring. His name was for about four centuries burdened with
the heinous charge of murder; it was said that he treacherously
assassinated his colleague, Domenico Veneziano, in order to monopolize
the then recent secret of oil painting as practised in Flanders by the
Van Eycks. This charge has, however, been proved to be an untruth;
Domenico died four years after Andrea. The latter is commonly called
"Andrea (or Andreino) degl' Impiccati" (of the Hanged Men); this was in
consequence of his being commissioned in 1435 to paint, in the Palazzo
del Podesta in Florence, the fallen leaders of the Peruzzi and
Albizzi--not (as currently said) the men of the Pazzi conspiracy, an
event which did not occur until 1478, long after this painter's death.
One of his principal works now extant (most of them have perished) is
the equestrian figure of Nicola di Tolentino, in the cathedral of
Florence.
CASTALIA, or FONS CASTALIUS, a celebrated fountain in Greece, now called
the Fountain of St John, which rises in a chasm of Mount Parnassus, in
the neighbourhood of Delphi. It was sacred to Apollo and the Muses, and
its water was used in the religious purifications of the "Pythian
Pilgrims." From its connexion with the Muses it is sometimes referred to
by late Greek writers (e.g. Lucian, _Jup. Trag._ 30) and Latin poets
(e.g. Ovid, _Am._ i. 15. 36) as a source of inspiration, and this has
passed into a commonplace of modern literature. According to some
authorities the nymph Castalia was the daughter of Achelous; according
to others the water of the spring was derived from the Boeotian
Cephissus.
CASTANETS (Fr. _castagnettes_, Ger. _Kastagnetten_, Span.
_castanuelas_), instruments of percussion, introduced through the Moors
by way of Spain into Europe from the East, used for marking the rhythm
in dancing. Castanets, always used in pairs, one in each hand, consist
of two pear or mussel-shaped bowls of hard wood, hinged together by a
silk cord, the loop being passed over the thumb and first finger. The
two halves are then struck against each other by the other fingers in
single, double or triple beats, giving out series of hollow clicks of
indefinite musical pitch. When intended for use in the orchestra the
pair of castanets is mounted one at each end of a wooden stick about 8
in. long, which facilitates the playing. Castanets are also sometimes
used in military bands and are then specially constructed. The two
halves are kept open by a slight spring fixed to a frame attached to the
hoop of a side drum, and the instrument is worked by the drummer with an
ordinary drum-stick. An instance of the use of castanets in opera occurs
in the Habanera in _Carmen_. A quaint description of _castinatts_ is
given in Harleian MS. 2034 (f. 208) at the British Museum (before 1688)
with a pencil sketch which tallies very well with the above. The MS. is
by Randle Holme and forms part of the _Academy of Armoury_. Castanets
([Greek: krotala]) were used by the ancient Greeks, and also by the
Romans (Lat. _crotalum, crotala_) to accompany the dances in the
Dionysiac and Bacchanalian rites.
CASTE (through the Fr. from Span, and Port, _casta_, lineage, Lat.
_castus_, pure). There are not many forms of social organization on a
large scale to which the name "caste" has not been applied in a good or
in a bad sense. Its Portuguese origin simply suggests the idea of
family; but before the word came to be extensively used in modern
European languages, it had been for some time identified with the
Brahmanic division of Hindu society into classes. The corresponding
Hindu word is _varna_, or colour, and the words _gati, kula, gotra,
pravara_ and _karana_ are also used with different shades of meaning.
Wherever, therefore, a writer has seen something which reminds him of
any part of the extremely indeterminate notion, Indian caste, he has
used the word, without regard to any particular age, race, locality or
set of social institutions. Thus Palgrave[1] maintains that the colleges
of operatives, which inscriptions prove to have existed in Britain
during the Roman period, were practically castes, because by the
Theodosian code the son was compelled to follow the father's employment,
and marriage into a family involved adoption of the family employment.
But these _collegia opificum_ seem to be just the forerunners of the
voluntary associations for the regulation of industry and trade, the
frith-gilds, and craft-gilds of later times, in which, no doubt, sons
had great advantages as apprentices, but which admitted qualified
strangers, and for which intermarriage was a matter of social feeling.
The history of the formation of gilds shows, in fact, that they were
really protests against the authoritative regulation of life from
without and above. In the Saxon period, at any rate, there was nothing
resembling caste in the strict sense. "The ceorl who had thriven so well
as to have five hides of land rose to the rank of a thegn; his wergild
became 1200 shillings; the value of his oath and the penalty of trespass
against him increased in proportion; his descendants in the third
generation became gesithcund. Nor was the character of the thriving
defined; it might, so far as the terms of the custom went, be either
purchase, or inheritance, or the receipt of royal bounty. The successful
merchant might also thrive to thegn-right. The thegn himself might also
rise to the rank, the estimation and status of an earl."[2] It has been
said that early German history is, as regards this matter, in contrast
with English, and that true castes are to be found in the military
associations (_Genossenschaften_) which arose from the older class of
Dienstmannen, and in which every member--page, squire or knight--must
prove his knightly descent; the Bauernstand, or rural non-military
population; the Burgerstand, or merchant-class. The ministry of the
Catholic Church in the West, was, however, never restricted by blood
relation. There is no doubt that at some time or other professions were
in most countries hereditary. Thus Prescott[3] tells us that in Peru,
notwithstanding the general rule that every man should make himself
acquainted with the various arts, "there were certain individuals
carefully trained to those occupations which minister to the wants of
the more opulent classes. These occupations, like every other calling
and office in Peru, always descended from father to son. The division of
castes was in this particular as precise as that which existed in
Hindustan or Egypt." Again, Zurita[4] says that in Mexico no one could
carry on trade except by right of inheritance, or by public permission.
The Fiji carpenters form a separate caste, and in the Tonga Islands all
the trades, except tattoo-markers, barbers and club-carvers are
hereditary,--the separate classes being named matabooles, mooas and
tooas. Nothing is more natural than that a father should teach his son
his handicraft, especially if there be no organized system of public
instruction; it gives the father help at a cheap rate, it is the easiest
introduction to life for the son, and the custom or reputation of the
father as a craftsman is often the most important legacy he has to
leave. The value of transmitted skill in the simple crafts was very
great; and what was once universal in communities still survives in
outlying portions of communities which have not been brought within the
general market of exchange. But so long as this process remains natural,
there can be no question of caste, which implies that the adoption of a
new profession is not merely unusual, but wrong and punishable. Then,
the word caste has been applied to sacred corporations. A family or a
tribe is consecrated to the service of a particular altar, or all the
altars of a particular god. Or a semi-sacred class, such as the Brehons
or the Bards, is formed, and these, and perhaps some specially dignified
professions, become hereditary, the others remaining free. Thus in Peru,
the priests of the Sun at Cuzco transmitted their office to their sons;
so did the Quipu-camayoc, or public registrars, and the _amantas_ and
_haravecs_, the learned men and singers.[5] In many countries political
considerations, or distinctions of race, have prevented intermarriage
between classes. Take, for example, the patricians and the plebeians at
Rome, or the [Greek: Spartiatai, Lakones] or [Greek: perioikoi], and the
[Greek: Heilotes] at Sparta. In Guatemala it was the law that if any
noble married a plebeian woman he should be degraded to the caste of
_mazequal_, or plebeian, and be subject to the duties and services
imposed on that class, and that the bulk of his estate should be
sequestered to the king.[6] In Madagascar marriage is strictly forbidden
between the four classes of Nobles, Hovas, Zarahovas and Andevos,--the
lowest of whom, however, are apparently mere slaves. In a sense slavery
might be called the lowest of castes, because in most of its forms it
does permit some small customary rights to the slave. In a sense, too,
the survival in European royalty of the idea of "equality of birth"
(_Ebenburtigkeit_) is that of a caste conception, and the marriage of
one of the members of a European royal family with a person not of royal
blood might be described as an infraction of caste rule.
Caste in India is a question of more than historical interest. It is the
great obstacle to government in accordance with modern ideas, and to
the work of native religious reformers as well as of Christian
missionaries. By some writers caste has been regarded as the great
safeguard of social tranquillity, and therefore as the indispensable
condition of the progress in certain arts and industries which the
Hindus have made. Others, such as James Mill, have denounced it as fatal
to the principle of free competition and opposed to individual
happiness. The latter view assumes a state of facts which was denied by
Colebrooke, one of the highest authorities on Indian matters. Writing in
1798 he says,[7] after pointing out that any person unable to earn a
subsistence by the exercise of his profession may follow the trade of a
lower caste or even of a higher: "Daily observation shows even Brahmans
exercising the menial profession of a Sudra. We are aware that every
caste forms itself into clubs or lodges, consisting of the several
individuals of that caste residing within a small distance, and that
these clubs or lodges govern themselves by particular rules or customs
or by-laws. But though some restrictions and limitations, not founded on
religious prejudices, are found among their by-laws, it may be received
as a general maxim that the occupation appointed for each tribe is
entitled merely to a preference. Every profession, with few exceptions,
is open to every description of persons; and the discouragement arising
from religious prejudices is not greater than what exists in Great
Britain from the effects of municipal and corporation laws. In Bengal
the numbers of people actually willing to apply to any particular
occupation are sufficient for the unlimited extension of any
manufacture." This was corroborated by Elphinstone,[8] who states that,
during a long experience of India, he never heard of a single case of
degradation from caste; and it is illustrated by the experience of the
Indian army, in which men of all castes unite.[9]
The ordinary notion of modern caste is that it involves certain
restrictions on marriage, on profession, and on social intercourse,
especially that implied in eating and drinking together. How far
intermarriage is permitted, what are the effects of a marriage permitted
but looked on as irregular, what are the penalties of a marriage
forbidden, whether the rules protecting trades and occupations are in
effect more than a kind of unionism grown inveterate through custom, by
what means caste is lost, and in what circumstances it may be
regained,--these are questions on which very little real or definite
knowledge exists. Sir H. Risley regards the absolute prohibition of
mixed marriages as now the essential and most prominent characteristic.
It is very remarkable that the Vedas, on which the whole structure of
Brahmanic faith and morals professes to rest, give no countenance to the
later regulations of caste. The only passage bearing on the subject is
in the Purusha Sukta, the 90th Hymn of the 10th Book of the Rigveda
Samhita. "When they divided man, how many did they make him? What was
his mouth? what his arms? what are called his thighs and feet? The
Brahmana was his mouth, the Raganya was made his arms, the Vaisya became
his thighs, the Sudra was born from his feet." Martin Haug finds in this
a subtle allegory that the Brahmans were teachers, the Kshatriyas the
warriors of mankind. But this is opposed to the simple and direct
language of the Vedic hymns, and to the fact that in the accounts of
creation there the origin of many things besides classes of men is
attributed in the same fanciful manner to parts of the divine person. It
is in the Puranas and the Laws of Manu, neither of which claims direct
inspiration, where they differ from the letter of the Veda, that the
texts are to be found on which all that is objectionable in caste has
been based. Even in the Vishnu Purana, however, the legend of caste
speaks of the four classes as being at first "perfectly inclined to
conduct springing from religious faith." It is not till after the whole
human race has fallen into sin that separate social duties are assigned
to the classes. The same hymn speaks of the evolution of qualities of
Brahma. Sattva, or goodness, sprang from the mouth of Brahma; Rajas, or
passion, came from his breast; Tamas, or darkness, from his thighs;
others he created from his feet. For each one of these gunas, or
primitive differences of quality, a thousand couples, male and female,
have been created, to which the distinct heavens, or places of
perfection of Prajapati, Indra, Maruts and Gandharvas are assigned. To
the gunas are related the yugas, or ages: 1st, the Krita, or glorious
age of truth and piety, in which apparently no distinctions, at least no
grades of excellence were known; 2nd, the Treta, or period of knowledge;
3rd, the Dvapara, or period of sacrifice; 4th, the Kali, or period of
darkness. Bunsen supposes there may be an historical element in the
legend that Pururava, a great conqueror of the Treta age, founded caste.
The yugas are hardly periods of historical chronology, but there is no
doubt that the Vayu Purana assigns the definite origin of caste to the
Treta period. "The perfect beings of the first age, some tranquil, some
fiery, some active and some distressed, were again born in the Treta, as
Brahmans, &c., governed by the good and bad actions performed in former
births." The same hymn proceeds to explain that the first arrangement
did not work well, and that a second was made, by which force, criminal
justice and war were declared to be the business of the Kshatriyas;
officiating at sacrifices, sacred study and the receipt of presents to
belong to the Brahmans; traffic, cattle and agriculture to the Vaisyas;
the mechanical arts and service to the Sudras. The Ramayana hymn
suggests that in the four great periods the castes successively arrive
at the state of _dharma_ or righteousness. Thus, a Sudra cannot, even by
the most rigorous self-mortification, become righteous in the period
proper to the salvation of the Vaisyas. As the hymn speaks in the
Dvapara age, it speaks of the salvation of Sudras as future, and not yet
possible. Wholly in opposition to the story of a fourfold birth from
Brahma is the legend that the castes sprang from Manu himself, who is
removed by several generations of gods and demi-gods from Brahma. Then,
again, the Santiparvan alleges that the world, at first entirely
Brahmanic, was separated into castes merely by the evil works of man.
Castehood consists in the exercise of certain virtues or vices. _Munis_,
or persons born indiscriminately, frequently rise to the caste of
Brahmans, and the offspring of Brahmans sink to a lower level. The
serpent observes: "If a man is regarded by you as being a Brahman only
in consequence of his conduct, then birth is vain, until action is
shown." But this change of caste takes place only through a second,
birth, and not during the life which is spent in virtue. Another
poetical conception of caste birth is expressed in the Harivamsa. The
Brahmans were formed from an imperishable element (Akshara), the
Kshatriyas from a perishable element (Kshara), the Vaisyas from
alteration, and the Sudras from a modification of smoke.
The general result of the foregoing texts is that several contradictory
accounts have been given of the origin of caste, and that these are for
the most part unintelligible. Caste is described as a late episode in
creation, and as born from different parts of different gods, from the
mortal Manu, from abstract principles, and from non-entity. It is also
described as coeval with creation, as existing in perfection during the
Krita period, and subsequently falling into sin. It is also said that
only Brahmans existed at first, the others only at later periods. Then
the rationalistic theories of the Santiparvan upset the very foundation
of caste, viz. hereditary transmission of the caste character.[10] It
seems clear that when the Vedas were composed, many persons who were not
Brahmans acted as priests, and saints, the "preceptors of gods," by
their "austere fervour," rose from a lower rank to the dignity of
Brahmanhood. Originally, indeed, access to the gods by prayer and
sacrifice was open to all classes of the community. As the Brahmans grow
in political importance, they make religion an exclusive and sacred
business. We find them deciding questions of succession to the throne,
and enforcing their decisions. While in the earlier literature there are
several instances of Brahmans receiving instruction from the hands of
Kshatriyas, in the Puranas and Manu death is made to overtake Kshatriyas
who are not submissive to the Brahmans; and in one case Visvamitra, the
son of Gadhi, actually obtains Brahmanhood as a reward for his
submission. It seems certain that many of the ancient myths were
expressly manufactured by the Brahmans to show their superiority in
birth and in the favour of Heaven to the Kshatriyas--a poetical effect
which is sometimes spoiled by their claiming descent from their rivals.
This brings us to a consideration of the theories which have been
started to account for the appearance of Brahmanic caste, as it is
stereotyped in the Laws of Manu. James Mill, who invariably
underestimated the influence on history of "previous states of society,"
suggested that the original division must have been the work of some
inspired individual, a legislator or a social reformer, who perceived
the advantages which would result from a systematic division of labour.
The subordination of castes he accounts for by the superstitious terror
and the designing lust of power which have so frequently been invoked to
explain the natural supremacy of the religious class. Because the
ravages of war were dreaded most after the calamities sent by heaven, he
finds that the military class properly occupy the second place. This
arrangement he apparently contemplates as at no time either necessary or
wholesome, and as finally destroyed by the selfish jealousies of caste,
and by the degradations which the multiplication of trades made
inevitable. Heeren[11] and Klaproth have contended that the division
into castes is founded on an original diversity of race, and that the
higher castes are possessed of superior beauty. The clear complexion and
regular features of the Brahmans are said to distinguish them as
completely from the Sudras as the Spanish Creoles were distinguished
from the Peruvians. "The high forehead, stout build, and light copper
colour of the Brahmins and other castes allied to them, appear in strong
contrast with the somewhat low and wide heads, slight make, and dark
bronze of the low castes" (Stevenson, quoted by Max Muller, _Chips_, ii.
p. 327).[12] This explanation is, however, generally conjoined with that
founded on the tradition of conquest by the higher castes. There is no
doubt that the three castes of lighter colour (traivarnika), the white
Brahmans, the red Kshatriyas, the yellow Vaisyas, are, at least in the
early hymns and Brahmanas, spoken of as the Aryas, the Sanskrit-speaking
conquerors, in contradistinction to the dark cloud of the Turanian
aborigines Dasyus. In fact arya, which means noble, is derived from
arya, which means householder, and was the original name of the largest
caste, now called Vaisyas. The great Sanskrit scholar, Rudolf von Roth
(1821-1895), in his _Brahma und die Brahmanan_[13] held that the Vedic
people advanced from their home in the Punjab, drove the aborigines into
the hills, and took possession of the country lying between the Ganges,
the Jumna and the Vindhya range. "In this stage of complication and
disturbance," he said, "power naturally fell into the hands of those who
did not possess any direct authority," i.e. the domestic priests of the
numerous tribal kings. The Sudras he regarded as a conquered race,
perhaps a branch of the Aryan stock, which immigrated at an earlier
period into India, perhaps an autochthonous Indian tribe. The latter
hypothesis is opposed to the fact that, while the Sudra is debarred from
sharing three important Vedic sacrifices, the Bhagasata Purana expressly
permits him to sacrifice "without _mantras_," and imposes on him duties
with reference to Brahmans and cows which one would not expect in the
case of a nation strange in blood. But unless a previous subordination
of castes among the conquering race be supposed, it seems difficult to
see why the warrior-class, who having contributed most to the conquest
must have been masters of the situation, should have consented to
degradation below the class of Brahmans. The position of the Sudra
certainly suggests conquest. But are there sound historical reasons for
supposing that Brahmans and Sudras belonged to different nations, or
that either class was confined to one nation? The hypothesis was held in
a somewhat modified form by Meiners,[14] who supposed that instead of
one conquest there may have been two successive immigrations,--the first
immigrants being subdued by the second, and then forming an intermediate
class between their conquerors and the aborigines; or, if there were no
aborigines, the mixture of the two immigrant races would form an
intermediate class. In the same way Talboys Wheeler[15] suggested that
the Sudra may be the original conquerors of the race now represented by
the Pariahs. Most of these explanations seem rather to describe the mode
in which the existing institutions of caste might be transplanted from
one land to another, from a motherland to its colonies, and altered by
its new conditions. Military conquest, though it often introduces
servitude, does not naturally lead to the elevation of the priesthood.
It is unscientific to assume large historical events, or large
ethnological facts, or the existence of some creator of social
order.[16]
As Benjamin Constant[17] points out, caste rests on the religious idea
of an indelible stain resting on certain men, and the social idea of
certain functions being committed to certain classes. The idea of
physical purity was largely developed under the Mosaic legislation; in
fact the internal regulations of the Essenes (who were divided into four
classes) resemble the frivolous prohibitions of Brahmanism. As the daily
intercourse of men in trade and industry presents numberless occasions
on which the stain of real or fancied impurity might be caught, the
power of the religious class who define the rules of purity and the
penalties of their violation becomes very great. Moreover, the Hindus
are deeply religious, and therefore naturally prepared for Purohiti or
priest-rule. They were also passionately attached to their national
hymns, some of which had led them to victory, while others were
associated with the benign influences of nature. Only the priest could
chant or teach these hymns, and it was believed that the smallest
mistake in pronunciation would draw down the anger of the gods. But
however favourable the conditions of spiritual dominion might be, it
seems to have been by no more natural process than hard fighting that
the Brahmans finally asserted their supremacy. We are told that
Parasurama, the great hero of the Brahmans, "cleared the earth thrice
seven times of the Kshatriya caste, and filled with their blood the five
large lakes of Samauta." Wheeler thinks that the substitution of
blood-sacrifices for offerings of parched grain, clarified butter and
_soma_ wine marks an adaptation by the Brahmans of the great military
banquets to the purposes of political supremacy. It is not, therefore,
till the Brahmanic period of Indian history, which ends with the coming
of Sakya Muni, in 600 B.C., that we find the caste-definitions of Manu
realized as facts. These are--"To Brahmans he (i.e. Brahma) assigned the
duties of reading the Vedas, of teaching, of sacrificing, of assisting
others to sacrifice, of giving alms if they be rich, and if indigent of
receiving gifts."[18] The duties of the Kshatriya are "to defend the
people, to give alms, to sacrifice, to read the Veda, to shun the
allurements of sensual gratification." The duties of a Vaisya are "to
keep herds of cattle, to bestow largesses, to sacrifice, to read the
scripture, to carry on trade, to lend at interest, and to cultivate
land." These three castes (the twice born) wear the sacred thread. The
one duty of a Sudra is "to serve the before-mentioned classes without
depreciating their worth."[19] The Brahman is entitled by primogeniture
to the whole universe; he may eat no flesh but that of victims; he has
his peculiar clothes. He is bound to help military and commercial men in
distress. He may seize the goods of a Sudra, and whatever the latter
acquires by labour or succession beyond a certain amount. The Sudra is
to serve the twice born; and even when emancipated cannot be anything
but a Sudra. He may not learn the Vedas, and in sacrifice he must omit
the sacred texts. A Sudra in distress may turn to a handicraft; and in
the same circumstances a Vaisya may stoop to service. Whatever crime a
Brahman might commit, his person and property were not to be injured;
but whoever struck a Brahman with a blade of grass would become an
inferior quadruped during twenty-one transmigrations. In the state the
Brahman was above all the ministers; he was the raja's priest, exempt
from taxation, the performer of public sacrifices, the expounder of
Manu, and at one time the physician of bodies as well as of souls. He is
more liable than less holy persons to pollution, and his ablutions are
therefore more frequent. A Kshatriya who slandered a Brahman was to be
fined 100 panas (a copper weight of 200 grains); a Vaisya was fined 200
panas; a Sudra was to be whipped. A Brahman slandering any of the lower
castes pays 50, 25 or 12 panas. In ordinary salutations a Brahman is
asked whether his devotion has prospered; a Kshatriya, whether he has
suffered from his wounds; a Vaisya whether his health is secure; a Sudra
whether he is in good health.[20] In administering oaths a Brahman is
asked to swear by his veracity; a Kshatriya by his weapons, house or
elephant; a Vaisya by his kine, grain or goods; a Sudra by all the most
frightful penalties of perjury. The Hindu mind is fertile in oaths;
before the caste assembly the Dhurm, or caste custom, is sometimes
appealed to, or the feet of Brahma, or some cow or god or sacred river,
or the bel (the sacred creeper), or the roots of the turmeric plant. The
castes are also distinguished by their modes of marriage. Those peculiar
to Brahmans seem to be--1st, Brahma, when a daughter, clothed only with
a single robe, is given to a man learned in the Veda whom her father has
voluntarily invited and respectfully receives; 2nd, Devas or Daiva, when
a daughter, in gay attire is given, when the sacrifice is already begun,
to the officiating priest. The primitive marriage forms of Rashasas or
Rachasa, when a maiden is seized by force from home, while she weeps and
calls for help, is said to be appropriate to Kshatriyas. To the two
lower castes the ceremony of Asura is open, in which the bridegroom,
having given as much wealth as he can afford to the father and paternal
kinsman and to the damsel herself, takes her voluntarily as his bride. A
Kshatriya woman on her marriage with a Brahman must hold an arrow in her
hand; a Vaisya woman marrying one of the sacerdotal or military classes
must hold a whip; a Sudra woman marrying one of the upper castes must
hold the skirt of a mantle.
How little the system described by Manu applies to the existing castes
of India may be seen in these facts--(1) that there is no artisan caste
mentioned by Manu; (2) that eating with another caste, or eating food
prepared by another caste, is not said by him to involve loss of caste,
though these are now among the most frequent sources of degradation. The
system must have been profoundly modified by the teaching of Buddha: "As
the four rivers which fall into the Ganges lose their names as soon as
they mingle their waters with the holy river, so all who believe in
Buddha cease to be Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras." After
Buddha, Sudra dynasties ruled in many parts of India, and under the
Mogul dynasty the Cayets, a race of Sudras, had almost a monopoly of
public offices. But Buddha did not wish to abolish caste. Thus it is
related that a Brahman Pundit who had embraced the doctrines of Buddha
nevertheless found it necessary, when his king touched him, to wash from
head to foot.[21] Alexander the Great found no castes in the Punjab, but
Megasthenes had left an account of the ryots and tradesmen, the military
order and the gymnosophists (including the Buddhist Germanes) whom he
found in the country of the Ganges.[22] From his use of the word
gymnosophist it is probable that Megasthenes confounded the Brahmans
with the hermits or fakirs; and this explains his statement that any
Hindu might become a Brahman. Megasthenes spent some time at the court
of Sandracottus (Chandragupta Maurya), a contemporary of Seleucus
Nicator. All the later Greeks[23] follow his statement and concur in
enumerating seven Indian castes--sophists, agriculturists, herdsmen,
artisans, warriors, inspectors, councillors. On the revival of
Brahmanism it was found that the second and third castes had
disappeared, and that the field was now occupied by the Brahmans, the
Sudras, and a host of mixed castes, sprung from the original twelve,
Unulum and Prutilum, left-hand and right-hand, which were formed by the
crossing of the four original castes. Manu himself gives a list of these
impure castes, and the Ain-i-Akbari (1556-1605) makes the positive
statement that there were then 500 tribes bearing the name of Kshatriya,
while the real caste no longer existed. Most of these subdivisions are
really trade-organizations, many of them living in village-communities,
which trace descent from a pure caste. Thus in Bengal there are the
Vaidya or Baidya, the physicians, who, Manu says, originated in the
marriage of a Brahman father and a Vaisya mother.
As Colebrooke said, Brahmans and Sudras enter into all trades, but
Brahmans (who are profoundly ignorant even of their own scriptures) have
succeeded in maintaining their monopoly of Vedic learning, which really
means a superficial acquaintance with the Puranas and Manu. Though they
have succeeded in excluding others from sacred employment, only a
portion of the caste are actually engaged in religious ceremonies, in
sacred study, or even in religious begging. Many are privates in the
army, many water-carriers, many domestic servants. And they have, like
other castes, many subdivisions which prevent intimate association and
intermarriage. The ideal Brahman is gone: the priest "with his hair and
beard clipped, his passions subdued, his mantle white, his body pure,
golden rings in his ear." But the hold which caste has on the Hindu
minds may, perhaps, be most clearly seen in the history of the Christian
missions and in comparatively recent times. The Jesuits Xavier and Fra
dei Nobili did everything but become Brahmans in order to convert the
south of India--they put on a dress of cavy or yellow colour, they made
frequent ablutions, they lived on vegetables and milk, they put on their
foreheads the sandalwood paste used by the Brahmans--and Gregory XV.
published a bull sanctioning caste regulations in the Christian churches
of India. The Danish mission of Tranquebar, the German mission of the
heroic Schwarz, whose headquarters were Tanjore, also permitted caste to
be retained by their followers. Even the priests of Buddha, whose life
was a protest against caste, re-erected the system in the island of
Ceylon, where the _radis_ or _radias_ were reduced to much the same
state as the Pariahs.[24] Protestant missions have made but little
progress, even in recent years. The number of native converts to
Christianity rose from 1,246,000 in 1872 to 2,664,000 in 1901; these
figures, however, are by themselves rather misleading, for Christianity
appears to have touched the higher classes in India not at all, only the
out-castes.
It is still the general law that to constitute a good marriage the
parties must belong to the same caste, but to unconnected families.
Undoubtedly, however, the three higher castes were always permitted to
intermarry with the caste next below their own, the issue taking the
lower caste or sometimes forming a new class. A Sudra need not marry a
wife of the same caste or sect as himself. In 1871 it was decided by the
judicial committee of the privy council that a marriage between a
zemindar (land-owner) of the Malavar class, a subdivision of the Sudra
caste, with a woman of the Vellala class of Sudras is lawful. Generally
also a woman may not marry beneath her own caste. The feeling is not so
strong against a man marrying even in the lowest caste, for Manu permits
the son of a Brahman and a Sudra mother to raise his family to the
highest caste in the seventh generation. The illegitimacy resulting from
an invalid marriage does not render incapable of caste; at least it does
not so disqualify the lawful children of the bastard. On a forfeiture of
caste by either spouse intercourse ceases between the spouses: if the
out-caste be a sonless woman, she is accounted dead, and funeral rites
are performed for her; if she have a son, he is bound to maintain her.
It is remarkable that the professional concubinage of the dancing-girl
does not involve degradation, if it be with a person of the same caste.
This suggests that whatever may be the function of caste, it is not a
safe guardian of public morality. The rules as to prohibited degrees in
marriage used to be very strict, but they are now relaxed. An act of
1856 legalized remarriage by widows in all the castes, with a
conditional forfeiture of the deceased husband's estate, unless the
husband has expressly sanctioned the second marriage. The later Indian
Marriage Act was directed against the iniquitous child marriages; it
requires a _minimum_ age. In many ways the theoretical inferiority of
the Sudra absolves him from the restraints which the letter of the law
lays on the higher castes. Thus a Sudra may adopt a daughter's or
sister's son, though this is contrary to the general rule that the
adopter should be able to marry the mother of the adopted person. The
rule requiring the person adopted to be of the same caste and _gotra_ or
family as the adopter is also dispensed with in the case of Sudras. In
fact, it is only a married person whom a Sudra may not adopt. As regards
inheritance the Sudra does not come off so well in competition with the
other castes. "The sons of a Brahamana in the several tribes have four
shares or three or two or one; the children of a Kshatriya have three
portions or two or one; and those of a Vaisya take two parts or one."
This refers to the case permitted by law, and not unknown in practice,
of a Brahman having four wives of different castes, a Kshatriya three,
and so on. But all sons of inferior caste are excluded from property
coming by gift to the father; and a Sudra son is also excluded from land
acquired by purchase. It must be recollected, however, that under an act
of 1850, _loss_ of caste no longer affects the capacity to inherit or to
be adopted. In cases of succession _ab intestato_ on failure of the
preceptor, pupil, and fellow-student (heirs called by the Hindu law
after relatives), a priest, or any Brahman, many succeed. Where a Sudra
is the only son of a Brahman, the Sapinda, or next of kin, would take
two-thirds of the inheritance; where he is the only son of any other
twice-born father, the Sapinda would take one-half. Possibly, the rule
of equal division among sons of equal caste did not at first apply to
Brahmans, who, as the eldest sons of God, would perhaps observe the
custom of primogeniture among themselves. On the other hand it was laid
down in the judicial committee in 1869, contrary to the collected
opinions of the Pundits of the Sudder court, that, in default of lawful
children, the illegitimate children of the Sudra caste inherit their
putative father's estate, and, even if there be lawful children, are
entitled to maintenance out of the estate. It had previously been
decided by Sir Edward Ryan in 1857 that the illegitimate children of a
Rajput, or of any other member of a superior caste, have no right of
inheritance even under will, but a mere right to maintenance, provided
the children are docile. It seems then that the Kshatriya and Vaisya
castes, though in one sense non-existent, still control Hindu
succession.
With regard to Persia the _Zend Avesta_ speaks of a fourfold division of
the ancient inhabitants of Iran into priests, warriors, agriculturists
and artificers; and also of a sevenfold division corresponding to the
seven amschespands, or servants of Ormuzd. This was no invention of
Zoroaster, but a tradition from the golden age of Jemshid or Diemschid.
The priestly caste of Magi was divided into Herbeds or disciples, Mobeds
or masters, and Destur Mobeds or complete masters. The last-named were
alone entitled to read the liturgies of Ormuzd; they alone predicted the
future and carried the sacred _costi_, or girdle, _havan_, or cup, and
_barsom_, or bunch of twigs. The Zend word _baresma_ is supposed to be
connected with Brahma, or sacred element, of which the symbol was a
bunch of kusa grass, generally called veda. The Persian and Hindu
religions are further connected by the ceremony called Homa in the one
and Soma in the other. Haug, in his _Tract on the Origin of Brahmanism_
(quoted by Muir, _ubi supra_), maintains that the division in the _Zend
Avesta_ of the followers of Ahura Mazda into Atharvas, Rathaesvas, and
Vastrya was precisely equivalent to the three superior Indian castes. He
also asserts that only the sons of priests (Atharvas) could become
priests, a rule still in force among the Parsis. The Book of Daniel
rather suggests that the Magi were an elective body; and as regards the
secular classes there does not seem to be a trace of hereditary
employment or religious subordination. There is a legend in the Dabistan
of a great conqueror, Mahabad, who divided the Abyssinians into the
usual four castes; and Strabo mentions a similar classification of the
Iberians into kings, priests, soldiers, husbandmen and menials.
At one time it was the universal opinion that in Egypt there were at
least two great castes, priests and warriors, the functions of which
were transmitted from father to son, the minor professions grouped under
the great castes being also subject to hereditary transmission. This
opinion was held by Otfried Muller,[25] Meiners of Gottingen, and
others. Doubts were first suggested by Rossellini, and after Champollion
had deciphered the hieroglyphic inscriptions, J.J. Ampere[26] boldly
announced that there were in Egypt no castes strictly so called; that in
particular the professions of priest, soldier, judge, &c., were not
hereditary; and that the division of Egyptian society was merely that
which is generally found in certain stages of social growth between the
liberal professions and the mechanical arts and trades. No difference of
colour, or indeed of any feature, has been observed in the monumental
pictures of the different Egyptian castes. From an inspection of
numerous tombs, sarcophagi, and funeral stones, which frequently
enumerate the names and professions of several kinsfolk of the deceased,
Ampere concluded that sacerdotal and military functions were sometimes
united in the same person, and might even be combined with civil
functions; that intermarriage might certainly take place between the
sacred and military orders; and that the members of the same natural
family did frequently adopt the different occupations which had been
supposed to be the exclusive property of the castes. The tombs of Beni
Hassan show in a striking manner the Egyptian tendency to accumulate,
rather than to separate, employments. Occasionally families were set
apart for the worship of a particular divinity. An interesting "section"
of Egyptian society is afforded by a granite monument preserved in the
museum at Naples. Nine figures in bas-relief represent the deceased, his
father, three brothers, a paternal uncle, and the father and two
brothers of his wife. Another side contains the mother, wife, wife's
mother and maternal aunts. The deceased is described as a military
officer and superintendent of buildings; his elder brother as a priest
and architect; his third brother as a provincial governor, and his
father as a priest of Ammon. The family of the wife is exclusively
sacerdotal. Egyptian caste, therefore, permitted two brothers to be of
different castes, and one person to be of more castes than one, and of
different castes from those to which his father or wife belonged. The
lower employments, commerce, agriculture, even medicine, are never
mentioned on the tombs. The absolute statements about caste in Egypt,
circulated by such writers as Reynier and De Goguet, have, no doubt,
been founded on passages in Herodotus (ii. 143, 164), who mentions seven
classes, and makes war an hereditary profession; in Diodorus Siculus (i.
2-8), who mentions five classes and a hereditary priesthood; and in
Plato, who, anxious to illustrate the principle of compulsory division
of labour, on which his republic was based, speaks in the _Timaeus_ of a
total separation of the six classes--priests, soldiers, husbandmen,
artisans, hunters and shepherds. Heeren (ii. 594) does not hesitate to
ascribe the formation of Egyptian caste to the meeting of different
races. According to the chronology constructed by Bunsen the division
into castes began in the period 10,000-9000, and was completed along
with the introduction of animal worship and the improvement of writing
under the third dynasty in the 6th or 7th century of the Old Empire. The
Scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius, on the authority of Dicaearchus, in the
Second Book of _Hellas_, mentions a king, Sesonchosis, who, about 3712
B.C., "enacted that no one should abandon his father's trade, for this
he considered as leading to avarice." Bunsen conjectures that this may
refer to Sesostoris, the lawgiver of Manetho's third or Memphite
dynasty, the eighth from Menes, who introduced writing, building with
hewn stone, and medicine; possibly, also, to Sesostris, who, Aristotle
says (_Polit._ vii. 1), introduced caste to Crete. He further observes
that in Egypt there was never a conquered indigenous race. There was one
nation with one language and one religion; the public panegyrics
embraced the whole people; every Egyptian was the child and friend of
the gods. The kings were generally warriors, and latterly adopted into
the sacerdotal caste. Intermarriage was the rule, except between the
swineherds and all other classes. "Every shepherd is an abomination unto
the Egyptians" (Gen. xlvi. 34).
The comprehensive essay by Sir H.H. Risley in the introductory volume
of the Indian Census Report for 1901 is the best recent account of
caste in India. See also, besides the works mentioned in the text, Sir
Denzil Ibbetson's _Report on the Punjab Census_ (1881); W. Cropke,
_Things Indian_ (1905) and other books by this author on Indian
religion and caste; Senart, _Les Castes dans l'Inde_ (1896); Jogendra
Nath Bhattacharya, _Hindu Castes and Sects_ (1896). There is an
interesting chapter on the subject in Sidney Low's _Vision of India_
(1906). See also INDIA, INDIAN LAW, and HINDUISM.