[1] M. Ohnefalsch-Richter, _Arch. Zeitung_ (1881), p. 311, pl. xviii.
The principal publications respecting this and all sites and phases
of culture mentioned in this section are collected in Myres and
Ohnefalsch-Richter, _Cyprus Museum Catalogue_ (Oxford, 1899), pp.
1-35.
[2] Myres, _Journ. Hellenic Studies_, xvii. p. 146.
[3] Sayce, _Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch._ v. pp. 441-444. The exact
provenance of these cylinders is not known, but there is every reason
to believe that they were found in Cyprus.
[4] British Museum, _Excavations in Cyprus_ (London, 1900). The
official publication stands alone in referring these tombs to the
Hellenic period (800-600 B.C.).
[5] E. Oberhummer, _Die Insel Cypern_ (Munich, 1903), i. pp. 1-3 (all
the Egyptian evidence).
[6] A. J. Evans, _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ xxx. p. 199 ff.; J. Naue,
_Die vorromischen Schwerter_ (Munich, 1903), p. 25.
[7] E. Oberhummer, _l.c._ p. 5 ff. (all the Assyrian and biblical
evidence).
[8] W. H. Engel, _Kypros_ (Berlin, 1841) (all the Greek traditions).
[9] Moriz Schmidt, _Z. f. vergl. Sprachw._ (1860), p. 290 ff., 361
ff.; H. W. Smith, _Trans. Amer. Philol. Assoc._ xviii. (1887); R.
Meister, _Zum eleischen, arkadischen u. kyprischen Dialekte_
(Leipzig, 1890); O. Hoffmann, _Die griechischen Dialekte_, i.
(Gottingen, 1891); C. D. Cobham, _Bibliography of Cyprus_, pp. 40-45.
[10] G. Smith, _Tr. Soc. Bibl. Arch._ i. 129 ff.; Moritz Schmidt,
_Monatsb. k. Ak. Wiss._ (Berlin, 1874), pp. 614-615; _Sammlung kypr.
Inschriften_ (Jena, 1876); W. Deecke, _Ursprung der kypr.
Sylbenschrift_ (Strassburg, 1877); cf. Deecke-Collitz, _Samml. d. gr.
Dialektinschriften_, i. (Gottingen, 1884); cf. C. D. Cobham, l.c. On
its Aegean origin, A. J. Evans, "Cretan Pictographs" (1895), _Journ.
Hell. Studies_, xiv., cf. xvii.; British Museum, _Exc. in Cypr._
(London, 1900), p. 27.
[11] British Museum, _Exc. in Cypr._ (London, 1900), p. 95 (Ionic
inscriptions of 5th century from Amathus).
[12] M. de Vogue, _Melanges d'archeologie orientale_ (Paris, 1869);
J. Euting, _Sitzb. k. preuss. Ak. Wiss._ (1887), pp. 115 ff.; Ph.
Berger, _C. R. Acad. Inscr._ (1887), pp. 155 ff., 187 ff., 203 ff.
Cf. _Corpus Inscr. Semit._ (Paris, 1881), ii. 35 ff.
[13] E. Schrader, _Abh. d. k. preuss. Ak. Wiss._ (1881).
[14] G. Perrot and C. Chipiez, _Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquite_,
iii. (Paris, 1885), interpret these and most other Cypriote materials
without reserve as "Phoenician."
[15] F. Halbherr and P. Orsi, _Antichita dell' antro di Zeus Ideo in
Creta_ (Rome, 1888). Cf. H. Brunn, _Griechische Kunstgeschichte_
(Munich, 1893), i. 90 ff.
[16] Herod. ii. 182; see also EGYPT: _History_ (Dyn. XXVI.).
[17] Herod. iii. 19. 91; see also PERSIA: _History_.
[18] Herod. v. 108, 113, 115.
[19] Herod. vii. 90.
[20] Thuc. i. 94, 112.
[21] M. Schmidt, _Die Inschrift von Idalion_ (Jena, 1874).
[22] G. F. Hill, _Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins of Cyprus_ (London, 1904).
Earlier literature in Cobham, _l.c._ p. 39.
[23] H. F. Talbot, _Tr. Soc. Bibl. Arch._ v. 447 ff. (translation).
For Evagoras and the place of Cyprus in later Greek history, see G.
Grote, _History of Greece_ (Index, _s.v._), and W. H. Engel, _Kypros_
(Berlin, 1841).
[24] 1 Macc. xv. 23.
[25] Livy, _Epit._ 104; Cic. _pro Sestio_, 26, 57.
[26] Dio Cass. liii. 12; Strabo 683, 840.
[27] Dio Cass. liv. 4; Strabo 685.
[28] Acts xiii. 7.
[29] D. G. Hogarth, _Devia Cypria_, pp. 114 ff. and app.
[30] _Corp. Inscr. Lat._ 2631-2632.
[31] Jos. _Ant._ 16. 4, 5; 19. 26, 28.
[32] Acts iv. 36, xi. 19, 20, xiii. 4-13, xv. 39, xxi. 16.
[33] De Longperier, _Athenaeum francais_ (1853), pp. 413 ff.; _Musee
Napoleon_, pls. x. xi.
[34] De Luynes, _Numismatique et inscriptions chypriotes_ (1852).
[35] _Archaeologia_, xlv. (1877), pp. 127-142.
[36] _Trans. Roy. Soc. Literature_, 2nd ser. xi. (1878), pp. 30 ff.
[37] Article "Cyprus" _ad. fin._
[38] _Cyprus: its Cities, Tombs and Temples_ (London, 1877).
[39] See Cobham, _An Attempt at a Bibliography of Cyprus_ (4th ed.,
Nicosia, 1900), Appendix, "Cesnola Controversy," p. 54.
[40] _The Lawrence-Cesnola Collection_ (London, 1881); _Salaminia_,
_id._ 1882.
[41] Myres and Ohnefalsch-Richter, _A Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum,
with a Chronicle of Excavations since the British Occupation, and
Introductory Notes on Cypriote Archaeology_ (Oxford, 1899).
[42] _Mitt. d. arch. Inst._ ii. (Athens, 1881).
[43] _Mitt. d. arch. Inst._ vi. (Athens, 1886); _Bemerkungen z. alt
Kunsthandwerk_, &c., ii. "Der kypr. geometrische Stil" (Halle, 1888).
[44] Summarized in _Cyprus, the Bible and Homer_ (London and Berlin,
1893).
[45] _Das Graberfeld von Marion_ (Berlin, 1888).
[46] _Archives des missions scientifiques_, xvii. (Paris, 1891).
[47] _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, ix. (London, 1888).
[48] _Id._ xi. (1890); xii. (1891).
[49] _Id._ xii. (1891).
[50] _Id._ ix. (1888).
[51] _Id._ ix. (1888).
[52] _Id._ xi. (1890).
[53] _Devia Cypria_ (Oxford, 1889).
[54] _J.H.S._ xvii. (1897).
[55] Summarized in _Cyprus Museum Catalogue_ (Oxford, 1899).
[56] _Excavations in Cyprus_ (London, 1900).
CYPRUS, CHURCH OF. The Church of Cyprus is in communion and in doctrinal
agreement with the other Orthodox Churches of the East (see ORTHODOX
EASTERN CHURCH), but is independent and subject to no patriarch. This
position it has always claimed (see, however, W. Bright, _Notes on the
Canons_, on Ephesus 8). At any rate, its independence "by ancient
custom" was recognized, as against the claims of the patriarch of
Antioch, by the council of Ephesus, A.D. 431, by an edict of the emperor
Zeno (to whom the church had sent a cogent argument on its own behalf,
the alleged body of its reputed founder St Barnabas, then just
discovered at Salamis), and by the Trullan Council in 692. Attempts have
been made subsequently by the patriarchs of Antioch to claim authority
over it, the last as recently as 1600; but they came to nothing. And
excepting for the period during which Cyprus was in the hands of the
Lusignans and the Venetian Republic (1193-1571), the Church has never
lost its independence. It receives the holy ointment ([Greek: myron])
from without, till 1860 from Antioch and subsequently from
Constantinople, but this is a matter of courtesy and not of right. Of
old there were some twenty sees in the island. The bishop of the
capital, Salamis or Constantia, was constituted metropolitan by Zeno,
with the title "archbishop of all Cyprus," enlarged subsequently into
"archbishop of Justiniana Nova and of all Cyprus," after an enforced
expatriation to Justinianopolis in 688. Zeno also gave him the unique
privileges of wearing and signing his name in the imperial purple, &c.,
which are still preserved. A Latin hierarchy was set up in 1196 (an
archbishop at Nicosia with suffragans at Limasol, Paphos and Famagusta),
and the Greek bishops were made to minister to their flocks in
subjection to it. The sees were forcibly reduced to four, the
archbishopric was ostensibly abolished, and the bishops were compelled
to do homage and swear fealty to the Latin Church. This bondage ceased
at the conquest of the island by the Turks: the Latin hierarchy
disappeared (the cathedral at Nicosia is now used as a mosque), and the
native church emerged into comparative freedom. In 1821, it is true, all
the bishops and many of their flock were put to death by way of
discouraging sympathies with the Greeks; but successors were soon
consecrated, by bishops sent from Antioch at the request of the
patriarch of Constantinople, and on the whole the Church has prospered.
The bishops-elect required the _berat_ of the sultan; but having
received this, they enjoyed no little civil importance. Since 1878 the
_berat_ has not been given, and the bishops are less influential. The
suppressed sees have never been restored, but the four which survive
(now known as Nicosia, Paphos, Kition and Kyrenia) are of metropolitan
rank, so that the archbishop, whose headquarters, first at Salamis, then
at Famagusta, are now at Nicosia, is a primate amongst metropolitans.
There are several monasteries dating from the 11th century and onwards;
also an archiepiscopal school at Nicosia, founded in 1812 and raised to
the status of a "gymnasion" in 1893; and a high school for girls.
AUTHORITIES.--Ph. Georgiou, [Greek: Eideseis Historikai peri tes
Ekklesias tes Kyprou] (Athens, 1875); K. Kouriokurineos (Archbishop of
Cyprus), [Greek: Historia chronologike tes nesou Kyprou] (Venice,
1788); de Mas Latrie, _Histoire de l'ile de Chypre sous les princes de
la maison de Lusignan_ (Paris, 1852 f.); H. T. F. Duckworth, _The
Church of Cyprus_(London, 1900); J. Hackett, _History of the Orthodox
Church of Cyprus_ (1901). (W. E. Co.)
CYPSELUS, tyrant of Corinth (c. 657-627 B.C.), was the son of Aeetion
and Labda, daughter of Amphion, a member of the ruling family, the
Bacchiadae. He is said to have derived his name from the fact that when
the Bacchiadae, warned that he would prove their ruin, sent emissaries
to kill him in his cradle, his mother saved him by concealing him in a
chest (Gr. [Greek: kypsele]). The story was, of course, a subsequent
invention. When he was grown up, Cypselus, encouraged by an oracle,
drove out the Bacchiadae, and made himself master of Corinth. It is
stated that he first ingratiated himself with the people by his liberal
conduct when Polemarch, in which capacity he had to exact the fines
imposed by the law. In the words of Aristotle he made his way through
demagogy to tyranny. Herodotus, in the spirit of 5th-century Greeks,
which conventionally regarded the tyrants as selfish despots, says he
ruled harshly, but he is generally represented as mild, beneficent and
so popular as to be able to dispense with a bodyguard, the usual
attribute of a tyrannis. He pursued an energetic commercial and colonial
policy (see CORINTH), and thus laid the foundations of Corinthian
prosperity. He may well be compared with the Athenian Peisistratus in
these respects. He laid out the large sums thus derived on the
construction of buildings and works of art. At the same time he wisely
strove to gain the goodwill of the powerful priesthoods of the great
sanctuaries of Delphi and Olympia. At Delphi he built a treasure-house
for Corinthian votive offerings; at Olympia he dedicated a colossal
statue of Zeus and the famous "chest of Cypselus," supposed to be
identical with the chest of the legend, of which Pausanias (v. 17-19)
has given an elaborate description. It was of cedar-wood, gold and
ivory, and on it were represented the chief incidents in Greek
(especially Corinthian) mythology and legend. Cypselus was succeeded by
his son Periander.
See CORINTH: _History_; histories of Greece; Herodotus v. 92;
Aristotle, _Politics_, 1310b, 1315b; P. Knapp, _Die Kypseliden und die
Kypseloslade_ (Tubingen, 1888); L. Preller, _Ausgewahlte Aufsatze_
(1864); H. Stuart Jones, in _Journ. Hell. Stud._ (1894), 30 foll.
CYRANO DE BERGERAC, SAVINIEN (1620-1655), French romance-writer and
dramatist, son of Abel de Cyrano, seigneur de Mauvieres et de Bergerac,
was born in Paris on the 6th of March 1619-1620. He received his first
education from a country priest, and had for a fellow pupil his friend
and future biographer, Henri Lebret. He then proceeded to Paris to the
college de Beauvais, where he had for master Jean Grangier, whom he
afterwards ridiculed in his comedy _Le Pedant joue_ (1654). At the age
of nineteen he entered a corps of the guards, serving in the campaigns
of 1639 and 1640, and began the series of exploits that were to make of
him a veritable hero of romance. The story of his adventure
single-handed against a hundred enemies is vouched for by Lebret as the
simple truth. After two years of this life Cyrano left the service and
returned to Paris to pursue literature, producing tragedies cast in the
orthodox classical mode. He was, however, as a pupil of Gassendi,
suspected of thinking too freely, and in the _Mort d'Agrippine_ (1654)
his enemies even found blasphemy. The most interesting section of his
work is that which embraces the two romances _L'Histoire comique des
etats du soleil_ (1662) and _L'Histoire comique des etats de la lune_
(1656?). Cyrano's ingenious mixture of science and romance has furnished
a model for many subsequent writers, among them Swift and E. A. Poe. It
is impossible to determine whether he adopted his fanciful style in the
hope of safely conveying ideas that might be regarded as unorthodox, or
whether he simply found in romance writing a relaxation from the serious
study of physics. Cyrano spent a stormy existence in Paris and was
involved in many duels, and in quarrels with the comedian Montfleury,
with Scarron and others. He entered the household of the duc d'Arpajon
as secretary in 1653. In the next year he was injured by the fall of a
piece of timber, as he entered his patron's house. Arpajon, perhaps
alarmed by his reputation as a free-thinker, desired him to leave, and
he found refuge with friends in Paris. During the illness which followed
his accident, he is said to have been reconciled with the Church, and he
died in September 1655.
M. Edmond Rostand's romantic play of _Cyrano de Bergerac_ (1897)
revived interest in the author of the _Histoires comiques_. A modern
edition of his _Oeuvres_ (2 vols.), by P. L. Jacob (Paul Lacroix),
appeared in 1858, with the preface by H. Lebret originally prefixed to
the _Histoire comique des etats de la lune_ (1656?). For an
interesting analysis of the romances see Garnet Smith in the
_Cornhill_ for July 1898. See also P.A. Brun, _Savinien de Cyrano
Bergerac_ (1894). Other studies of Cyrano are those of Charles Nodier
(1841), F. Merilhon (Perigueux, 1856), Fourgeaud-Lagreze (in _Le
Perigord litteraire_, 1875) and of Theophile Gautier, in his
_Grotesques_.
CYRENAICA, in ancient geography, a district of the N. African coast,
lying between the Syrtis Major and Marmarica, the western limit being
Arae Philaenorum, and the eastern a vague line drawn inland from the
head of the gulf of Platea (Bomba). On the south the limit was
undefined, but understood to be the margin of the desert, some distance
north of the oasis of Augila (Aujila). The northern half of this
district, which alone was fertile, was known as Pentapolis from its
possession of five considerable cities (1) Hesperides-Berenice
(Bengazi), (2) Barca (Merj), (3) Cyrene (Ain Shahat-Grenna), (4)
Apollonia (Marsa Susa), (5) Teucheira-Arsinoe (Tocra). In later times
two more towns rose to importance, Ptolemais (Tolmeita) and
Darnis-Zarine (Derna). These all lay on the coast, with the exception of
Barca and Cyrene, which were situated on the highland now called Jebel
Akhdar, a few miles inland. Cyrene was the first city to arise, being
founded among Libyan barbarians by Aristotle of Thera (later called
Battus) in the middle of the 7th century B.C. (see CYRENE). For about
500 years this district enjoyed great prosperity, owing partly to its
natural products, but more to its trade with interior Africa.
Under the Ptolemies, the inland cities declined in comparison with the
maritime ones, and the Cyrenaica began to feel the commercial
competition of Egypt and Carthage, whence easier roads lead into the
continent. After all N. Africa had passed to Rome, and Cyrenaica itself,
bequeathed by Apion, the last Ptolemaic sovereign, was become (in
combination with Crete) a Roman province (after 96 B.C.), this
competition told more severely than ever, and the Greek colonists, grown
weaker, found themselves less able to hold their own against the Libyan
population. A great revolt of the Jewish settlers in the time of Trajan
settled the fate of Cyrene and Barca; the former is mentioned by
Ammianus Marcellinus in the 4th century A.D. as "urbs deserta," and
Synesius, a native, describes it in the following century as a vast ruin
at the mercy of the nomads. Long before this its most famous article of
export, the _silphium_ plant, a representation of which was the chief
coin-type of Cyrene, had come to an end. This plant, credited with
wonderful medicinal and aromatic properties, has not been certainly
identified with any existing species. The similar _Thapsia garganica_
(Arab. _drias_), which now grows freely in Cyrenaica, though it has
medicinal properties, has not those ascribed to silphium. Henceforward
till the Arab invasion (A.D. 641) Apollonia was the chief city, with
Berenice and Ptolemais next in order. After the conquest by Amr ibn
el-'Asi, inland Cyrenaica regained some importance, lying as it did on
the direct route between Alexandria and Kairawan, and Barca became its
chief place. But with the substitution of Ottoman for Arab empire,
resulting in the virtual independence of both Egypt and Tripoli, the
district lying between them relapsed to anarchy. This state of things
continued even after Mahmud II. had resumed direct control over Tripoli
(1835), and in the middle of the 19th century Cyrenaica was still so
free of the Turks that Sheik Ali bin-Senussi chose it as the
headquarters of his nascent dervish order. All over the district were
built Senussi convents (_zawia_), which still exist and have much
influence, although the headquarters of the order were withdrawn about
the year 1855 to Jarabub, and in 1895 to Kufra, still farther into the
heart of Africa. In 1875 the district, till then a sanjak of the vilayet
of Tripoli, was made to depend directly on the Ministry of the Interior
at Constantinople; and the Senussites soon ceased to be _de facto_
rulers of Cyrenaica. Their preserves have now been still further
encroached upon by a number of Cretan Moslem refugees (1901-1902). This
is not the first effort made by Turkey to colonize Cyrenaica. In 1869
Ali Riza Pasha of Tripoli tried to induce settlers to go to Bomba and
Tobruk; and in 1888 an abortive effort was made to introduce Kurds. To
protect the Cretans the Ottoman government has extended the civil
administration and created several small garrisoned posts. The district
is accordingly safer for Europeans than it was; but these still find
themselves ill received. The Ottoman officials discourage travel in the
interior, partly from fear of the Senussites, partly from suspicions,
excited by the lively interest manifested by Italy in Cyrenaica.
At the present day we understand by Cyrenaica a somewhat larger district
than of old, and include ancient Marmarica up to the head of the gulf of
Sollum (Catabathmus Magnus). The whole area is about 30,000 sq. m., and
has some 250,000 inhabitants, inclusive of nomads. Projecting like a
bastion into the Mediterranean at a very central point, Cyrenaica seems
intended to play a commercial part; but it does not do so to any extent
because of (1) lack of natural harbours, Bengazi and Derna having only
open and dangerous roads (this is partly due to coastal subsidence;
ancient ports have sunk); (2) the difficulty of the desert routes behind
it, wells being singularly deficient in this part of the Sahara. The
ivory and feather caravans from Wadai and Borku have latterly deserted
it altogether. Consequently Cyrenaica is still in a very backward and
barbarous state and largely given up to nomad Arabs. There are only two
towns, Bengazi and Derna, and not half a dozen settlements beside,
worthy to be called villages. In many districts the Senussi convents
supply the only settled element, and the local Bedouins largely belong
to the Order. There are no roads in the province, and very little
internal communication and trade; but a wireless telegraphic system has
been installed in communication with Rhodes: and there is a landline
from Bengazi to Tripoli.
Geologically and structurally Cyrenaica is a mass of Miocene limestone
tilted up steeply from the Mediterranean and falling inland by a gentle
descent to sea-level again at the line of depression, which runs from
the gulf of Sidra through Aujila to Siwa. This mass is divided into two
blocks, the higher being the western Jebel Akhdar, on which Cyrene was
built (about 1800 ft.): the lower, the eastern Jebel el-Akabah, the
ancient Marmaric highlands (700 ft.). There is no continuous littoral
plain, the longest strip running from the recess of the Syrtis round
past Bengazi to Tolmeita. Thereafter, except for deltaic patches at
Marsa Susa and Derna, the shore is all precipitous. Jebel Akhdar, being
without "faults," has no deep internal valleys, and presents the
appearance of downs: but its seaward face is very deeply eroded, and
deep circular sinkings (swallow-holes) are common. There is much forest
on its northward slopes, and good red earth on the higher parts, which
bears abundant crops of barley, much desired by European maltsters.
Plenty of springs issue on the highlands, and wide expanses of grassy
country dotted with trees like an English park are met with. Here the
Bedouins (mostly Beni Hassa) pasture flocks and herds, amounting to
several million head. The climate is temperate and the rainfall usually
adequate, but one year in five is expected to be droughty. The southward
slopes fall through ever-thinning pasture lands to sheer desert about 80
m. inland. Jebel el-Akabah is much more barren than Jebel Akhdar, and
the desert comes right down to the sea in Marmarica, whose few
inhabitants are more concerned with salt-collecting and sponge fishing
than with agriculture. They have, however, the only good ports on the
whole coast, Bomba and Tobruk. Much might be made of Cyrenaica by
judicious colonization. All kinds of trees grow well, from the date palm
to the oak; and there are over 200,000 wild olives in the country. The
conditions in general are very like those of central Italy, and there is
ample room for new settlers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--(1) Ancient Cyrenaica: J. P. Thrige, _Historia Cyrenes_
(1819); C. Ritter, _Erdkunde_, i. (1822); A. F. Gottschick, _Gesch.
der Grundung und Blute des hell. Staates in Kyrenaika_ (1858).
(2) Modern Cyrenaica: Paul Lucas, _Voyage_ (1712); T. Shaw, _Travels
and Observations_ (1738); J. Bruce, _Travels_ (1790); P. della Cella,
_Viaggio da Tripoli_, &c. (1819); G. F. Lyon, _Narrative of Travels_
(1821); A. Cervelli, in _Recueil de voyages_, pub. by Soc. de Geog.,
ii. (1825); J. R. Pacho, _Relation d'un voyage_ (1827); F. W. Beechey,
_Proceedings of Expedition to explore N. Coast of Africa_ (1828); H.
Barth, _Wanderungen_, &c. (1849); V. de Bourville, _Rapport_ (1850);
J. Hamilton, _Wanderings in N. Africa_ (1856); R. M. Smith and E. A.
Porcher, _Hist. of Discoveries_ (1864); G. Rohlfs, _Von Tripoli nach
Alexandrien_ (1871); G. Haimann, _La Cirenaica_ (1882); M. Camperio,
_Una Gita in Cirenaica_ (1881); H. Duveyrier, "La Confr. musulmane de
Sidi Moh. Ben Ali es-Senousi" (_Bull. soc. geog._, 1884); H. W.
Blundell in _Geog. Journ._ v. (1895) and _Annual Brit. Sch. at
Athens_, ii. (1895); D. G. Hogarth in _Monthly Review_ (Jan. 1904); G.
Hildebrand, _Cyrenaika_, &c. (1904); G. de Martino, _Cirene e
Cartagine_ (1908).
(3) Maps: The best are that by P. Carlo, to illustrate Camperio and
Haimann's Report, in Petermann's _Mitth._ (1881); and Sheet No. 2 of
_Carte de l'Afrique_ (Service geog. de l'armee, 1892). (D. G. H.)
CYRENAICS, a Greek school of philosophy, so called from Cyrene, the
birthplace of the founder, Aristippus (q.v.). It was one of the two
earliest Socratic schools, and emphasized one side only of the Socratic
teaching (cf. CYNICS). Socrates, although he held that virtue was the
only human good, admitted to a certain extent the importance of its
utilitarian side, making happiness at least a subsidiary end of moral
action (see ETHICS). Aristippus and his followers seized upon this, and
made it the prime factor in existence, denying to virtue any intrinsic
value. Logic and physical science they held to be useless, for all
knowledge is immediate sensation (see PROTAGORAS). These sensations are
motions ([Greek: kineseis]) which (1) are purely subjective, and (2) are
painful, indifferent or pleasant, according as they are violent,
tranquil or gentle. Further they are entirely individual, and can in no
way be described as constituting absolute objective knowledge. Feeling,
therefore, is the only possible criterion alike of knowledge and of
conduct. "Our modes of being affected ([Greek: pathe]) alone are
knowable." Thus Cyrenaicism goes beyond the critical scepticism of the
Sophists and deduces a single, universal aim for all men, namely
pleasure. Furthermore, all feeling is momentary and homogeneous. It
follows (1) that past and future pleasure have no real existence for us,
and (2) that among present pleasures there is no distinction of kind,
but only of intensity. Socrates had spoken of the higher pleasures of
the intellect; the Cyrenaics denied the validity of this distinction and
said that bodily pleasures as being more simple and more intense are to
be preferred. Momentary pleasure ([Greek: monochronos hedone]),
preferably of a carnal kind, is the only good for man. Yet Aristippus
was compelled to admit that some actions which give immediate pleasure
entail more than their equivalent of pain. This fact was to him the
basis of the conventional distinction of right and wrong, and in this
sense he held that regard should be paid to law and custom. It is of the
utmost importance that this development of Cyrenaic hedonism should be
fully realized. To overlook the Cyrenaic recognition of social
obligation and the hedonistic value of altruistic emotion is a very
common expedient of those who are opposed to all hedonistic theories of
life. Like many of the leading modern utilitarians, they combined with
their psychological distrust of popular judgments of right and wrong,
and their firm conviction that all such distinctions are based solely on
law and convention, the equally unwavering principle that the wise man
who would pursue pleasure logically must abstain from that which is
usually denominated "wrong" or "unjust." This idea, which occupies a
prominent position in systems like those of Bentham, Volney, and even
Paley, was evidently of prime importance at all events to the later
Cyrenaics.
Developing from this is a new point of practical importance to the
hedonism of the Cyrenaics. Aristippus, both in theory and in practice,
insisted that true pleasure belongs only to him who is self-controlled
and master of himself. The truly happy man must have [Greek: phronesis]
(prudence), which alone can save him from falling a prey to mere
passion. Thus, in the end, Aristippus, the founder of the purest
hedonism in the history of thought, comes very near not only to the
Cynics, but to the more cultured hedonism of Epicurus and modern
thinkers. Theodorus, held even more strongly that passing pleasure may
be a delusion, and that permanent tranquillity is a truer end of
conduct. Hegesias denied the possibility of real pleasure and advocated
suicide as ensuring at least the absence of pain. Anniceris, in whose
thought the school reached its highest perfection, declared that true
pleasure consists sometimes in self-sacrifice and that sympathy in
enjoyment is a real source of happiness. Other members of the school
were Arete, wife of Aristippus, Aristippus the younger (her son), Bio
and Euhemerus.
The Cyrenaic ideal was, of course, utterly alien to Christianity, and,
in general, subsequent thinkers found it an ideal of hopeless pessimism.
Yet in modern times it has found expression in many ethical and literary
works, and it is common also in other ancient non-Hellenic literature.
There are quatrains in the _Rubaiyat_ of Omar Khayyam and pessimistic
verses in Ecclesiastes which might have been uttered by Aristippus.
("Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing than to eat
and to drink and to be merry; for that shall abide with him of his
labour the days of his life which God giveth him under the sun"). So in
Byron and Heine, and, in a sense, in Walter Pater (_Marius the
Epicurean_), there is the same tendency to seek relief from the
intellectual _cul-de-sac_ in frankly aesthetic satisfaction. Thus
Cyrenaicism did not entirely vanish with its absorption in Epicureanism.
See HEDONISM, EPICURUS; histories of philosophy by Zeller, Windelband,
Ueberweg; H. Sidgwick, _Methods of Ethics_ and _Outlines of the
History of Ethics_; J. Watson, _Hedonistic Theories_ (1895); James
Seth, Ethical Principles, c. i. (A), (1898); A. Wendt, _De philosophia
Cyrenaica_ (1841); H. von Stein, _De philosophia Cyrenaica_ (1855); T.
Gomperz, _Greek Thinkers_ (Eng. trans., vol. ii. bk. iv., _ad fin._,
1905); Beare, _Greek Theories of Elementary Cognition_; G. van Lyng,
_Om den Kyrenaiske skole_ (Christiania, 1868); and general ethical
text-books.
CYRENE [mod. _Ain Shahat-Grenna_], the original capital of ancient
Cyrenaica (q.v.) and one of the greatest of Greek colonies. The Theraean
story of its foundation, as told by Herodotus, runs thus. Battus (whose
true Greek name seems to have been Aristoteles), a native of Thera
(Santorin), itself a Laconian colony, was bidden by the Delphic oracle,
if he wished to put an end to domestic dissensions, to lead a portion
of the citizens to Libya and build a city in a "place between waters."
(For other stories see BATTUS.) By this he understood an island, and
therefore established his followers on the barren islet of Platea in the
gulf of Bomba. The colony being unsuccessful made further application to
the oracle and was bidden to transfer itself to the mainland. The Libyan
barbarians reported that a fertile and well-watered district lay to the
west and were induced to act as guides. They brought the Greeks through
forests to high ground from various points of which issued springs, and
Battus, recognizing "a place between waters," began to build. This was
in the middle of the 7th century B.C.
The result was Cyrene, so called (it was said) from a local nymph, who
has been shown by Studniczka to have been a Nature goddess, like the
Greek Artemis. The point first occupied was probably the hill above the
"Apollo" fountain on the west; and there was erected the fortress-palace
of the Battiadae, who continued to rule the colony for eight
generations. The neighbouring Libyans were conciliated and given a
position similar to that of Laconian _perioeci_, and intermarriage
between them and Greeks became so frequent that the colony rapidly
assumed a somewhat hybrid character, and while being one of the centres
of Hellenic culture, showed barbarian characteristics of violence and
luxury. Battus I. reigned c. 630 to 590 B.C. and was succeeded by his
son Arcesilaus (c. 590-574) of whom nothing is known. The kings
henceforth bore alternately the names Battus and Arcesilaus, of which
the first is said to be simply the native Libyan word for "king": the
latter is, of course, Greek. This fact suggests that some compromise
with the natives had been come to, resulting, perhaps, in an alternation
of the supreme office. Under Battus II. (570 B.C.?) a fresh band of
settlers was invited from Greece, and the colony tended to become
henceforth more maritime and democratic. Its port, Apollonia (Marsa
Susa), now rose to importance: and a second (winter) port was created at
Naustathmos (Marsa Hilal) about 15 m. E. behind a sheltering cape. Fine
roads were cut through the rock connecting these harbours with the
capital. Trouble followed, however, with the Libyans, who saw themselves
robbed in favour of the new settlers, and they called in Egyptian help;
but the force sent by Apries was defeated near the spring Theste, and
presently Amasis of Egypt made peace and took a Battiad princess to
wife. Under Arcesilaus II. (c. 560-550) domestic dissensions and Libyan
revolt led to the founding of a rival inland city, Barca, and a severe
defeat and massacre. These misfortunes, coupled with the fact that
Battus III. was thought to have disgraced the house by his lameness,
prompted the Cyrenaeans to send to Delphi for more advice, and as a
result Demonax of Mantinea arrived as arbitrator and framed a
constitution limiting the monarchy and dividing the citizens tribally
according to the date of their settlement and their place of origin.
Further attempts of the Battiadae (e.g. of Pheretima, wife of Battus
III., and Arcesilaus his son) to annul this constitution, and bitter
family dissensions, brought about a Persian invasion and finally the
extinction of the dynasty about 450 B.C. A republic of more or less
Spartan type succeeded, but it was often interrupted by tyrannies; and
having made submission by embassy to Alexander in 331, Cyrene passed
under Ptolemaic domination ten years later. From this epoch dates a
decline which was due to economic causes (see CYRENAICA) and to the
Ptolemaic policy of favouring easily controlled harbour-towns rather
than an inland place like Cyrene, whose ancient factions still continued
to give trouble under the earlier Ptolemies. Apollonia and Berenice
gradually superseded Cyrene and Barca respectively, being more in touch
with Greece and less exposed to the hostile nomad Libyans, who increased
in boldness and power: but Cyrene continued to be a great city after it
had passed to Rome (96 B.C.), and up to the reign of Trajan, when a
Jewish revolt and the repressive measures taken by the imperial
government dealt it an irreparable blow. Ere Christianity became the
religion of the empire, it was largely a ruin, and henceforward to the
epoch of Arab conquest (A.D. 641) its Greek life gradually deserted it
for Apollonia. At its acme Cyrene is said to have had over 100,000
inhabitants. It was noted among the ancients for its intellectual life.
Its medical school was famous, and it numbered among its celebrities
Callimachus the poet, Carneades, the founder of the New Academy at
Athens, Aristippus, a pupil of Socrates and the founder of the so-called
Cyrenaics (q.v.), Eratosthenes the polyhistor, and Synesius, one of the
most elegant of the ancient Christian writers.
The first account of the site in modern times seems to be that of M. le
Maire, who was French consul at Tripoli from 1703 to 1708, and twice
visited Cyrene. Paul Lucas was there in 1710, and again in 1723, and Dr
Thomas Shaw in 1738; an Italian, Dr A. Cervelli, who was there in 1812,
furnished some information to the Societe de Geographie of Paris; and P.
Della Cella published an account of his visit, made in 1817. In
1821-1822 important explorations were made by Lieutenant F. W. Beechey,
R.N.; and he was almost immediately followed by a French artist, M. J.
R. Pacho, whose pencil preserved a number of interesting monuments that
have since disappeared. L. Delaporte, French consul at Tangier, and
Vattier de Bourville come next in order of time. H. Barth, the famous
African traveller, published an account of his investigations in his
_Wanderungen durch die Kustenlander des Mittelmeers_, 1849, and James
Hamilton, who was there in 1851, described the place in his _Wanderings
in N. Africa_. In 1861 excavations were made on behalf of the British
Museum by Lieuts. R. Murdoch Smith, R.E., and E. A. Porcher, R.N., the
results of which are detailed in their valuable _Discoveries in Cyrene_
(London, 1864). Since that date, owing to the increase of Senussi
influence, and the consequent fears of the Ottoman authorities, the site
has been very seldom visited. The Italians, M. Camperio and G. Haimann,
leading commercial missions, were there in the eighties, and Mr H. W.
Blundell succeeded with a special _firman_ and a strong escort in
reaching the place in 1895, but had trouble with the local Senussi
Arabs. The prohibition of travel became thereafter more stringent, and
it has only been overcome by a party from Mr A. V. Armour's yacht
"Utowana," which marched up from Marsa Susa in April 1904, and stayed
one night. They found some fifty families of Cretan refugees established
at Ain Shahat and a _mudir_ with a small guard on the spot: but no
inhabited houses, except the Senussi convent and the _mudiria_. Cretans
and Arabs live in the ancient rock-tombs. An Italian senator, Chev. G.
de Martino, with two Italian residents at Derna, passed through the
place in 1907, and found it in Bedouin hands.
The site lies on the crest of the highland of Jebel Akhdar (about 1800
ft.) and 10 m. from the sea. The ground slopes very gradually south, and
being entirely denuded of trees, makes good corn land. The northward
slope falls more steeply in a succession of shelves, covered here and
there with forest. Ravines surround the site on three sides, and there
are at least four springs in its area, of which one, having great
volume, has been at all times the attraction and focus of the place.
This is the so-called "Fount of Apollo," which issues from a tunnel
artificially enlarged, and once faced with a portico. The acropolis was
immediately above this on the W., and the main entrance of the city,
through which came the sacred processions, passed it. The remains of
Cyrene itself are enclosed by a wall having a circuit of about 4 m., of
which little remains but the foundations and fragments of two towers;
but tombs and isolated structures extend far outside this area. The
local Arabs say it takes them six camel-hours to go from one end to the
other of the ruins, which they call generally "_Grenna_" (i.e. Kyrenna).
Within the city itself not very much is now to be seen. Below the Apollo
fountain on the N. lie a great theatre and the substructures of the main
temple of Apollo, both included now in the Senussi convent garden. Above
the fountain and by the main road is a smaller theatre. On the E., upon
the crown of the plateau, are the sites on which Smith and Porcher
placed temples of Bacchus, Venus and Augustus, but they are marked only
by rubbish heaps. Remains of a large Byzantine church and a much ruined
stadium lie to S.E. On the S. are immense covered tanks of Roman date,
with remains of the aqueducts which supplied them. On the W. a fine
fragment of a tower, the fortifications of the acropolis, and a
pedestal sculptured on four sides in good 3rd century style, are the
only things worth seeing. The Cretan occupation is fast obliterating
other traces. The great spectacle, however, which distinguishes the site
of Cyrene, is provided by its cemeteries, which for extent, variety and
preservation are unparalleled in the classic lands. There is one along
each of the approaches to the main gates, but the largest and most
splendid lies by the Apollonian road which winds by easy curves up the
northern buttresses of the plateau. Here the sepulchres rise in tiers
one above the other along fully a mile of the way. The most important
have pillared facades, Doric, Ionic, and even a hybrid mixture of both
orders. Within, they open out either into large halls, leading one out
of another with graves in recesses and pits in the floor; or into rock
corridors lined with _loculi_, disposed one above another like pigeon
holes. Most of the wall paintings, seen by Beechey and Pacho, have
perished or become black with the smoke of troglodytes' fires; but one
tomb below the road at about the middle of the cemetery still retains
its decoration comparatively fresh, and seems to be that specially
described by Smith and Porcher. The scenes are agonistic, i.e. represent
funeral games, in which both white and black persons take part, the
latter doubtless Libyan _perioeci_: but all wear Greek garments. Several
tombs are inscribed and on some external paintings are still faintly
visible. The commonest type of grave is a simple pit covered by a gabled
lid. These occur by hundreds. But not all the sepulchres are rock-cut:
altar tombs and other forms of _heroa_ are found built upon plinths of
rock. All visible tombs have long ago been violated, but it is probable
that there are others still virgin under the _talus_ of the hill side.
To discover these and determine the topography of the city, excavation
is urgently needed.
Many historical and artistic questions concerning Cyrene remain
unsettled, but since the discoveries made in Laconia in 1908, the much
disputed "Cyrenaic ware" has been ascribed to Sparta. A good deal of
Cyrenaic sculpture, all of comparatively late date, was sent to the
British Museum by Smith and Porcher. Nothing has yet been found on the
site belonging to the great age of the city's independence, the fine
vases sent to the British Museum in 1864, by Mr G. Dennis, having been
discovered not there, but near Berenice (Bengazi). The latter site, with
Ptolemais and Apollonia, has supplied most of the antiquities found
latterly in Cyrenaica.
See authorities for CYRENAICA, and F. Studniczka, _Kyrene, eine
alt-griechische Gottin_ (1890). (D. G. H.)
CYRIL (c. 315-386), bishop of Jerusalem, where he was probably born, was
ordained a presbyter in 345, and had the instruction of the catechumens
entrusted to him. In 350 he was elevated to the see of Jerusalem, and
became deeply involved in the dogmatic controversies of his time. His
metropolitan, Acacius of Caesarea, inclined to Arianism, while Cyril
strongly espoused the Nicene creed and was, in consequence, deposed for
a time. On the death of the emperor Constantine he was restored; but on
the accession of Valens, an Arian emperor, he had once more to resign
his post till the accession of Theodosius permitted him to return
finally in peace in 379. He attended the second oecumenical council held
at Constantinople in 381, where he was received with grateful
acclamations for his sufferings in defence of orthodoxy. Cyril was even
more conspicuous as a pastor than as a controversialist, and this is
seen in his one important work--his twenty-three addresses to
catechumens delivered in A.D. 348. The first eighteen of these were
meant for candidates for baptism; they deal with general topics like
repentance and faith, and then expound in detail the baptismal creed of
the Jerusalem church. The remaining five addresses were spoken to the
newly-baptized in Easter week and explain the mysteries and ritual of
baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist. These lectures are said to be
"the first example of a popular compend of religion," and are
particularly interesting for the insight which they give us both into
the creed-forms of the early church and the various ceremonies of
initiation constituting baptism in the 4th century. The evidence which
Cyril supplies as to the Jerusalem use is supplemented by the _S.
Silviae peregrinatio_, dating from about a generation later. Other
tracts and homilies have been ascribed to Cyril of Jerusalem, but they
are of doubtful genuineness.
EDITIONS.--A. A. Touttee (Paris, 1720); W. C. Reischl and J. Rupp
(Munich, 1848-1860); Migne, _Patrol. Graeca._ xxxiii. Translation:
_Catecheses_ ("Oxford Library of Fathers," vol. ii.). See
Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyk._ (Forster); Delacroix, _St C. de Jerus., sa
vie et ses oeuvres_ (Paris, 1865).
CYRIL (376-444), bishop of Alexandria, a more distinguished father of
the church than his namesake of Jerusalem, was born in 376, and died in
444. Becoming patriarch of Alexandria about 412, he soon made himself
known by the violence of his zeal against Jews, pagans and heretics or
supposed heretics alike. He had hardly entered upon his office when he
closed all the churches of the Novatians and seized their ecclesiastical
effects. He assailed the Jewish synagogues with an armed force, drove
the Jews in thousands from the city, and exposed their houses and
property to pillage. The prefect of Egypt, Orestes, who endeavoured to
withstand his furious zeal, was in turn denounced himself, and had
difficulty in maintaining his ground against the fury of the Christian
multitude. It was during one of the violent commotions kindled by the
strifes of these parties in Alexandria that the illustrious Hypatia,
famed for her beauty and her eloquent advocacy of the Neo-Platonic
philosophy in opposition to Christianity, was murdered. Her murder has
been attributed to the direct instigation of the patriarch himself; but
this charge is held to be baseless by others, although there can be no
doubt that "the perpetrators were officers of his church," and
undoubtedly drew encouragement from his own violent proceedings. Hypatia
was a friend of Orestes, and the hostility that existed betwixt the
prefect and the patriarch overflowed towards her, and undoubtedly led to
her destruction.
But Cyril's violence was not merely confined to those who might be
considered enemies of the church. He inherited from Theophilus, his
uncle and predecessor in the see of Alexandria, a strong aversion to
John Chrysostom, the noble bishop of Constantinople, and even after his
death opposed for a time all attempts to remove the unjust sentence of
condemnation which had been passed upon him. Afterwards he so far
yielded to remonstrances as to allow the name of Chrysostom to appear in
the list of distinguished martyrs and bishops mentioned in the prayers
of his church. These names were inserted in what were called "diptychs"
([Greek: diptycha nekron]), or two-leaved tablets preserved in the
churches--a usage which the Greek Church has continued to this day.
Cyril thus represents--though he differs largely from his
predecessors--the tendencies dominant at Alexandria in the 5th century,
and their antagonism to the Antiochene school. The story of his
opposition to Nestorius at the council of Ephesus in 431 is told
elsewhere (see NESTORIUS). He himself incurred the charge of heresy from
the oriental bishops. Satisfied, however, with the deprivation and exile
of his opponent, he returned to Alexandria in triumph as the great
champion of the faith, and thence continued, by the "unscrupulous use of
all the means at his command," the theological strife for years. He was
a bitter opponent of the great Antiochene expositor and apologist
Theodoret.
Altogether Cyril presents a character not only unamiable, but singularly
deficient in the graces of the Christian life. His style of writing is
as objectionable as his character and spirit. Yet he takes high rank as
a dogmatic theologian, and those who seek precise and rigid definitions
of orthodox belief conjoined with tenacity of conviction find him
indispensable. In addition to his _Twelve Anathematisms_ and the defence
of the same, he wrote five other books against Nestorius, _Thesaurus_--a
treatise in dialogue form on the Trinity, a book _On the Right Way_ and
another _On the Incarnation_. In other fields--mystical, exegetical and
apologetical--he was equally prolific and forceful. He wrote a tract "On
worshipping in spirit and in truth" to defend a spiritual interpretation
of the Mosaic law, several commentaries, festival-orations, and a reply
to the emperor Julian's attack on the church. His letters are valuable
sources to the student of the Nestorian controversy.
LITERATURE.--The collected edition of J. Aubert (Paris, 1638) formed
the basis of Migne's reprint in vols. 68-77 of the _Patr. Graec._ Many
of the writings have been edited separately (see bibliography in
Herzog-Hauck). For an account of his career and position in the
history of dogma, see A. Harnack, vols. iii. and iv. _passim_; O.
Bardenhewer's _Patrologie_ (Freiburg, 1894), pp. 335-343; R. L.
Ottley's _Doctrine of the Incarnation_, ii. 80 ff.; A. Largent's
_Etudes d'hist. eccles.; St Cyrille d'Alexandrie et le concile
d'Ephese_ (Paris, 1892). See also Charles Kingsley's romance
_Hypatia_.
CYRIL (827-869), apostle of the Slavs, amongst whom he worked in
conjunction with his elder brother Methodius (q.v.). Tradition says that
while in the Khazar country (where he combated Jewish and Mahommedan
influence) he found at Kherson the remains of Clement of Rome, which he
bore with him wherever he went, finally depositing them at Rome in 867.
His name is associated with the invention of the modified (Cyrillic)
form of the Greek alphabet, which largely superseded the ancient
Slavonic characters.
CYRILLIC, the alphabet used by the Orthodox Slavs. It is modelled on the
Greek Liturgical Uncial of the 9th century, and its invention is
traditionally, though in all probability wrongly, ascribed to the Greek
missionary Cyril (d. 869). For an account of its origin and development,
with a table of its letters, see Slavs.
CYRILLUS, Greek jurist of the 5th century, was professor in the ancient
law college of Berytus, and one of the founders of the oecumenical
school of jurists ([Greek: tes oikoumenes didaskaloi]) which preceded
the succession of Anastasius to the Eastern empire (A.D. 491), and paved
the way for Justinian's legislation. His reputation as a teacher of law
was very great; and from the fragments of his works which have been
preserved it may be inferred that his merit as a teacher consisted in
his going direct to the ancient sources of law, and in interpreting the
best writers, such as the commentary of Ulpian on the edict and the
Responsa Papiniani. He wrote a treatise on definitions ([Greek:
hupomnema ton dephiniton]), in which, according to a statement of his
contemporary Patricius, the subject of contracts was treated with
superior precision and great method, and which has supplied the
materials for many important scholia appended to the first and second
titles of the eleventh book of the Basilica. He is generally styled "the
great," to distinguish him from a more modern jurist of the same name,
who lived after the reign of Justinian, and who compiled an epitome of
the Digest.
CYRTO-STYLE (Gr. [Greek: kyrtos], convex, and [Greek: stylos], column),
in architecture, a circular projecting portico with columns; like those
of the transept entrances of St Paul's cathedral and the western
entrance of St Mary-le-Strand, London.
CYRUS (Gr. [Greek: Kyros]; Pers. _Kuru-sh_; Babyl. _Kurash_; Hebr.
_Koresh_), the Latinized form of a Persian name borne by two prominent
members of the Achaemenid house.
1. CYRUS THE GREAT, the founder of the Persian empire, was the son of
Cambyses I. His family belonged to the clan of the Achaemenidae--in the
inscription on the pillars and columns of the palace of Pasargadae
(Murghab) he says: "I am Cyrus the king, the Achaemenid"--the principal
clan ([Greek: phretre]) of the Persian tribe of the Pasargadae (q.v.).
But in his proclamation to the Babylonians (V.R. 35; Sir H. Rawlinson,
_Journal of the R. Asiat. Soc._, n.s., xii., 1880; Schrader,
_Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_, iii. 2, 120 ff.; Hagen, in Delitzsch
and Haupt, _Beitrage zur Assyriologie_, ii., 1894, where the chronicle
of Nabonidus is also published anew with a much improved translation) he
calls his ancestors, Teispes, Cyrus I. and Cambyses I., "kings of
Anshan," and the same title is given to him in the inscriptions and in
the chronicle of Nabonidus of Babylon before his victory over Astyages.
Anshan is a district of Elam or Susiana, the exact position of which is
still subject to much discussion. As we know from Jeremiah xlix. 34 ff.
(cf. Ezekiel xxxii. 24 ff.) that the Elamites suffered a heavy defeat in
596 B.C., it is very probable that the Pasargadian dynast Teispes
conquered Anshan in this year. Modern authors have often supposed that
Cyrus and his ancestors were in reality Elamites; but this is contrary
to all tradition, and there can be no doubt that Cyrus was a genuine
Persian and a true believer in the Zoroastrian religion. In Herodotus
vii. 11 the genealogy of Cyrus is given in exactly the same way as in
the proclamation of Cyrus himself; Teispes is called here the son of the
eponym Achaemenes.
The Pasargadian kings of Anshan were vassals of the Median empire. Their
kingdom cannot have been of large extent, as Nabonidus in a contemporary
inscription (Cylinder from Abu Habba, VR. 64, Schrader, _Keilinschriftl.
Bibliothek_, iii. 2, 96), where he mentions his rebellion against
Astyages, calls Cyrus "king of Anshan, his (i.e. Astyages') small
servant (vassal)." From this inscription we learn that the rebellion of
Cyrus (who seems to have become king in 558 B.C., as Herod. i. 214 gives
him a reign of 29 years) began in 553 B.C., and from the annals that in
550 Astyages marched against Cyrus, but was defeated; his troops
revolted against him, he was taken prisoner, and Cyrus occupied and
plundered Ecbatana. The relation of Ctesias (preserved by Nic. Dam. fr.
66; Anaximenes of Lampsacus in Steph. Byz. s.v. [Greek: Pasargadai],
Strabo xv. p. 729; Polyaen. vii. 6. 1, 9, 45. 2) that Cyrus was three
times beaten by Astyages and that the decisive battle took place in the
mountains of Pasargadae, is certainly in the main historical although
Herodotus (i. 127 ff.) only mentions the treason of the Median general
Harpagus and the defeat and captivity of Astyages. In the rebellion the
Persian tribes of the Maraphians and Maspians joined the Pasargadae
(Herod. i. 125), while the other tribes appear not to have acknowledged
Cyrus till after his victory (see PERSIS). From then he calls himself
"king of the Persians."
The history of Cyrus very soon became involved and quite overgrown with
legends. Herodotus (i. 95) tells us that he knew four different
traditions about him. One makes him the son of Mandane, a daughter of
Astyages (originally evidently by a god), who is exposed in the
mountains by his grandfather on account of an oracle, but suckled by a
dog (a sacred animal of the Iranians) and educated by a shepherd; i.e.
the myth which we know from the stories of Oedipus, Perseus, Telephus,
Pelias and Neleus, Romulus, Sargon of Agade, Moses, the Indian hero
Krishna, and many others, has been transferred to the founder of the
Persian empire. At the same time, the rule of Cyrus and the Persians is
legitimated by his family connexion with Astyages. This account is
partly preserved in Justin i. 4. 10 (probably from Charon of Lampsacus)
and in Aelian, _Var. Hist._ xiv. 42, and alluded to by Herodotus i. 95
and 122. The second account, which Herodotus follows, is a rationalized
version of the first, where the dog is changed into a woman (the wife of
the shepherd) named Spako (bitch). In the later part of his story
Herodotus is dependent on the family traditions of Harpagus, whose
treason is justified by the cruelty with which Astyages had treated him
(the story of Atreus and Thyestes is transferred to them). Harpagus
afterwards stood in high favour with Cyrus, and commanded the army which
subdued the coasts of Asia Minor; his family seems to have been settled
in Lycia. In a third version, preserved from Ctesias in Nicolaus Damasc.
p. 66 (cf. Dinon ap. Athen. xiv. 633 C), Cyrus is the son of a poor
Mardian bandit Atradates (the Mardians are a nomadic Persian tribe,
Herod. i. 125), who comes as a voluntary slave to the court of Astyages,
and finds favour with the king. A Chaldaean sage prophesies to him his
future greatness, and another Persian slave, Oebares, becomes his
associate. He flies to Persia, evades the pursuers whom Astyages sends
after him, and begins the rebellion. After the victory Oebares kills
Astyages against the will of Cyrus, and afterwards kills himself to
evade the wrath of Cyrus. Parts of this story are preserved also in
Strabo xv. p. 729, and Justin i. 6. 1-3; 7. 1; cf. Ctesias _ap._ Photium
2-7; many traces of it were afterwards transferred to the story of
Ardashir I. (q.v.), the founder of the Sassanid empire. With this
version Ctesias and Nicolaus have connected another, in which Cyrus is
the son of a Persian shepherd who lives at Pasargadae, and fights the
decisive battle at this place. The didactic novel of Xenophon, the
_Cyropaedia_, is a free invention adapted to the purposes of the author,
based upon the account of Herodotus and occasionally influenced by
Ctesias, without any independent traditional element. The account of
Aeschylus, _Pers._ 765 ff., is a mixture of Greek traditions with a few
oriental elements; here the first king is Medos (the Median empire); his
nameless son is succeeded by Cyrus, a blessed ruler, beloved by the
gods, who gave peace to all his friends and conquered Lydia, Phrygia,
Ionia. Then comes his nameless son, then Mardos (i.e. Smerdis, to whom
the name of the Mardians is transferred) who is killed by Artaphrenes
(i.e. Artaphernes, Herod. iii. 78, one of the associates of Darius),
then Maraphis (eponym of the Maraphian tribe), then another Artaphrenes,
then Darius.
The principal events of the later history of Cyrus are in the main
correctly stated by Herodotus, although his account contains many
legendary traditions. The short excerpt from Ctesias, which Photius has
preserved, contains useful information, although we must always mistrust
him. Of great value are a short notice in the fragments of Berossus and
another in the Old Testament. The original sources are very scanty,
besides the cylinder containing his proclamation to the Babylonians we
possess only a great many dated private documents from Babylon. These
serve to fix the chronology, which is here as everywhere quite in
accordance with the dates of the canon of Ptolemy.
Soon after the conquest of the Median empire, Cyrus was attacked by a
coalition of the other powers of the East, Babylon, Egypt and Lydia,
joined by Sparta, the greatest military power of Greece. In the spring
of 546 Croesus of Lydia began the attack and advanced into Cappadocia,
while the other powers were still gathering their troops. But Cyrus
anticipated them; he defeated Croesus and followed him to his capital.
In the autumn of 546 Sardis was taken and the Lydian kingdom became a
province of the Persians. The famous story of Herodotus, that the
conqueror condemned Croesus to the stake, from which he was saved by the
intervention of the gods, is quite inconsistent with the Persian
religion (see CROESUS).
During the next years the Persian army under Harpagus suppressed a
rebellion of the Lydians under Pactyas, and subjugated the Ionian
cities, the Carians and the Lycians (when the town Xanthus resisted to
the utmost). The king of Cilicia (Syennesis) voluntarily acknowledged
the Persian supremacy. Why the war with Babylon, which had become
inevitable, was delayed until 539, we do not know. Here too Cyrus in a
single campaign destroyed a mighty state. The army of Nabonidus was
defeated; Babylon itself attempted no resistance, but surrendered on the
16th Tishri (10th of October) 539, to the Persian general Gobryas
(_Gaubaruva_, see the chronicle of the reign of Nabonidus; the name
Gobryas is preserved also by Xenophon, _Cyrop._ vii. 4. 24); it is
possible that the Chaldaean priests, who were hostile to Nabonidus,
betrayed the town. In a proclamation issued after his victory Cyrus
guarantees life and property to all the inhabitants and designates
himself as the favourite of Marduk, the great local god (Bel,
Bel-Merodak) of Babel. It is very odd that modern authors have
considered this proclamation as inconsistent with the Zoroastrian creed.
From the beginning of 538 Cyrus dates his years as "king of Babylon and
king of the countries" (i.e. of the world). With the capital, the
Babylonian provinces in Syria fell to the Persians; in 538 Cyrus granted
to the Jews, whom Nebuchadrezzar had transported to Babylonia, the
return to Palestine and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its temple (see
JEWS, S 19). It is probable that Cyrus had fought more than one war
against the peoples of eastern Iran; according to Ctesias he had, before
the war with Croesus, defeated the Bactrians and the Sacae (in Ferghana;
their king Amorges is the eponym of the Amyrgian Sacae, Herod. vii. 64,
called by Darius _Haumavarka_); and the historians of Alexander mention
a march through Gedrosia, where he lost his whole army but seven men
(Arrian vi. 24. 2; Strabo xv. 722), a tribe Ariaspae on the Etymandros
(in Sijistan), who, on account of the support which they gave him
against the Scythians, were called Euergetae (Arrian iii. 27. 4; Diod.
xvii. 81; Curt. vii. 3. 1), and a town Cyropolis, founded by him on the
Jaxartes (Arrian iv. 2. 3; Curt. vii. 6. 16; Strabo xi. 517, called
Cyreskhata by Ptolem. vi. 12. 5). In 530, having appointed his son
Cambyses king of Babel, he set out for a new expedition against the
East. In this war he was killed (Herod.) or mortally wounded (Ctesias).
According to Herodotus he attacked the Massagetae beyond the Jaxartes;
according to Ctesias, the Derbices, a very barbarous tribe (cf. Strabo
xi. 520; Aelian, _Var. Hist._ iv. 1) on the border of the Caspian, near
the Hyrcanians (Strabo xi. 514; Steph. Byz.; Curt. vii. 2. 7; Dion.
Perieg. 734 ff.; Pomp. Mela iii. 5), or on the Oxus (Plin. vi. 48;
Ptolem. vi. 10. 2; _Tab. Peuting._). Berossus (_ap._ Euseb. _Chron._ i.
29) simply says that he fell against the Dahae, i.e. the nomads of the
Turanian desert. His death occurred in 528 B.C., as we have a Babylonian
tablet from the Adar of the tenth year of Cyrus, i.e. February 528; for
in Babylon the first year of Cyrus began in the spring of 538.
In his native district Cyrus had built a city with a palace, called
after his tribe Pasargadae (now Murghab), and here he was buried (see
PASARGADAE). In a short time he, the petty prince of an almost unknown
tribe, had founded a mighty empire, which extended from the Indus and
Jaxartes to the Aegaean and the borders of Egypt. This result shows that
Cyrus must have been a great warrior and statesman. Nor is his character
without nobility. He excels in the humanity with which he treated the
vanquished. He destroyed no town nor did he put the captive kings to
death; in Babylonia he behaved like a constitutional monarch; by the
Persians his memory was cherished as "the father of the people" (Herod.
iii. 89), and the Greek tradition preserved by Aeschylus (cf. above)
shows that his greatness was acknowledged also by his enemies. He
therefore deserves the homage which Xenophon paid to him in choosing him
as hero for his didactic novel.
2. CYRUS THE YOUNGER, son of Darius II. and Parysatis, was born after
the accession of his father in 424. When, after the victories of
Alcibiades, Darius II. decided to continue the war against Athens and
give strong support to the Spartans, he sent in 408 the young prince
into Asia Minor, as satrap of Lydia and Phrygia Major with Cappadocia,
and commander of the Persian troops, "which gather into the field of
Castolos" (Xen. _Hell._ i. 4. 3; _Anab._ i. 9. 7), i.e. of the army of
the district of Asia Minor. He gave strenuous support to the Spartans;
evidently he had already then formed the design, in which he was
supported by his mother, of gaining the throne for himself after the
death of his father; he pretended to have stronger claims to it than his
elder brother Artaxerxes, who was not born in the purple. For this plan
he hoped to gain the assistance of Sparta. In the Spartan general
Lysander he found a man who was willing to help him, as Lysander himself
hoped to become absolute ruler of Greece by the aid of the Persian
prince. So Cyrus put all his means at the disposal of Lysander in the
Peloponnesian War, but denied them to his successor Callicratidas; by
exerting his influence in Sparta, he brought it about that after the
battle of Arginusae Lysander was sent out a second time as the real
commander (though under a nominal chief) of the Spartan fleet in 405
(Xen. _Hell._ ii. 1. 14). At the same time Darius fell ill and called
his son to his deathbed; Cyrus handed over all his treasures to Lysander
and went to Susa. After the accession of Artaxerxes II. in 404,
Tissaphernes denounced the plans of Cyrus against his brother (cf. Plut.
_Artax._ 3); but by the intercession of Parysatis he was pardoned and
sent back to his satrapy. Meanwhile Lysander had gained the battle of
Aegospotami and Sparta was supreme in the Greek world. Cyrus managed
very cleverly to gather a large army by beginning a quarrel with
Tissaphernes, satrap of Caria, about the Ionian towns; he also pretended
to prepare an expedition against the Pisidians, a mountainous tribe in
the Taurus, which was never obedient to the Empire. Although the
dominant position of Lysander had been broken in 403 by King Pausanias,
the Spartan government gave him all the support which was possible
without going into open war against the king; it caused a partisan of
Lysander, Clearchus, condemned to death on account of atrocious crimes
which he had committed as governor of Byzantium, to gather an army of
mercenaries on the Thracian Chersonesus, and in Thessaly Menon of
Pharsalus, head of a party which was connected with Sparta, collected
another army.
In the spring of 401 Cyrus united all his forces and advanced from
Sardis, without announcing the object of his expedition. By dexterous
management and large promises he overcame the scruples of the Greek
troops against the length and danger of the war; a Spartan fleet of
thirty-five triremes sent to Cilicia opened the passes of the Amanus
into Syria and conveyed to him a Spartan detachment of 700 men under
Cheirisophus. The king had only been warned at the last moment by
Tissaphernes and gathered an army in all haste; Cyrus advanced into
Babylonia, before he met with an enemy. Here ensued, in October 401, the
battle of Cunaxa. Cyrus had 10,400 Greek hoplites and 2500 peltasts, and
besides an Asiatic army under the command of Ariaeus, for which Xenophon
gives the absurd number of 100,000 men; the army of Artaxerxes he puts
down at 900,000. These numbers only show that he, although an
eyewitness, has no idea of large numbers; in reality the army of Cyrus
may at the very utmost have consisted of 30,000, that of Artaxerxes of
40,000 men. Cyrus saw that the decision depended on the fate of the
king; he therefore wanted Clearchus, the commander of the Greeks, to
take the centre against Artaxerxes. But Clearchus, a tactician of the
old school, disobeyed. The left wing of the Persians under Tissaphernes
avoided a serious conflict with the Greeks; Cyrus in the centre threw
himself upon Artaxerxes, but was slain in a desperate struggle.
Afterwards Artaxerxes pretended to have killed the rebel himself, with
the result that Parysatis took cruel vengeance upon the slayer of her
favourite son. The Persian troops dared not attack the Greeks, but
decoyed them into the interior, beyond the Tigris, and tried to
annihilate them by treachery. But after their commanders had been taken
prisoners the Greeks forced their way to the Black Sea. By this
achievement they had demonstrated the internal weakness of the Persian
empire and the absolute superiority of the Greek arms.
The history of Cyrus and of the retreat of the Greeks is told by
Xenophon in his _Anabasis_ (where he tries to veil the actual
participation of the Spartans). Another account, probably from
Sophaenetus of Stymphalus, was used by Ephorus, and is preserved in
Diodor. xiv. 19 ff. Further information is contained in the excerpts
from Ctesias by Photius; cf. also Plutarch's life of Artaxerxes. The
character of Cyrus is highly praised by the ancients, especially by
Xenophon (cf. also his _Oeconomics_, c. iv.); and certainly he was
much superior to his weak brother in energy and as a general and
statesman. If he had ascended the throne he might have regenerated the
empire for a while, whereas it utterly decayed under the rule of
Artaxerxes II. (See also PERSIA: _Ancient History_.) (Ed. M.)
CYSTOFLAGELLATA (so named by E. Haeckel), a group of Mastigophorous
Protozoa, distinguished from Flagellata by their large size (0.15-1.5
mm.), and their branched endoplasm, recalling that of _Trachelius_ among
Infusoria, within a firm ectosarc bounded by a strong cuticle. Nutrition
is holozoic, a deep groove leading down to a mouth and pharynx. A long
fine flagellum arises from the pharynx in _Noctiluca_ (E. Suriray)
_Leptodiscus_ and (R. Hertwig); and in the former genus, a second
flagellum, thick, long and transversely striated, rises farther out, in
the groove; this was likened by E. R. Lankester to a proboscis, whence
his name of Rhynchoflagellata, which we discard as unnecessary and
posterior to Haeckel's. _Noctiluca_ has thus the form of an apple with a
long stalk. _Leptodiscus_ (R. Hertwig) has the form of a medusa without
a proboscis--it is menisciform with the thin contractile margin produced
inwards like a velum on the concave side, while the mouth is on the
convex surface and the single flagellum springs from a blind tube on the
same surface. _Craspedotella_ (C. A. Kofoid), the third genus, is still
more medusiform, with a broad velum, and the mouth in a convex central
protrusion of the roof of the bell; and a thick flagellum springs from a
blind tube on the convex surface. All three genera are pelagic and
phosphorescent, this property being seated in the ectoplasm; _Noctiluca
miliaris_ is indeed the chief source of the phosphorescence of our
summer seas. O. Butschli, like other writers, regards the
Cystoflagellates as closely allied to the Dinoflagellates, the small
flagellum corresponding to the longitudinal, the large flagellum to the
transverse flagellum of that group.
[Illustration: After E. Ray Lankester, _Ency. Brit._, 9th ed.
Cystoflagellate Protozoa.
1 and 2, Young stages of _Noctiluca miliaris_.
a, the big flagellum; the unlettered filament becomes the oral
flagellum of the adult.
n, nucleus.
s, the so-called spine (superficial ridge of the adult).
3 and 4, Two stages in the fission of _Noctiluca miliaris_, Suriray.
n, nucleus.
N, food-particles.
t, muscular flagellum.
5. _Noctiluca miliaris_, viewed from the aboral side (after Allman,
_Quart. Jour. Mic. Sci._, 1872).
a, entrance to atrium or flagellar fossa (= longitudinal groove of
Dinoflagellata).
c, superficial ridge.
d, big flagellum (= flagellum of transverse groove of Dinoflagellata).
h, nucleus.
6. _Noctiluca miliaris_, acted upon by iodine solution, showing the
protoplasm shrunk away from the structureless pellicle.
a = entrance to atrium.
7. Lateral view of _Noctiluca miliaris_.
a, entrance to atrium.
b, atrium.
c, superficial ridge.
d, big flagellum.
e = mouth and gullet, in which is seen Krohn's oral flagellum (= the
chief flagellum, or flagellum of the longitudinal groove of
Dinoflagellata).
f, broad process of protoplasm extending from the superficial ridge c
to the central protoplasm.
g, duplicature of pellicle in connexion with superficial ridge.
h, nucleus.]
The reproduction of _Noctiluca_ has been fairly made out; in the adult
state it divides by fission down the oral groove; as a preliminary the
external differentiations disappear, and the nucleus divides by modified
mitosis; then the external organs are regenerated. Under circumstances
not well made out, conjugation between two adults takes place by their
fusion commencing at the oral region; flagella and pharynx disappear and
the nuclei fuse, while the cytoplasts condense into a sphere. The
nucleus undergoes broad division, the young nuclei pass to the surface,
which becomes imperfectly divided by grooves into as many rounded
prominences as there are nuclei (up to 128 or 256); and these become
constricted off from the residual useless cytoplasm as zoospores with
two unequal flagella, which were at first regarded as Dinoflagellates,
of which they have the form (figs. 5, 6). The metamorphosis of these
has not yet been observed.
LITERATURE.--E. Suriray, _Magazin de zoologie_, 1836; G. J. Allman,
_Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science_, n.s. xii., 1872; L.
Cienkowsky, "Zoospore formation in Noctiluca," _Archiv f.
mikroskopische Anatomie_, vii., 1871; R. Hertwig, "Leptodiscus,"
_Jenaische Zeitschrift_, xi., 1877; C. Ischikawa, _Journal of the
College of Science_ (Tokyo, 1894), xii., 1899; F. Doflein,
"Conjugation of Noctiluca," _Zoologische Jahrbucher, Anatomie_, xiv.,
1900; C. A. Kofoid, "Craspedotella," in _Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool.
Harvard_, xlvi., 1905; O. Butschli, "Mastigophora," in _Protozoa_
(_Braun's Thierreich_, vol. i., _Protozoa_) (1883-1887). (M. Ha.)
CYSTOLITH (Gr. [Greek: kystis], cavity, and [Greek: lithos], stone), a
botanical term for the inorganic concretions, usually of calcium
carbonate, formed in a cellulose matrix in special cells, generally in
the leaf of plants of certain families, e.g. _Ficus elastica_, the
india-rubber plant.
CYTHERA (mod. _Cerigo_, but still officially known as Cythera), one of
the Ionian islands, situated not less than 150 m. from Zante, but only
about 8 m. from Cape Malea on the southern coast of Greece. Its length
from N. to S. is nearly 20 m., and its greatest breadth about 12; its
area is 114 sq. m. The surface is rocky and broken, but streams abound,
and there are various parts of considerable fertility. Two caves, of
imposing dimensions, and adorned with stalactites of great beauty, are
the most notable among its natural peculiarities; one is situated at the
seaward end of the glen of the Mylopotamus, and the other, named Santa
Sophia, about two hours' ride from Capsali (Kapsali). Less of the ground
is cultivated and more of it is in pasture land than in any other of the
seven islands. Some wine and corn are produced, and the quality of the
olive oil is good. The honey is still highly prized, as it was in remote
antiquity; and a considerable quantity of cheese is manufactured from
the milk of the goat. Salt, flax, cotton and currants are also mentioned
among the produce. The people are industrious, and many of them seek
employment as labourers in the Morea and Asia Minor. Owing to
emigration, the population appears to be steadily diminishing, and is
now only about 6000, or less than half what it was in 1857.
Unfortunately the island has hardly a regular harbour on any part of the
coast; from its situation at the meeting, as it were, of seas, the
currents in the neighbourhood are strong, and storms are very frequent.
The best anchorage is at San Nicolo, at the middle of the eastern side
of the island. The principal village is Capsali, a place of about 1500
inhabitants, at the southern extremity, with a bishop, and several
convents and churches; the lesser hamlets are Modari, Potamo and San
Nicolo.
There are comparatively few traces of antiquity, and the identification
of the ancient cities has been disputed. The capital, which bore the
same name as the island, was at Paleo-Kastro, about 3 m. from the
present port of Avlemona. In the church of St Kosmas are preserved some
of the archaic Doric columns of the famous temple of Aphrodite of
Cythera, whose worship had been introduced from Syria, and ultimately
spread over Greece. According to the accepted story, it was here that
the goddess first landed when she emerged from the sea. At a very early
date Cythera was the seat of a Phoenician settlement, established in
connexion with the purple fishery of the neighbouring coast; it is said
that it was therefore called Porphyris (cf. Pliny iv. 18, 19). For a
time dependent on Argos, it became afterwards an important possession of
the Spartans, who annually despatched a governor named the Cytherodices.
In the Peloponnesian war, Nicias occupied the island, but in 421 it was
recovered by Sparta. Its modern history has been very much the same as
that of the other Ionian islands; but it was subject to Venice for a
much shorter period--from 1717 to 1797.
See the works referred to under CEPHALONIA, and also Weil, in
_Mittheil. d. deutsch. Inst. zu Athen_ (1880), pp. 224-243.
CYTISINE (_Ulexin_, _Sophorin_), C11H14N2O, an alkaloid discovered in
1818 by J. B. Chevreul in the seeds of laburnum (_Cytisus Laburnum_) and
isolated by A. Husemann and W. Marme in 1865 (_Zeit. f. Chemie_, 1865,
i. p. 161). It is also found in the seeds of furze (_Ulex europaeus_),
_Sophora tormentosa_, and _Euchresta horsfieldii_. It is extracted from
the seeds by an alcoholic solution of acetic acid, and forms large
crystals which melt at 153 deg. C., and are easily soluble in water,
alcohol and chloroform. It is a secondary and tertiary di-acid base, and
is strongly alkaline in its reaction. Hydrogen peroxide oxidizes it to
oxycytisine, C11H14N2O2, chromic acid to an acid, C11H9NO3, and
potassium permanganate to oxalic acid and ammonia. It acts as a violent
poison.
See further, P. C. Plugge, _Arch. der Pharm._ (1891), 229, p. 48 et
seq.; A. Partheil, _Ber._ (1890), 23, p. 3201, _Arch. der Pharm._
(1892), 230, p. 448; M. Freund and A. Friedmann, _Ber._ (1901), 34, p.
615; and J, Herzig and H. Meyer, _Monats. f. Chem._ (1897), 18, p.
379.
CYTOLOGY (from [Greek: kytos], a hollow vessel, and [Greek: logos],
science), the scientific study of the "cells" or living units of
protoplasm (q.v.), of which plants and animals are composed. All the
higher, and the great majority of the lower, plants and animals are
composed of a vast number of these vital units or "cells." In the case
of many microscopic forms, however, the entire organism, plant or
animal, consists throughout life of a single cell. Familiar examples of
these "unicellular" forms are Bacteria and Diatoms among the plants, and
Foraminifera and Infusoria among the animals. In all cases, however,
whether the cell-unit lives freely as a unicellular organism or forms an
integral part of a multicellular individual, it exhibits in itself all
the phenomena characteristic of living things. Each cell assimilates
food material, whether this is obtained by its own activity, as in the
majority of the protozoa, or is brought, as it were, to its own door by
the blood stream, as in the higher Metazoa, and builds this food
material into its own substance, a process accompanied by respiration
and excretion and resulting in growth. Each cell exhibits in greater or
less degree "irritability," or the power of responding to stimuli; and
finally each cell, at some time in its life, is capable of reproduction.
It is evident therefore that in the multicellular forms all the complex
manifestations of life are but the outcome of the co-ordinated
activities of the constituent cells. The latter are indeed, as Virchow
has termed them, "vital units." It is therefore in these vital units
that the explanation of vital phenomena must be sought (see PHYSIOLOGY).
As Verworn[1] said, "It is to the cell that the study of every bodily
function sooner or later drives us. In the muscle cell lies the problem
of the heart beat and that of muscular contraction; in the gland cell
reside the causes of secretion; in the epithelial cell, in the white
blood corpuscle, lies the problem of the absorption of food, and the
secrets of the mind are hidden in the ganglion cell." So also the
problems of development and inheritance have shown themselves to be cell
problems, while the study of disease has produced a "cellular
pathology." The most important problems awaiting solution in biology are
cell problems.
_Historical._--The cell-theory ranks with the evolution theory in the
far-reaching influence it has exerted on the growth of modern biology;
and although almost entirely a product of the 19th century, the history
of its development gives place, in point of interest, to that of no
other general conception. The cell-theory--in a form, however, very
different from that in which we now know it--was originally suggested by
the study of plant structure; and the first steps to the formulation,
many years later, of a definite cell-theory, were made as early as the
later part of the 17th century by Robert Hooke, Marcello Malpighi and
Nehemiah Grew. Hooke (1665) noted and described the vesicular nature of
cork and similar vegetable substances, and designated the cavities by
the term "cells." A few years later Malpighi (1674) and Grew (1682),
still of course working with the low power lenses alone available at
that time, gave a more detailed description of the finer structure of
plant tissue. They showed that it consisted in part of little cell-like
cavities, provided with firm cell-walls and filled with fluid, and in
part of long tube-like vessels. A long time passed before the next
important step forward was made by C. L. Treviranus,[2] who, working on
the growing parts of young plants, showed that the tubes and vessels of
Malpighi and Grew arose from cells by the latter becoming elongated and
attached end to end, the intervening walls breaking down; a conclusion
afterwards confirmed by Hugo von Mohl (1830). It was not, however, until
the appearance of Matthias Jakob Schleiden's paper _Beitrage zur
Phytogenesis_ (1838) that we have a really comprehensive treatment of
the cell, and the formulation of a definite cell-theory for plants. It
is to the wealth of correlated observations and to the philosophic
breadth of the conclusions in this paper that the subsequent rapid
progress in cytology is undoubtedly to be attributed. Schleiden in this
paper attempted to solve the problem of the mode of origin of cells. The
nucleus (_vide infra_) of the cell had already been discovered by Robert
Brown (1831), who, however, failed to realize its importance. Schleiden
utilized Brown's discovery, and although his theory of phytogenesis is
based on erroneous observations, yet the great importance which he
rightly attached to the nucleus as a cell-structure made it possible to
extend the cell-theory to animal tissues also. We may indeed date the
birth of animal cytology from Schleiden's short but epoch-making paper.
Comparisons between plant and animal tissues had already been made by
several workers, among others by Johannes Muller (1835), and by F. G. J.
Henle and J. E. Purkinje (1837). But the first real step to a
comprehensive cell-theory to include animal tissues was made by Theodor
Schwann. This author, stimulated by Schleiden's work, published in 1830
a series of _Mikroskopische Untersuchungen uber die Ubereinstimmung in
der Structur und dem Wachstum der Tiere und Pflanzen_. This epoch-making
work ranks with that of Schleiden in its stimulating influence on
biological research, and in spite of the greater technical difficulties
in the way, raised animal cytology at one blow to the position already,
and so laboriously, acquired by plant cytology. In the animal cell it is
the nucleus and not the cell-wall that is most conspicuous, and it is
largely to the importance which Schwann, following the example of
Schleiden, attached to this structure as a cell constituent, that the
success and far-reaching influence of his work is due. Another feature
determining the success of Schwann's work was his selection of embryonic
tissue as material for investigation. He showed that in the embryo the
cells all closely resemble one another, only becoming later converted
into the tissue elements--nerve cells, muscle cells and so forth--as
development proceeded; just as a similar mode of investigation had
enabled Treviranus to trace the origin from typical cells of the
vascular tissue in plants more than 30 years previously. And just as
Treviranus showed that there was a union of cells to form the vessels in
plants, so Schwann now showed that a union of cells frequently occurred
in the formation of animal tissues.
So great was the stimulus given to cytological research by the work of
Schleiden and Schwann that these authors are often referred to as the
founders of the cell-theory. Their theory, however, differed very
greatly from that of the present time. Not only did they suppose new
cells to arise by a sort of "crystallization" from a formative "mother
liquor" or "cytoblastema" (_vide infra_), but they both defined the cell
as a "vesicle" provided with a firm cell-wall and with fluid contents.
The cell-wall was regarded as the essential cell-structure, which by its
own peculiar properties controlled the cell-processes. The work of
Schleiden and Schwann marks the close of the first period in the history
of the cell-theory--the period dominated by the cell-wall. The
subsequent history is marked by the gradual recognition of the
importance of the cell-contents. Schleiden had noticed in the plant cell
a finely granular substance which he termed "plant slime"
(_Pflanzenschleim_). In 1846 Hugo von Mohl applied to this substance the
term "protoplasm"; a term already used by Purkinje six years previously
for the formative substance of young animal embryos. Mohl showed that
the young plant cell was at first completely filled by the protoplasm,
and that only later, by the gradual accumulation of vacuoles in the
interior, did this substance come to form a thin layer on the inner
surface of the cell-wall. Mohl also described the spontaneous movement
of the protoplasm, a phenomenon already noted by Schleiden for his plant
slime, and originally discovered by Bonaventura Corti in 1772 for the
cells of _Chara_, and rediscovered in 1807 by Treviranus. Not only was
attention thus gradually directed to the importance of the
cell-contents, but observations were not lacking, even in the plant
kingdom, tending to weaken the importance hitherto attached to the
cell-wall. Among these may be mentioned Cohn's observation that in the
reproduction of Algal forms the protoplasm contracts away from the
cell-wall and escapes as a naked "swarm spore." Similarly in the animal
kingdom instances began to be noted in which no membrane appeared to be
present (Kolliker, 1845; Bischoff, 1842), and for some time it was hotly
debated whether these structures could be regarded as true cells. As a
result of the resemblance between the streaming movements in these
apparently naked cells (e.g. lymphocytes) and those seen in plant cells,
R. Remak was led (1852-1853) to apply Mohl's term "protoplasm" to the
substance of these animal cells also. Similarly Max Schultze (1863) and
H. A. de Bary (1859), as a result of the study of unicellular animals,
came to the conclusion that the substance of these organisms, originally
termed "Sarcode" by F. Dujardin, was identical with that of the plant
and animal cell. Numerous workers now began to realize the subordinate
position of the cell-wall (e.g. Nageli, Alexander Braun, Leydig,
Kolliker, Cohn, de Bary, &c.), but it is to Max Schultze above all that
the credit is due for having laid the foundation of the modern
conception of the cell--a conception often referred to as the
_proto-plasmic-theory_ in opposition to the _cell_-theory of Schleiden
and Schwann. Max Schultze showed that one and the same substance,
protoplasm, occurred in unicellular forms and in the higher plants and
animals; that in plants this substance, though usually enclosed _within_
a cell membrane, was sometimes naked (e.g. swarm spores), while in many
animal tissues and in many of the unicellular forms the cell-membrane
was always absent. He therefore concluded that in all cases the
cell-membrane was unessential, and he redefined the "cell" of Schleiden
and Schwann as "a small mass of protoplasm endowed with the attributes
of life" (1861). In the same year the physiologist Brucke maintained
that the complexity of vital phenomena necessitated the assumption for
the cell-protoplasm itself of a complex structure, only invisible
because of the limitations of our methods of observation. The cell in
fact was to be regarded as being itself an "elementary organism." By
this time too it was realized that the formation of cells _de novo_,
postulated by Schleiden's theory of "phytogenesis," did not occur. Cells
only arose by the division of pre-existing cells,--as Virchow neatly
expressed it in his since famous aphorism, _omnis cellula e cellula_. It
was, however, many years before the details of this "cell-division" were
laid bare (see _Cell-Division_ below).
_General Morphology of the Cell._--In its simplest form the cell is a
more or less spherical mass of viscid, translucent and granular
protoplasm. In addition to the living protoplasm there is present in the
cell food-material in various stages of assimilation, which usually
presents the appearance of fine granules or spherules suspended in the
more or less alveolar or reticular mesh-work of the living protoplasm.
In addition there may be more or less obvious accumulations of waste
material, pigment, oil drops, &c.--products of the cell's metabolic
activity. All these relatively passive inclusions[3] are distinguished
from the living protoplasm by the term "metaplasm" (Hanstein), or
"paraplasm" (Kupffer), although in practice no very sharp distinction
can be drawn between them. The cell is frequently, but by no means
always, bounded by a cell-wall of greater or less thickness. In plants
this cell-wall consists of cellulose, a substance closely allied to
starch; in animals only very rarely is this the case. Usually the
cell-wall, when this is present, is a product of the cell's secretive
activity; sometimes, however, it appears to be formed by an actual
conversion of the surface layer of the protoplasm, and retains the power
of growth by "intussusception" like the rest of the protoplasm. Even
when a limiting membrane is present, however, evidence is steadily
accumulating to show that the cell is not an isolated physiological
unit, but that, in the vast majority of cases, there is a protoplasmic
continuity between the cells of the organism. This continuity, which is
effected by fine protoplasmic threads ("cell-bridges") piercing the
cell-wall and bridging the intercellular spaces when these are present,
is to be regarded as the morphological expression of the physiological
interdependence of the various--often widely separated--tissues of the
body.[4] It is probable that it is the specialization of this primitive
condition which has produced the cell-elements of the nervous system. In
many cases the cell-connexions are so extensive as to obliterate
cell-boundaries. A good example of such a "syncytial" tissue is provided
by the heart muscle of Vertebrates and the intestinal musculature of
Insects (Webber).[5]
In all multicellular, and in the great majority of unicellular,
organisms the protoplasm of the cell-unit is differentiated into two
very distinct regions,--a more or less central region, the _nucleus_,
and a peripheral region (usually much more extensive), the cell-body or
_cytoplasm_. This universal morphological differentiation of the
cell-protoplasm is accompanied by corresponding chemical differences,
and is the expression of a physiological division of labour of
fundamental importance. In some of the simpler unicellular organisms,
e.g. _Tetramitus_, the differentiated protoplasm is not segregated. Such
forms are said to have a "distributed" nucleus, and among the Protozoa
correspond to Haeckel's "Protista." It is probable that among plants the
Bacteria and Cyanophyceae have a similar distributed nucleus. In all the
higher forms, however, the segregation is well marked, and a "nuclear
membrane" separates the substance of the nucleus, or "karyoplasm"[6]
from the surrounding "cytoplasm." Within the nuclear membrane the
karyoplasm is differentiated into two very distinct portions, a clear
fluid portion, the "karyolymph," and a firmer portion in the form of a
coarser or finer "nuclear reticulum." This latter is again composed of
two parts, the "linin reticulum,"[7] and, embedded in the latter and
often irregularly aggregated at its nodal points, a granular substance,
the "chromatin,"[8] the latter being the essential constituent of the
nucleus. In addition to the chromatin there may be present in the
nucleus one or more, usually spherical, and as yet somewhat enigmatical
bodies, the "nucleoli." In addition to the nucleus and cytoplasm, a
third body, the "centrosome," has often been considered as a constant
cell-structure. It is a minute granule, usually lying in the cytoplasm
not far from the nucleus, and plays an important part in cell-division
and fertilization (see below).
_Cell-differentiation._--Both among unicellular and multicellular
individuals the cell assumes the most varied forms and performs the most
diverse functions. In all cases, however, whether we examine the
free-living shapeless and slowly creeping _Amoeba_, or the striped
muscle cell or spermatozoon of the Metazoa (fig. 1, b and c), the
constant recurrence of cytoplasm and nucleus show that we have to deal
in each case with a cell. The variation in the form and structure of the
cell is an expression of that universal economic law of nature,
"division of labour," with its almost invariable accompanying
"morphological differentiation"; the earliest and most fundamental
example being in the differentiation of the cell-protoplasm into
cytoplasm and nucleus. In multicellular individuals the division of
labour to which the structural complexity of the organism is due is
between the individual cell-units, some cells developing one aspect,
some another, of their vital attributes. Thus one cell specializes in,
say, secretion, another in contractility, another in receiving and
carrying stimuli, and so forth, so that we have the gland cell, the
muscle cell, and the nerve cell, each appropriately grouped with its
fellows to constitute the particular tissue or organ--gland, muscle or
brain--which has for its function that of its constituent cells. In
unicellular animals we also find division of labour and its accompanying
morphological differentiation, but here there is no subdivision of the
protoplasm of the organism into the semi-autonomous units which so
greatly facilitate division of labour in the Metazoa; instead, division
of labour must be between different regions of protoplasm in the single
cell. The sharply defined character of this regional differentiation in
the Protozoa, and the surprising structural complexity it may produce,
sufficiently clearly show that although multicellular structure has
greatly facilitated regional differentiation in the Metazoa, it is by no
means essential to this process (see below, _Present Position of the
Cell-theory_).
It is not within the scope of this article to attempt a comprehensive
review of the variety in structural complexity to which this division of
labour among the cells of the Metazoan and the regional differentiation
of the cell-bodies of the Protozoa has given rise. Some indication of
the wealth of variety may be best given by taking a general survey of
cell-modifications, grouped according to the cell-attributes the
expression of which they facilitate.
[Illustration: a and b from Schafer's _Essentials of Histology_, by
permission of Longmans, Green & Co.
FIG. 1.--Types of Cells. a, Fat-cell enclosing a huge fat-globule. b,
Part of a Mammalian "striated" muscle-cell (diagrammatic). c,
Spermatozoa of mouse and bird.]
(a) _Structural Complexity facilitating Movement._--One of the most
striking, and hence earliest described, of the fundamental attributes of
protoplasm is its power of spontaneous movement. This is seen in the
walled cell of plant tissue and in the naked cell-body of _Amoeba_. In
the latter case the streaming movements of the naked protoplasm are
accompanied by the formation of "pseudopodia," and result in the highly
characteristic "amoeboid" creeping movement of this and similar
organisms (e.g. lymph corpuscles of the blood).[9] In these examples the
whole protoplasm participates in the movement,--there has been no
division of labour, and there is, therefore, no visible morphological
differentiation. In many cells, movement (either of the entire body or
of the surrounding medium) is by means of slender whip-like processes of
the protoplasm flagella or cilia. These represent modified pseudopodia,
and in the formation of the motile gametes of some of the lower forms,
e.g. Myxomycetes (de Bary, 1859), Rhizopods (R. Hertwig, 1874), &c., the
actual conversion of a pseudopodium into a flagellum can be witnessed.
These vibratile processes may be either one or few in number, and are
then large in size and move independently of one another; or they may be
very numerous, covering the free surface of the cell (fig. 2, a); they
are then very small and move strictly in unison. In the former case they
are termed "flagella," in the latter "cilia." In some cases the
flagellum is accompanied by an undulating membrane (e.g. Trypanosoma
among the protozoa and in many spermatozoa), and it may be situated
either at the front end (Euglena) or hind end (spermatozoa) of the body
during motion. The cilia may form a uniform coating to the free surface
of the cell, as in ciliated epithelium (fig. 2, a) and many infusoria,
or the cilia may be variously modified and restricted to special regions
of the body, e.g. the "undulating membrane" of the peristomial region in
many infusoria, the swimming combs of the Ctenophora (q.v.), and the
flame cells of the Platyelmia (q.v.). In one group of infusoria
(Hypotricha), the cilia, "cirri," have attained a high degree of
differentiation, and reach a considerable size. Both cilia and flagella
spring directly from the cell-protoplasm, piercing the cell-membrane,
when this is present. At the point where they become continuous with the
cell-body there is usually a deeply staining "basal granule." In some
cases the flagella are in direct connexion with the centrosome (see
below, _Cell-division_), e.g. Trypanosoma and spermatozoa, in some cases
even while the centrosome is functioning in mitosis (e.g. insect
spermatogenesis, Henneguy[10] and Meves[11] (fig. 3).
[Illustration: From A. Gurwitsch, _Morphologie und Biologie der Zelle_,
by permission of Gustav Fischer.
FIG. 2.--Types of Cells. a, Ciliated epithelial cells. (After
Heidenhain.) b, Mucus-secreting "goblet"-cells. (After Gurwitsch.)]
[Illustration: From O. Hertwig, _Allgemeine Biologie_, by permission of
Gustav Fischer.
FIG. 3.--Spermatocytes of _Bombyx mori_, showing the precocious
appearance of the spermatozoon flagellum and its relation to the
centrosome. (After Henneguy.)]
In the ability of _Amoeba_ to contract into a spherical mass, and in the
presence in its protoplasm of the contractile vacuole, we see another
type of spontaneous movement--contractility--of the protoplasm. In the
"musculo-epithelial" cells of _Hydra_, the elongated basal portion of
the cell alone possesses this contractility. In the higher Metazoa the
whole cell--muscle cell--is specialized for contractility, and shows, as
a result of its specialization, a distinct fibrillation. This
fibrillation is foreshadowed in the contractile regions of many
Protozoa, e.g. in the cirri of hypotrichous Infusoria, the tentacle of
_Noctiluca_, and the myophane layer of Gregarines. In the quickly
contracting muscle cell of Vertebrates and insects, further
specialization has produced a structure of considerable complexity (fig.
1, b). Here also the cell is fibrillated, but the fibrillae
(sarcostyles) are much more distinct, and are segmented in a manner
which gives to the entire cell a "cross striated" appearance. Since
quick movement is usually (but not always) associated with voluntary
control, these striated muscle cells are often termed "voluntary" muscle
fibres. The great increase in length of these cells is accompanied by
the fragmentation of the originally single nucleus.
(b) _Cell-modification in Relation to Secretion._--Just as the complex
movements considered above were the result of a great development of the
power of spontaneous movement possessed by all protoplasm, so
cell-secretion is the result of a development of the metabolic processes
underlying all vital phenomena. But whereas specialization of the
protoplasm for movement resulted in a very obvious morphological
complexity, specialization for secretion results in molecular
complexity, and only rarely and indirectly results in morphological
differentiation. Usually indeed the specialization is only rendered
evident by the appearance of the formed secretion, e.g. mucus-secreting
epithelial cells (fig. 2, b), the ovarian ovum and the fat cell (fig. 1,
a). In some cases a distinct fibrillation of the cytoplasm accompanies
or precedes the appearance of the cell-secretion (Mathews, pancreas cell
of Amphibia). In many cases the internal secretion is no mere
accumulation, e.g. the internal skeleton of the Radiolaria, and the
nematocysts of the Coelentera. Frequently in animal tissues the
cell-secretions are accumulated in the intercellular spaces, and result
in the formation of the various "connective tissues," all of which are
characterized by the immense amount of intercellular substance, e.g.
fibrous tissue, cartilage and bone. Cell-modifications facilitating the
general metabolism, but not necessarily indicating specialized
secretion, also occur, e.g. the "gullet" of many Protozoa, the suctorial
tubules of the Acinetaria, and the "nutritive processes" of the ovarian
ova in many Lepidoptera. Mention may be made here of the network or
canal system of the cytoplasm, described for many cells by Golgi,
Holgren and others. An enigmatical structure, the "yolk-nucleus" of many
ova, has been frequently regarded as a structure of considerable
metabolic importance, e.g. Bambeke (1898) for _Pholcus_.[12]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Types of Nuclei.
From Prof. E. B. Wilson's The Cell in _Development and Inheritance_, by
permission of the author and of the Macmillan Co., New York.
a, Permanent spireme-nuclei in cells from the intestinal epithelium of
a dipterous larva, _Ptychoptera_. (After van Gehuchten.)
From Korschelt and Heider, _Lehrbuch der verg. Entwicklungsgeschichte
der wirbellosen Tiere_, by permission of Gustav Fischer.
b, Branched nucleus of the "nutritive" cell, from a portion of an
ovarial tube of _Forficula auricularia_.]
Striking modifications resulting from specialization in secretion are
frequently presented by the nucleus. In many secreting cells this
structure is extensively branched, e.g. many gland cells and ovarian
nutritive cells of insects (fig. 4, b). In some cases the nucleus of the
gland cell contains a persistent spireme thread (fig. 4, a); while
almost all actively secreting cells are characterized by the possession
of large or numerous nucleoli.
[Illustration: From Schafer's _Essentials of Histology_, by permission
of Longmans, Green & Co.
FIG. 5.--Nervous and Sensory Cells.
A and B, Ganglion cells from the cerebral cortex; in A the only
slightly branched axon may extend the whole length of the spinal cord.
(After Schafer.)