[Illustration: SMALL MEDIEVAL CATHEDRAL, ATHENS. _Photo: Emery Walker._]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ST. LUKE'S, NEAR DELPHI.
Showing a typical scheme of internal decoration. The lower parts of the
walls are covered with marble, and the upper surfaces and vaults with
mosaics and paintings. Eleventh century. _From a Drawing by Sidney
Barnsley._]
BYZANTINE ART.[1] By "Byzantine art" is meant the art of Constantinople
(sometimes called _Byzantium_ in the middle ages as in antiquity), and of
the Byzantine empire; it represents the form of art which followed the
classical, after the transitional interval of the early Christian period.
It reached maturity under Justinian (527-565), declined and revived with
the fortunes of the empire, and attained a second culmination from the 10th
to the 12th centuries. Continuing in existence throughout the later middle
ages, it is hardly yet extinct in the lands of the Greek Church. It had
enormous influence over the art of Europe and the East during the early
middle ages, not only through the distribution of minor works from
Constantinople but by the reputation of its architecture and painting.
Several buildings in Italy are truly Byzantine. It is difficult to set a
time for the origin of the style. When Constantine founded new Rome the art
was still classical, although it had even then gathered up many of the
elements which were to transform its aspect. Just two hundred years later
some of the most characteristic works of this style of art were being
produced, such [v.04 p.0907] as the churches of St Sergius, the Holy Wisdom
(St Sophia), and the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, and San Vitale at
Ravenna. We may best set an arbitrary point for the demarcation of the new
style midway between these two dates, with the practical separation of the
eastern and western empires.
The style may be said to have arisen from the orientalization of Roman art,
and itself largely contributed to the formation of the Saracenic or
Mahommedan styles. As Choisy well says, "The history of art in the Roman
epoch presents two currents, one with its source in Rome, the other in
Hellenic Asia. When Rome fell the Orient returned to itself and to the
freedom of exploring new ways. There was now a new form of society, the
Christian civilization, and, in art, an original type of architecture, the
Byzantine." It has hardly been sufficiently emphasized how closely the art
was identified with the outward expression of the Christian church; in
fact, the Christian element in late classical art is the chief root of the
new style, and it was the moral and intellectual criticism that was brought
to bear on the old material, which really marked off Byzantine art from
being merely a late form of classic.
Hardly any distinction can be set up in the material contents of the art;
it was at least for a period only simplified and sweetened, and it is this
freshening which prepared the way for future development. It must be
confessed, however, that certain influences darkened the style even before
it had reached maturity; chief among these was a gloomy hierarchical
splendour, and a ritual rigidity, which to-day we yet refer to, quite
properly, as Byzantinism. Choisy sees a distinction in the constructive
types of Roman and Byzantine architecture, in that the former covered
spaces by concreted vaults built on centres, which approximated to a sort
of "monolithic" formation, whereas in the Byzantine style the vaults were
built of brick and drawn forward in space without the help of preparatory
support. Building in this way, it became of the greatest importance that
the vaults should be so arranged as to bring about an equilibrium of
thrusts. The distinction holds as between Rome in the 4th century and
Constantinople in the 6th, but we are not sufficiently sure that the
concreted construction did not depend on merely local circumstances, and it
is possible, in other centres of the empire where strong cement was not so
readily obtainable, and wood was scarce, that the Byzantine _constructive_
method was already known in classical times. Choisy, following Dieulafoy,
would derive the Byzantine system of construction from Persia, but this
proposition seems to depend on a mistaken chronology of the monuments as
shown by Perrot and Chipiez in their _History of Art in Persia_. It seems
probable that the erection of brick vaulting was indigenous in Egypt as a
building method. Strzygowski, in his recent elaborate examination of the
art-types found at the palace of Mashita (Mschatta), a remarkable ruin
discovered by Canon Tristram in Moab, of which the most important parts
have now been brought to the new Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, shows
that there are Persian ideas intermixed with Byzantine in its decoration,
and there are also brick arches of high elliptical form in the structure.
He seems disposed to date this work rather in the 5th than in the 6th
century, and to see in it an intermediate step between the Byzantine work
of the west and a Mesopotamian style, which he postulates as probably
having its centre at Seleucia-Ctesiphon. From the examples brought forward
by the learned author himself, it is safer as yet to look on the work as in
the main Byzantine, with many Egyptian and Syrian elements, and an
admixture, as has been said, of Persian ideas in the ornamentation. Egypt
was certainly an important centre in the development of the Byzantine
style.
The course of the transition to Byzantine, the first mature Christian
style, cannot be satisfactorily traced while, guided by Roman
archaeologists, we continue to regard Rome as a source of Christian art
apart from the rest of the world. Christianity itself was not of Rome, it
was an eastern leaven in Roman society. Christian art even in that capital
was, we may say, an eastern leaven in Roman art. If we set the year 450 for
the beginning of Byzantine art, counting all that went before as early
Christian, we get one thousand years to the Moslem conquest of
Constantinople (1453). This millennium is broken into three well-marked
periods by the great iconoclastic schism (726-842) and the taking of
Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204. The first we may call the
classical epoch of Byzantine art; it includes the mature period under
Justinian (the central year of which we may put as 550), from which it
declined until the settlement of the quarrel about images, 400 years in
all, to, say, 850. The second period, to which we may assign the limits
850-1200, is, in the main, one of orientalizing influences, especially in
architecture, although in MSS. and paintings there was, at one time, a
distinct and successful classical revival. The interregnum had caused
almost complete isolation from the West, and inspiration was only to be
found either by casting back on its own course, or by borrowing from the
East. This period is best represented by the splendid works undertaken by
Basil the Macedonian (867-886) and his immediate successors, in the
imperial palace, Constantinople. The third period is marked by the return
of western influence, of which the chief agency was probably the
establishment of Cistercian monasteries. This western influence, although
it may be traced here and there, was not sufficient, however, to change the
essentially oriental character of the art, which from first to last may be
described as Oriental-Christian.
_Architecture._--The architecture of our period is treated in some detail
in the article ARCHITECTURE; here we can only glance at some broad aspects
of its development. As early as the building of Constantine's churches in
Palestine there were two chief types of plan in use--the basilican, or
axial, type, represented by the basilica at the Holy Sepulchre, and the
circular, or central, type, represented by the great octagonal church once
at Antioch. Those of the latter type we must suppose were nearly always
vaulted, for a central dome would seem to furnish their very _raison
d'être_. The central space was sometimes surrounded by a very thick wall,
in which deep recesses, to the interior, were formed, as at the noble
church of St George, Salonica (5th century?), or by a vaulted aisle, as at
Sta Costanza, Rome (4th century); or annexes were thrown out from the
central space in such a way as to form a cross, in which these additions
helped to counterpoise the central vault, as at the mausoleum of Galla
Placidia, Ravenna (5th century). The most famous church of this type was
that of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople. Vaults appear to have been early
applied to the basilican type of plan; for instance, at St Irene,
Constantinople (6th century), the long body of the church is covered by two
domes.
At St Sergius, Constantinople, and San Vitale, Ravenna, churches of the
central type, the space under the dome was enlarged by having apsidal
additions made to the octagon. Finally, at St Sophia (6th century) a
combination was made which is perhaps the most remarkable piece of planning
ever contrived. A central space of 100 ft. square is increased to 200 ft.
in length by adding two hemicycles to it to the east and the west; these
are again extended by pushing out three minor apses eastward, and two
others, one on either side of a straight extension, to the west. This
unbroken area, about 260 ft. long, the larger part of which is over 100 ft.
wide, is entirely covered by a system of domical surfaces. Above the conchs
of the small apses rise the two great semi-domes which cover the
hemicycles, and between these bursts out the vast dome over the central
square. On the two sides, to the north and south of the dome, it is
supported by vaulted aisles in two storeys which bring the exterior form to
a general square. At the Holy Apostles (6th century) five domes were
applied to a cruciform plan, that in the midst being the highest. After the
6th century there were no churches built which in any way competed in scale
with these great works of Justinian, and the plans more or less tended to
approximate to one type. The central area covered by the dome was included
in a considerably larger square, of which the four divisions, to the east,
west, north and south, were carried up higher in the vaulting and roof
system than the four corners, forming in this way a sort of nave [v.04
p.0908] and transepts. Sometimes the central space was square, sometimes
octagonal, or at least there were eight piers supporting the dome instead
of four, and the "nave" and "transepts" were narrower in proportion. If we
draw a square and divide each side into three so that the middle parts are
greater than the others, and then divide the area into nine from these
points, we approximate to the typical setting out of a plan of this time.
Now add three apses on the east side opening from the three divisions, and
opposite to the west put a narrow entrance porch running right across the
front. Still in front put a square court. The court is the _atrium_ and
usually has a fountain in the middle under a canopy resting on pillars. The
entrance porch is the _narthex_. The central area covered by the dome is
the _solea_, the place for the choir of singers. Here also stood the
_ambo_. Across the eastern side of the central square was a screen which
divided off the _bema_, where the altar was situated, from the body of the
church; this screen, bearing images, is the _iconastasis_. The altar was
protected by a canopy or _ciborium_ resting on pillars. Rows of rising
seats around the curve of the apse with the patriarch's throne at the
middle eastern point formed the _synthronon_. The two smaller compartments
and apses at the sides of the bema were sacristies, the _diaconicon_ and
_prothesis_. The continuous influence from the East is strangely shown in
the fashion of decorating external brick walls of churches built about the
12th century, in which bricks roughly carved into form are set up so as to
make bands of ornamentation which it is quite clear are imitated from Cufic
writing. This fashion was associated with the disposition of the exterior
brick and stone work generally into many varieties of pattern, zig-zags,
key-patterns, &c.; and, as similar decoration is found in many Persian
buildings, it is probable that this custom also was derived from the East.
The domes and vaults to the exterior were covered with lead or with tiling
of the Roman variety. The window and door frames were of marble. The
interior surfaces were adorned all over by mosaics or paintings in the
higher parts of the edifice, and below with incrustations of marble slabs,
which were frequently of very beautiful varieties, and disposed so that,
although in one surface, the colouring formed a series of large panels. The
choicer marbles were opened out so that the two surfaces produced by the
division formed a symmetrical pattern resembling somewhat the marking of
skins of beasts.
_Mosaics and Paintings._--The method of depicting designs by bringing
together morsels of variously colored materials is of high antiquity. We
are apt to think of a line of distinction between classical and Christian
mosaics in that the former were generally of marble and the latter mostly
of colored and gilt glass. But glass mosaics were already in use in the
Augustan age, and the use of gilt tesserae goes back to the 1st or 2nd
century. The first application of glass to this purpose seems to have been
made in Egypt, the great glass-working centre of antiquity, and the gilding
of tesserae may with probability be traced to the same source, whence, it
is generally agreed, most of the gilt glass vessels, of which so many have
been found in the catacombs, were derived. The earliest existing mosaics of
a typically Christian character are some to be found at Santa Costanza,
Rome (4th century). Other mosaics on the vaults of the same church are of
marble and follow a classical tradition. It is probable that we have here
the meeting-point of two art-currents, the indigenous and the eastern. In
Rome, the great apse-mosaic of S. Pudenziana dates from about A.D. 400. The
mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, is incrusted within by mosaic work of
the 5th century, and most probably the dome mosaics of the church of St
George, Salonica, are also of this period. Of the 6th century are many of
the magnificent examples still remaining at Ravenna, portions of the
original incrustation of St Sophia, Constantinople, those of the basilica
at Parenzo, on the Gulf of Istria, and of St Catherines, Sinai. An
interesting mosaic which is probably of this period, and has only recently
been described, is at the small church of Keti in Cyprus. This, which may
be the only Byzantine mosaic in the British dominions, fills the conch of a
tiny apse, but is none the less of great dignity. In the centre is a figure
of the Virgin with the Holy Child in her arms standing between two angels
who hold disks marked with the sign [CHI]. They are named Michael and
Gabriel. Another mosaic of this period brought from Ravenna to Germany two
generations ago has been recently almost rediscovered, and set up in the
new Museum of Decorative Art in Berlin. In this, a somewhat similar
composition fills the conch of the apse, but here it is the Risen Christ
who stands between the two archangels. Above, in a broad strip, a frieze of
angels blowing trumpets stand on the celestial sea on either hand of the
Enthroned Majesty.
Such mosaics flowed out widely over the Christian world trom its art
centres, as far east as Sanâ, the capital of Yemen, as far north as Kiev in
Russia, and Aachen in Germany, and as far west as Paris, and continued in
time for a thousand years without break in the tradition save by the
iconoclastic dispute. The finest late example is the well-known
"mosaic-church" (the Convent of the Saviour) at Constantinople, a work of
the 14th century.
The single figures were from the first, and for the most part, treated with
an axial symmetry. Almost all are full front; only occasionally will one,
like the announcing angel, be drawn with a three-quarter face. The features
are thus kept together on the general map of the face. In the same way the
details of a tree will be collected on a simple including form which makes
a sort of mat for them. Groups, similarly, are closely gathered up into
masses of balanced form, and such masses are arranged with strict regard
for general symmetry. "The art," as Bayet says, "in losing something of
life and liberty became so much the better fitted for the decoration of
great edifices." The technical means were just as much simplified, and only
a few frank colours were made sufficient, by skilful juxtaposition, to do
all that was required of them. The fine pure blue, or bright gold,
backgrounds on which the figures were spaced, as well as the broken surface
incidental to the process, created an atmosphere which harmonized all
together. At St Sophia there were literally acres of such mosaics, and they
seem to have been applied with similar profusion in the imperial palace.
Mosaic was only a more magnificent kind of painting, and painted design
followed exactly the same laws; the difference is in the splendour of
effect and in the solidity and depth of colour. Paintings, from the first,
must have been of more grey and pearly hues. A large side chapel at the
mosaic church at Constantinople is painted, and it is difficult to say
which is really the more beautiful, the deep splendour of the one, or the
tender yet gay colour of the other. The greatest thing in Byzantine art was
this picturing of the interiors of entire buildings with a series of
mosaics or paintings, filling the wall space, vaults and domes with a
connected story. The typical character of the personages and scenes, the
elimination of non-essentials, and the continuity of the tradition, brought
about an intensity of expression such as may nowhere else be found. It is
part of the limited greatness of this side of Byzantine art that there was
no room in it for the gaiety and humour of the later medieval schools; all
was solemn, epical, cosmic. When such stories are displayed on the golden
ground of arches and domes, and related in a connected cycle, the result
produces, as it was intended to produce, a sense of the universal and
eternal. Beside this great power of co-ordination possessed by Byzantine
artists, they created imaginative types of the highest perfection. They
clothed Christian ideas with forms so worthy, which have become so
diffused, and so intimately one with the history, that we are apt to take
them for granted, and not to see in them the superb results of Greek
intuition and power of expression. Such a type is the Pantocrator,--the
Creator-Redeemer, the Judge inflexible and yet compassionate,--who is
depicted at the zenith of all greater domes; such the Virgin with the Holy
Child, enthroned or standing in the conchs of apses, all tenderness and
dignity, or with arms extended, all solicitude; of her image the _Painter's
Guide_ directs that it is to be painted with the "complexion the colour of
wheat, hair and eyes brown, grand eyebrows, and beautiful eyes, clad in
beautiful clothing, humble, beautiful and faultless"; such are the angels
with their mighty [v.04 p.0909] wings, splendid impersonations of
beneficent power; such are the prophets, doctors, martyrs, saints,--all
have been fixed into final types.
We are apt to speak of the rigidity and fixity of Byzantine work, but the
method is germane in the strictest sense to the result desired, and we
should ask ourselves how far it is possible to represent such a serious and
moving drama except by dealing with more or less unchangeable types. It
could be no otherwise. This art was not a matter of taste, it was a growth
of thought, cast into an historical mould. Again, the artists had an
extraordinary power of concentrating and abstracting the great things of a
story into a few elements or symbols. For example, the seven days of
creation are each figured by some simple detail, such as a tree, or a
flight of birds, or symbolically, as seven spirits; the flood by an ark on
the waters. What the capabilities of such a method are, where invention is
not allowed to wander into variety, but may only add intensity, may, for
instance, be seen in representations of the Agony in the Garden. This
subject is usually divided into three sections, each consecutive one
showing, with the same general scene, greater darkness, an advance up the
hill, and the figure of Christ more bowed. Another composition, the "Sleep
(death) of the Virgin," is all sweetness and peace, but no less powerful. A
remarkable invention is the _etomasia_, a splendid empty throne prepared
for the Second Advent. The stories of the Old Testament are put into
relation with the Gospel by way of type and anti-type. There are
allegories: the anchorite life contrasted with the mad life of the world,
the celestial ladder, &c., and fine impersonations, such as night and dawn,
mercy and truth, cities and rivers, are frequently found, especially in MS.
pictures.
A few general schemes may be briefly summarized. St Sophia has the
Pantocrator in the middle of the dome, and four cherubim of colossal size
at the four corners; on the walls below were angels, prophets, saints and
doctors. On the circle of the apse was enthroned the Virgin. To the right
and left, high above the altar, were two archangels holding banners
inscribed "Holy, Holy, Holy." These last are also found at Nicaea, and at
the monastery of St Luke. The church of the Holy Apostles had the Ascension
in the central dome, and below, the Life of Christ. St Sophia, Salonica,
also has the Ascension, a composition which is repeated on the central dome
of St Mark's, Venice. In the eastern dome of the Venetian church is Christ
surrounded by prophets, and, in the western dome, the Descent of the Holy
Spirit upon the Apostles. A Pentecost similar to the last occupies the dome
over the Bema of St Luke's monastery in Phocis; in the central dome of this
church is the Pantocrator, while in a zone below stand, the Virgin to the
east, St John Baptist to the west, and the four archangels, Michael,
Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel, to the north and south. A better example of
grandeur of treatment can hardly be cited than the paintings of the now
destroyed dome of the little church of Megale Panagia at Athens, a dome
which was only about 12 ft. across. At the centre was Christ enthroned,
next came a series of nine semicircles containing the orders of the angels,
seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominations, virtues, powers, principalities,
archangels and angels. Below these came a wide blue belt set with stars and
the signs of the zodiac; to the east the sun, to the west the moon. Still
below these were the winds, hail and snow; and still lower mountains and
trees and the life on the earth, with all of which were interwoven passages
from the last three Psalms, forming a Benedicite. After St Mark's, Venice,
the completest existing scheme of mosaics is that of the church of St Luke;
those of Daphne, Athens, are the most beautiful. A complete series of
paintings exists in one of the monastic churches on Mount Athos. The
Pantocrator is at the centre of the dome, then comes a zone with the
Virgin, St John Baptist and the orders of the angels. Then the prophets
between the windows of the dome and the four evangelists in the
pendentives. On the rest of the vaults is the life of Christ, ending at the
Bema with the Ascension; in the apse is the Virgin above, the Divine
Liturgy lower, and the four doctors of the church below. All the walls are
painted as well as the vaults. The mosaics overflowed from the interiors on
to the external walls of buildings even in Roman days, and the same
practice was continued on churches. The remains of an external mosaic of
the 6th century exist on the west façade of the basilica at Parenzo. Christ
is there seated amongst the seven candlesticks, and adored by saints. At
the basilica at Bethlehem the gable end was appropriately covered with a
mosaic of the Nativity, also a work of the age of Justinian. In Rome, St
Peter's and other churches had mosaics on the façades; a tradition
represented, in a small way, at San Miniato, Florence. At Constantinople,
according to Clavigo, the Spanish ambassador who visited that city about
1400, the church of St Mary of the Fountain had its exterior richly worked
in gold, azure and other colours; and it seems almost necessary to believe
that the bare front of the narthex of St Sophia was intended to be
decorated in a similar manner. In Damascus the courtyard of the Great
Mosque seems to have been adorned with mosaics; photographs taken before
the fire in 1893 show patches on the central gable in some of the spandrels
of the side colonnade and on the walls of the isolated octagonal treasury.
The mosaics here were of Byzantine workmanship, and their effect, used in
such abundance, must have been of great splendour. In Jerusalem the mosque
of Omar also had portions of the exterior covered with mosaics. We may
imagine that such external decorations of the churches, where a few solemn
figures told almost as shadows on the golden background brightly reflecting
the sun, must have been even more glorious than the imagery of their
interiors.
Painted books were hardly different in their style from the paintings on
the walls. Of the MSS. the Cottonian Genesis, now only a collection of
charred fragments, was an early example. The great _Natural History_ of
Dioscorides of Vienna (c. 500) and the Joshua Roll of the Vatican, which
have both been lately published in perfect facsimile, are magnificent
works. In the former the plants are drawn with an accuracy of observation
which was to disappear for a thousand years. The latter shows a series of
drawings delicately tinted in pinks and blues. Many of the compositions
contain classical survivals, like personified rivers.
In some of the miniatures of the later school of the art the classical
revival of the 10th century was especially marked. Still later others show
a very definite Persian influence in their ornamentation, where intricate
arabesques almost of the style of eastern rugs are found.
_The Plastic Art._--If painting under the new conditions entered on a fresh
course of power and conquest, if it set itself successfully to provide an
imagery for new and intense thought, sculpture, on the other hand, seems to
have withered away as it became removed from the classic stock. Already in
the pre-Constantinian epoch of classical art sculpture had become strangely
dry and powerless, and as time went on the traditions of modelling appear
to have been forgotten. Two points of recent criticism may be mentioned
here. It has been shown that the porphyry images of warriors at the
southwest angle of St Mark's, Venice, are of Egyptian origin and are of
late classical tradition. The celebrated bronze St Peter at Rome is now
assigned to the 13th century. Not only did statue-making become nearly a
lost art, but architectural carvings ceased to be seen as _modelled form_,
and a new system of relief came into use. Ornament, instead of being
gathered up into forcible projections relieved against retiring planes, and
instead of having its surfaces modulated all over with delicate gradations
of shade, was spread over a given space in an even fretwork. Such a highly
developed member as the capital, for instance, was thought of first as a
simple, solid form, usually more or less the shape of a bowl, and the
carving was spread out over the general surface, the background being sunk
into sharply defined spaces of shadow, all about the same size. Often the
background was so deeply excavated that it ceased to be a plane supporting
the relieved parts, but passed wholly into darkness. Strzygowski has given
to this process the name of the "deep-dark" ground. A further step was to
relieve the upper fretwork of carving from the ground altogether in certain
places by cutting away the sustaining portions.
[v.04 p.0910] The simplicity, the definition and crisp sharpness of some of
the results are entirely delightful. The bluntness and weariness of many of
the later modelled Roman forms disappear in the new energy of workmanship
which was engaged in exploring a fresh field of beauty. These brightly
illuminated lattices of carved ornament seem to hold within them masses of
cold shadow. Beautiful as was this method of architectural adornment, it
must be allowed that it was, in essence, much more elementary than the
school of modelled form. All such carvings were usually brightly coloured
and gilt, and it seems probable that the whole was considered rather as a
colour arrangement than as sculpture proper.
Plaster work, again, an art on which wonderful skill was lavished in Rome,
became under the Byzantines extremely rude. Many good examples of this work
exist at San Vitale and Sant' Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna, also at
Parenzo, and at St Sophia, Constantinople. Later examples of plaster work
of Byzantine tradition are to be found at Cividale, and at Sant' Ambrogio,
Milan, where the tympana of the well-known baldachin are of this material,
and contain modelled figures.
Coins and medallions of even the best period of Byzantine art prove what a
deep abyss separates them from the power over modelled relief shown in
classical examples. The sculptural art is best displayed by ivory carvings,
although this is more to be attributed to their pictorial quality than to a
feeling for modelling.
_Metal Work, Ivories and Textiles._--One of the greatest of Byzantine arts
is the goldsmith's. This absorbed so much from Persian and Oriental schools
as to become semi-barbaric. Under Justinian the transformation from
Classical art was almost complete. Some few examples, like a silver dish
from Cyprus in the British Museum, show refined restraint; on the other
hand, the mosaic portraits of the emperor and Theodora show crowns and
jewels of full Oriental style, and the description of the splendid fittings
of St Sophia read like an eastern tale. Goldsmith's work was executed on
such a scale for the great church as to form parts of the architecture of
the interior. The altar was wholly of gold, and its ciborium and the
iconastasis were of silver. In the later palace-church, built by Basil the
Macedonian, the previous metals were used to such an extent that it is
clear, from the description, that the interior was intended to be, as far
as possible, like a great jewelled shrine. Gold and silver, we are told,
were spread over all the church, not only in the mosaics, but in plating
and other applications. The enclosure of the bema, with its columns and
entablatures, was of silver gilt, and set with gems and pearls.
The most splendid existing example of goldsmith's work on a large scale is
the _Paid d'Oro_ of St Mark's, Venice; an assemblage of many panels on
which saints and angels are enamelled. The monastic church of St Catherine,
Sinai, is entered through a pair of enamelled doors, and several doors
inlaid with silver still exist. In these doors the ground was of
gilt-bronze; but there is also record of silver doors in the imperial
palace at Constantinople. The inlaid doors of St Paul Outside the Walls at
Rome were executed in Constantinople by Stauricios, in 1070, and have Greek
inscriptions. There are others at Salerno (c. 1080), but the best known are
those at St Mark's, Venice. In all these the imagery was delineated in
silver on the gilt-bronze ground. The earliest works of this sort are still
to be found in Constantinople. The panels of a door at St Sophia bear the
monograms of Theophilus and Michael (840). Two other doors in the narthex
of the same church, having simpler ornamentation of inlaid silver, are
probably as early as the time of Justinian.
The process of enamelling dates from late classical times and Venturi
supposes that it was invented in Alexandria. The cloisonné process,
characteristic of Byzantine enamels, is thought by Kondakov to be derived
from Persia, and to its study he has devoted a splendid volume. One of the
finest examples of this cloisonné is the reliquary at Limburg on which the
enthroned Christ appears between St Mary and St John in the midst of the
twelve apostles. An inscription tells that it was executed for the emperors
Constantine and Romanus (948-959).
A reliquary lately added to the J. Pierpont Morgan collection at South
Kensington is of the greatest beauty in regard to the colour and clearness
of the enamel. The cover, which is only about 4½ by 3 ins., has in the
centre a crucifixion with St Mary and St John to the right and left, while
around are busts of the apostles. Christ is vested in a tunic. The ground
colour is the green of emerald, the rest mostly blue and white. The
cloisons are of gold. Two other Byzantine enamels are in the permanent
collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum: one is a cross with the
crucifixion on a background of the same emerald enamel; the other is a
small head of St Paul of remarkably fine workmanship.
Ivory-working was another characteristic Byzantine art, although, like so
many others it had its origin in antiquity. One of the earliest ivories of
the Byzantine type is the diptych at Monza, showing a princess and a boy,
supposed to be Galla Placidia and Valentinian III. This already shows the
broad, flattened treatment which seems to mark the ivory work of the East.
The majestic archangel of the British Museum, one of the largest panels
known, is probably of the 5th century, and almost certainly, as Strzygowski
has shown, of Syrian origin. Design and execution are equally fine. The
drawing of the body, and the modelling of the drapery, are accomplished and
classical. Only the full front pose, the balanced disposition of the large
wings, and the intense outlook of the face, give it the Byzantine type.
Ivory, like gold-work and enamel, was pressed into the adornment of
architectural works. The ambo erected by Justinian at St Sophia was in part
covered by ivory panels set into the marble. The best existing specimen of
this kind of work is the celebrated ivory throne at Ravenna. This
masterpiece, which resembles a large, high-backed chair, is entirely
covered with sculptured ivory, delicate carvings of scriptural subjects and
ornament. It is of the 6th century and bears the monogram of Bishop
Maximian. It is probably of Egyptian or Syrian origin.
So many fragments of ivories have been discovered in recent explorations in
Egypt that it is most likely that Alexandria, a fit centre for receiving
the material, was also its centre of distribution. The weaving of patterned
silks was known in Europe in the classical age, and they reached great
development in the Byzantine era. A fragment, long ago figured by Semper,
showing a classical design of a nereid on a sea-horse, is so like the
designs found on many ivories discovered in Egypt that we may probably
assign it to Alexandria. Such fabrics going back to the 3rd century have
been found in Egypt which must have been one of the chief centres for the
production of silk as for linen textiles. The Victoria and Albert Museum is
particularly rich in early silks. One fine example, having rose-coloured
stripes and repeated figures of Samson and the lion, must be of the great
period of the 6th century. The description of St Sophia written at that
time tells of the altar curtains that they bore woven images of Christ, St
Peter and St Paul standing under tabernacles upon a crimson ground, their
garments being enriched with gold embroidery. Later the patterns became
more barbaric and of great scale, lions trampled across the stuff, and in
large circles were displayed eagles, griffins and the like in a fine
heraldic style. From the origin of the raw material in China and India and
the ease of transport, such figured stuffs gathered up and distributed
patterns over both Europe and Asia. The Persian influence is marked. There
is, for example, a pattern of a curious dragon having front feet and a
peacock's tail. It appears on a silver Persian dish in the Hermitage
Museum, it is found on the mixed Byzantine and Persian carvings of the
palace of Mashita, and it occurs on several silks of which there are two
varieties at the Victoria and Albert Museum, both of which are classed as
Byzantine; it is difficult to say of many of these patterns whether they
are Sassanian originals or Byzantine adaptations from them.
AUTHORITIES.--A very complete bibliography is given by H. Leclercq, _Manuel
d'archéologie chrétienne_ (Paris, 1907). The current authorities for all
that concerns Byzantine history or art [v.04 p.0911] are:--_Byzantinische
Zeitschrift ..._ (Leipzig, 1892 seq.); _Oriens Christianus_ (Rome, 1900
seq.). See also Dom R.P. Cabrol, _Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne_,
&c. (Paris, 1902 seq.). The best general introduction is:--C. Bayet, _L'Art
byzantin_ (Paris, 1883, new edition, 1904). See J. Strzygowski, _Orient
oder Rom_ (Leipzig, 1901) and other works; Kondakov, _Les Émaux byz._
(1892), and other works; C. Diehl, _Justinien et la civilis. byz._ (Paris,
1901), and other works; G. Millet, _Le Monastère de Daphne_, &c. (Paris,
1899), and other works; L.G. Schlumberger, _L'Epopée byz._ &c. (1896 seq.);
A. Michel, _Histoire de l'art_, vol. i. (Paris, 1905); H. Brockhaus, _Die
Kunst in den Athos-Klostern_ (Leipzig, 1891); E. Molinier, _Histoire
générale des arts_, &c. i., _Ivoires_ (Paris, 1896); O. Dalton, _Catalogue
of Early Christian Antiquities...of the British Museum_ (1901); A. van
Millingen, _Byzantine Constantinople_ (1899); Salzenberg, _Altchristliche
Baudenkmaler_ &c. (Berlin, 1854); A. Choisy, _L'Art de bâtir chez les
Byzantins_ (Paris, 1875); Couchand, _Églises byzantines en Grèce_; Ongania,
_Basilica di S. Marco_; Texier and Pullan, _L'Architecture b. 73_ (1864);
Lethaby and Swainson, _Sancta Sophia, Constantinople_ (1894); Schultz and
Barnsley, _The Monastery of St Luke_, &c. (1890); L. de Beylié,
_L'Habitation byz._ (Paris, 1903). For Syria: M. de Vogüé,
_L'Architecture...dans la Syrie centrale_ (Paris, 1866-1877); H.C. Butler,
_Architecture and other Arts_, &c. (New York, 1904). For Egypt: W.E. Crum,
_Coptic Monuments_ (Cairo, 1902); A. Gayet, _L'Art Copte_ (Paris, 1902);
A.J. Butler, _Ancient Coptic Churches_. For North Africa: S. Csell, _Les
Monuments antiques de l'Algérie_ (Paris, 1901). For Italy: A. Venturi,
_Storia dell' arte Italiana_ (Milan, 1901); G. Rivoira, _Le Origini della
architettura Lombarda_ (Rome, 1901); C. Errard and A. Gayet, _L'Art
byzantin_, &c. (Paris,1903).
(W. R. L.)
[1] For Byzantine literature see GREEK LITERATURE: _Byzantine_.
BYZANTIUM, an ancient Greek city on the shores of the Bosporus, occupying
the most easterly of the seven hills on which modern Constantinople stands.
It was said to have been founded by Megarians and Argives under Byzas about
657 B.C., but the original settlement having been destroyed in the reign of
Darius Hystaspes by the satrap Otanes, it was recolonized by the Spartan
Pausanias, who wrested it from the Medes after the battle of Plataea (479
B.C.)--a circumstance which led several ancient chroniclers to ascribe its
foundation to him. Its situation, said to have been fixed by the Delphic
oracle, was remarkable for beauty and security. It had complete control
over the Euxine grain-trade; the absence of tides and the depth of its
harbour rendered its quays accessible to vessels of large burden; while the
tunny and other fisheries were so lucrative that the curved inlet near
which it stood became known as the Golden Horn. The greatest hindrance to
its prosperity was the miscellaneous character of the population, partly
Lacedaemonian and partly Athenian, who flocked to it under Pausanias. It
was thus a subject of dispute between these states, and was alternately in
the possession of each, till it fell into the hands of the Macedonians.
From the same cause arose the violent intestine contests which ended in the
establishment of a rude and turbulent democracy. About seven years after
its second colonization, the Athenian Cimon wrested it from the
Lacedaemonians; but in 440 B.C. it returned to its former allegiance.
Alcibiades, after a severe blockade (408 B.C.), gained possession of the
city through the treachery of the Athenian party; in 405 B.C. it was
retaken by Lysander and placed under a Spartan harmost. It was under the
Lacedaemonian power when the Ten Thousand, exasperated by the conduct of
the governor, made themselves masters of the city, and would have pillaged
it had they not been dissuaded by the eloquence of Xenophon. In 390 B.C.
Thrasybulus, with the assistance of Heracleides and Archebius, expelled the
Lacedaemonian oligarchy, and restored democracy and the Athenian influence.
After having withstood an attempt under Epaminondas to restore it to the
Lacedaemonians, Byzantium joined with Rhodes, Chios, Cos, and Mausolus,
King of Caria, in throwing off the yoke of Athens, but soon after sought
Athenian assistance when Philip of Macedon, having overrun Thrace, advanced
against it. The Athenians under Chares suffered a severe defeat from
Amyntas, the Macedonian admiral, but in the following year gained a
decisive victory under Phocion and compelled Philip to raise the siege. The
deliverance of the besieged from a surprise, by means of a flash of light
which revealed the advancing masses of the Macedonian army, has rendered
this siege memorable. As a memorial of the miraculous interference, the
Byzantines erected an altar to Torch-bearing Hecate, and stamped a crescent
on their coins, a device which is retained by the Turks to this day. They
also granted the Athenians extraordinary privileges, and erected a monument
in honour of the event in a public part of the city.
During the reign of Alexander Byzantium was compelled to acknowledge the
Macedonian supremacy; after the decay of the Macedonian power it regained
its independence, but suffered from the repeated incursions of the
Scythians. The losses which they sustained by land roused the Byzantines to
indemnify themselves on the vessels which still crowded the harbour, and
the merchantmen which cleared the straits; but this had the effect of
provoking a war with the neighbouring naval powers. The exchequer being
drained by the payment of 10,000 pieces of gold to buy off the Gauls who
had invaded their territories about 279 B.C., and by the imposition of an
annual tribute which was ultimately raised to 80 talents, they were
compelled to exact a toll on all the ships which passed the Bosporus--a
measure which the Rhodians resented and avenged by a war, wherein the
Byzantines were defeated. After the retreat of the Gauls Byzantium rendered
considerable services to Rome in the contests with Philip II., Antiochus
and Mithradates.
During the first years of its alliance with Rome it held the rank of a free
confederate city; but, having sought arbitration on some of its domestic
disputes, it was subjected to the imperial jurisdiction, and gradually
stripped of its privileges, until reduced to the status of an ordinary
Roman colony. In recollection of its former services, the emperor Claudius
remitted the heavy tribute which had been imposed on it; but the last
remnant of its independence was taken away by Vespasian, who, in answer to
a remonstrance from Apollonius of Tyana, taunted the inhabitants with
having "forgotten to be free." During the civil wars it espoused the party
of Pescennius Niger; and though skilfully defended by the engineer
Periscus, it was besieged and taken (A.D. 196) by Severus, who destroyed
the city, demolished the famous wall, which was built of massive stones so
closely riveted together as to appear one block, put the principal
inhabitants to the sword and subjected the remainder to the Perinthians.
This overthrow of Byzantium was a great loss to the empire, since it might
have served as a protection against the Goths, who afterwards sailed past
it into the Mediterranean. Severus afterwards relented, and, rebuilding a
large portion of the town, gave it the name of Augusta Antonina. He
ornamented the city with baths, and surrounded the hippodrome with
porticos; but it was not till the time of Caracalla that it was restored to
its former political privileges. It had scarcely begun to recover its
former position when, through the capricious resentment of Gallienus, the
inhabitants were once more put to the sword and the town was pillaged. From
this disaster the inhabitants recovered so far as to be able to give an
effectual check to an invasion of the Goths in the reign of Claudius II.,
and the fortifications were greatly strengthened during the civil wars
which followed the abdication of Diocletian. Licinius, after his defeat
before Adrianople, retired to Byzantium, where he was besieged by
Constantine, and compelled to surrender (A.D. 323-324). To check the
inroads of the barbarians on the north of the Black Sea, Diocletian had
resolved to transfer his capital to Nicomedia; but Constantine, struck with
the advantages which the situation of Byzantium presented, resolved to
build a new city there on the site of the old and transfer the seat of
government to it. The new capital was inaugurated with special ceremonies,
A.D. 330. (See CONSTANTINOPLE.)
The ancient historians invariably note the profligacy of the inhabitants of
Byzantium. They are described as an idle, depraved people, spending their
time for the most part in loitering about the harbour, or carousing over
the fine wine of Maronea. In war they trembled at the sound of a trumpet,
in peace they quaked before the shouting of their own demagogues; and
during the assault of Philip II. they could only be prevailed on to man the
walls by the savour of extempore cook-shops distributed along the ramparts.
The modern Greeks attribute the introduction of Christianity into Byzantium
to St Andrew; it certainly had some hold there in the time of Severus.
[v.04 p.0912] C The third letter in the Latin alphabet and its descendants
corresponds in position and in origin to the Greek Gamma ([Gamma],
[gamma]), which in its turn is borrowed from the third symbol of the
Phoenician alphabet (Heb. _Gimel_). The earliest Semitic records give its
form as [Illustration] or more frequently [Illustration] or [Illustration]
The form [Illustration] is found in the earliest inscriptions of Crete,
Attica, Naxos and some other of the Ionic islands. In Argolis and Euboea
especially a form with legs of unequal length is found [Illustration] From
this it is easy to pass to the most widely spread Greek form, the ordinary
[Illustration] In Corinth, however, and its colony Corcyra, in Ozolian
Locris and Elis, a form [Illustration] inclined at a different angle is
found. From this form the transition is simple to the rounded
[Illustration] which is generally found in the same localities as the
pointed form, but is more widely spread, occurring in Arcadia and on
Chalcidian vases of the 6th century B.C., in Rhodes and Megara with their
colonies in Sicily. In all these cases the sound represented was a hard G
(as in _gig_). The rounded form was probably that taken over by the Romans
and with the value of G. This is shown by the permanent abbreviation of the
proper names Gaius and Gnaeus by C. and Cn. respectively. On the early
inscription discovered in the Roman Forum in 1899 the letter occurs but
once, in the form [Illustration] written from right to left. The broad
lower end of the symbol is rather an accidental pit in the stone than an
attempt at a diacritic mark--the word is _regei_, in all probability the
early dative form of _rex_, "king." It is hard to decide why Latin adopted
the _g_-symbol with the value of _k_, a letter which it possessed
originally but dropped, except in such stereotyped abbreviations as K. for
the proper name _Kaeso_ and _Kal._ for _Calendae_. There are at least two
possibilities: (1) that in Latium _g_ and _k_ were pronounced almost
identically, as, _e.g._, in the German of Württemberg or in the Celtic
dialects, the difference consisting only in the greater energy with which
the _k_-sound is produced; (2) that the confusion is graphic, K being
sometimes written [Illustration] which was then regarded as two separate
symbols. A further peculiarity of the use of C in Latin is in the
abbreviation for the district _Subura_ in Roma and its adjective
_Suburanus_, which appears as SVC. Here C no doubt represents G, but there
is no interchange between _g_ and _b_ in Latin. In other dialects of Italy
_b_ is found representing an original voiced guttural (_gw_), which,
however, is regularly replaced by _v_ in Latin. As the district was full of
traders, _Subura_ may very well be an imported word, but the form with C
must either go back to a period before the disappearance of _g_ before _v_
or must come from some other Italic dialect. The symbol G was a new coinage
in the 3rd century B.C. The pronunciation of C throughout the period of
classical Latin was that of an unvoiced guttural stop (_k_). In other
dialects, however, it had been palatalized to a sibilant before _i_-sounds
some time before the Christian era; _e.g._ in the Umbrian _façia_ = Latin
_facial_. In Latin there is no evidence for the interchange of _c_ with a
sibilant earlier than the 6th century A.D. in south Italy and the 7th
century A.D. in Gaul (Lindsay, _Latin Language_, p. 88). This change has,
however, taken place in all Romance languages except Sardinian. In
Anglo-Saxon _c_ was adopted to represent the hard stop. After the Norman
conquest many English words were re-spelt under Norman influence. Thus
Norman-French spelt its palatalized _c_-sound (_=tsh_) with _ch_ as in
_cher_ and the English palatalized _cild_, &c. became _child_, &c. In
Provençal from the 10th century, and in the northern dialects of France
from the 13th century, this palatalized _c_ (in different districts _ts_
and _tsh_) became a simple _s_. English also adopted the value of _s_ for
_c_ in the 13th century before _e_, _i_ and _y_. In some foreign words like
_cicala_ the _ch-_ (_tsh_) value is given to c. In the transliteration of
foreign languages also it receives different values, having that of _tsh_
in the transliteration of Sanskrit and of _ts_ in various Slavonic
dialects.
As a numeral C denotes 100. This use is borrowed from Latin, in which the
symbol was originally [Illustration] This, like the numeral symbols later
identified with L and M, was thus utilized since it was not required as a
letter, there being no sound in Latin corresponding to the Greek [theta].
Popular etymology identified the symbol with the initial letter of
_centum_, "hundred."
(P. GI.)
CAB (shortened about 1825 from the Fr. _cabriolet_, derived from
_cabriole_, implying a bounding motion), a form of horsed vehicle for
passengers either with two ("hansom") or four wheels ("four-wheeler" or
"growler"), introduced into London as the _cabriolet de place_, from Paris
in 1820 (see CARRIAGE). Other vehicles plying for hire and driven by
mechanical means are included in the definition of the word "cab" in the
London Cab and Stage Carriage Act 1007. The term "cab" is also applied to
the driver's or stoker's shelter on a locomotive-engine.
Cabs, or hackney carriages, as they are called in English acts of
parliament, are regulated in the United Kingdom by a variety of statutes.
In London the principal acts are the Hackney Carriage Acts of 1831-1853,
the Metropolitan Public Carriages Act 1869, the London Cab Act 1896 and the
London Cab and Stage Carriage Act 1907. In other large British towns cabs
are usually regulated by private acts which incorporate the Town Police
Clauses Act 1847, an act which contains provisions more or less similar to
the London acts. The act of 1869 defined a hackney carriage as any carriage
for the conveyance of passengers which plies for hire within the
metropolitan police district and is not a stage coach, _i.e._ a conveyance
in which the passengers are charged separate and distinct fares for their
seats. Every cab must be licensed by a licence renewable every year by the
home secretary, the licence being issued by the commissioner of police.
Every cab before being licensed must be inspected at the police station of
the district by the inspector of public carriages, and certified by him to
be in a fit condition for public use. The licence costs £2. The number of
persons which the cab is licensed to carry must be painted at the back on
the outside. It must carry a lighted lamp during the period between one
hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise. The cab must be under the
charge of a driver having a licence from the home secretary. A driver
before obtaining a licence, which costs five shillings per annum, must pass
an examination as to his ability to drive and as to his knowledge of the
topography of London.
General regulations with regard to fares and hiring may be made from time
to time by the home secretary under the London Cab and Stage Carriage Act
1907. The hiring is by distance or by time as the hirer may decide at the
beginning of the hiring; if not otherwise expressed the fare is paid
according to distance. If a driver is hired by distance he is not compelled
to drive more than six miles, and if hired by time he is not compelled to
drive for more than one hour. When a cab is hired in London by distance,
and discharged within a circle the radius of which is four miles (the
centre being taken at Charing Cross), the fare is one shilling for any
distance not exceeding two miles, and sixpence for every additional mile or
part of a mile. Outside the circle the fare for each mile, or part of a
mile, is one shilling. When a cab is hired by time, the fare (inside or
outside the circle) is two shillings and sixpence for the first hour, and
eightpence for every quarter of an hour afterwards. Extra payment has to be
made for luggage (twopence per piece outside), for extra passengers
(sixpence each for more than two), and for waiting (eightpence each
completed quarter of an hour). If a horse cab is fitted with a taximeter
(_vide infra_) the fare for a journey wholly _within_ or partly without and
partly within the four-mile radius, and not exceeding one mile or a period
of ten minutes, is sixpence. For each half mile or six minutes an
additional threepence is paid. If the journey is wholly _without_ the
four-mile radius the fare for the first mile is one shilling, and for each
additional quarter of a mile or period of three minutes, threepence is
paid. If the cab is one propelled by mechanical means the fare for a
journey not [v.04 p.0913] exceeding one mile or a period of ten minutes is
eightpence, and for every additional quarter mile or period of 2½ minutes
twopence is paid. A driver required to wait may demand a reasonable sum as
a deposit and also payment of the sum which he has already earned. The
London Cab Act 1896 (by which for the first time legal sanction was given
to the word "cab") made an important change in the law in the interest of
cab drivers. It renders liable to a penalty on summary conviction any
person who (_a_) hires a cab knowing or having reason to believe that he
cannot pay the lawful fare, or with intent to avoid payment; (_b_)
fraudulently endeavours to avoid payment; (_c_) refuses to pay or refuses
to give his address, or gives a false address with intent to deceive. The
offences mentioned (generally known as "bilking") may be punished by
imprisonment without the option of a fine, and the whole or any part of the
fine imposed may be applied in compensation to the driver.
Strictly speaking, it is an offence for a cab to ply for hire when not
waiting on an authorized "standing," but cabs passing in the street for
this purpose are not deemed to be "plying for hire." These stands for cabs
are appointed by the commissioner of police or the home secretary.
"Privileged cabs" is the designation given to those cabs which by virtue of
a contract between a railway company and a number of cab-owners are alone
admitted to ply for hire within a company's station, until they are all
engaged, on condition (1) of paying a certain weekly or annual sum, and (2)
of guaranteeing to have cabs in attendance at all hours. This system was
abolished by the act of 1907, but the home secretary was empowered to
suspend or modify the abolition if it should interfere with the proper
accommodation of the public.
At one time there was much discussion in England as to the desirability of
legalizing on cabs the use of a mechanical fare-recorder such as, under the
name of taximeter or taxameter, is in general use on the continent of
Europe. It is now universal on hackney carriages propelled by mechanical
means, and it has also extended largely to those drawn by animal power. A
taximeter consists of a securely closed and sealed metal box containing a
mechanism actuated by a flexible shaft connected with the wheel of the
vehicle, in the same manner as the speedometer on a motor car. It has,
within plain view of the passenger, a number of apertures in which appear
figures showing the amount payable at any time. A small lever, with a metal
flag, bearing the words "for hire" stands upright upon it when the cab is
disengaged. As soon as a passenger enters the cab the lever is depressed by
the driver and the recording mechanism starts. At the end of the journey
the figures upon the dials show exactly the sum payable for hire; this sum
is based on a combination of time and distance.
CABAL (through the Fr. _cabale_ from the _Cabbala_ or _Kabbalah_, the
theosophical interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures), a private
organization or party engaged in secret intrigues, and applied also to the
intrigues themselves. The word came into common usage in English during the
reign of Charles II. to describe the committee of the privy council known
as the "Committee for Foreign Affairs," which developed into the cabinet.
The invidious meaning attached to the term was stereotyped by the
coincidence that the initial letters of the names of the five ministers,
Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale, who signed the
treaty of alliance with France in 1673, spelled cabal.
CABALLERO, FERNÁN (1796-1877), the pseudonym adopted from the name of a
village in the province of Ciudad Real by the Spanish novelist Cecilia
Francisca Josefa Böhl de Faber y Larrea. Born at Morges in Switzerland on
the 24th of December 1796, she was the daughter of Johan Nikolas Böhl von
Faber, a Hamburg merchant, who lived long in Spain, married a native of
Cadiz, and is creditably known to students of Spanish literature as the
editor of the _Floresta de rimas antiguas castellanas_ (1821-1825), and the
_Teatro español anterior á Lope de Vega_ (1832). Educated principally at
Hamburg, she visited Spain in 1815, and, unfortunately for herself, in 1816
married Antonio Planells y Bardaxi, an infantry captain of bad character.
In the following year Planells was killed in action, and in 1822 the young
widow married Francisco Ruiz del Arco, marqués de Arco Hermoso, an officer
in one of the Spanish household regiments. Upon the death of Arco Hermoso
in 1835, the marquesa found herself in straitened circumstances, and in
less than two years she married Antonio Arrón de Ayala, a man considerably
her junior. Arrón was appointed consul in Australia, engaged in business
enterprises and made money; but unfortunate speculations drove him to
commit suicide in 1859. Ten years earlier the name of Fernán Caballero
became famous in Spain as the author of _La Gaviola_. The writer had
already published in German an anonymous romance, _Sola_ (1840), and
curiously enough the original draft of _La Gaviota_ was written in French.
This novel, translated into Spanish by José Joaquín de Mora, appeared as
the _feuilleton_ of _El Heraldo_ (1849), and was received with marked
favour. Ochoa, a prominent critic of the day, ratified the popular
judgment, and hopefully proclaimed the writer to be a rival of Scott. No
other Spanish book of the 19th century has obtained such instant and
universal recognition. It was translated into most European languages, and,
though it scarcely seems to deserve the intense enthusiasm which it
excited, it is the best of its author's works, with the possible exception
of _La Familia de Alvareda_ (which was written, first of all, in German).
Less successful attempts are _Lady Virginia_ and _Clemencia_; but the short
stories entitled _Cuadros de Costumbres_ are interesting in matter and
form, and _Una en otra_ and _Elia ó la España treinta años ha_ are
excellent specimens of picturesque narration. It would be difficult to
maintain that Fernán Caballero was a great literary artist, but it is
certain that she was a born teller of stories and that she has a graceful
style very suitable to her purpose. She came into Spain at a most happy
moment, before the new order had perceptibly disturbed the old, and she
brought to bear not alone a fine natural gift of observation, but a
freshness of vision, undulled by long familiarity. She combined the
advantages of being both a foreigner and a native. In later publications
she insisted too emphatically upon the moral lesson, and lost much of her
primitive simplicity and charm; but we may believe her statement that,
though she occasionally idealized circumstances, she was conscientious in
choosing for her themes subjects which had occurred in her own experience.
Hence she may be regarded as a pioneer in the realistic field, and this
historical fact adds to her positive importance. For many years she was the
most popular of Spanish writers, and the sensation caused by her death at
Seville on the 7th of April 1877 proved that her naïve truthfulness still
attracted readers who were interested in records of national customs and
manners.
Her _Obras completas_ are included in the _Colección de escritores
castellanos_: a useful biography by Fernando de Gabriel Ruiz de Apodaca
precedes the _Últimas producciones de Fernán Caballero_ (Seville, 1878).
(J. F.-K.)
CABANEL, ALEXANDRE (1823-1889), French painter, was born at Montpellier,
and studied in Paris, gaining the Prix de Rome in 1845. His pictures soon
attracted attention, and by his "Birth of Venus" (1863), now in the
Luxembourg, he became famous, being elected that year to the Institute. He
became the most popular portrait painter of the day, and his pupils
included a number of famous artists.
CABANIS, PIERRE JEAN GEORGE (1757-1808), French physiologist, was born at
Cosnac (Corrèze) on the 5th of June 1757, and was the son of Jean Baptiste
Cabanis (1723-1786), a lawyer and agronomist. Sent at the age of ten to the
college of Brives, he showed great aptitude for study, but his independence
of spirit was so excessive that he was almost constantly in a state of
rebellion against his teachers, and was finally dismissed from the school.
He was then taken to Paris by his father and left to carry on his studies
at his own discretion for two years. From 1773 to 1775 he travelled in
Poland and Germany, and on his return to Paris he devoted himself mainly to
poetry. About this time he ventured to send in to the Academy a translation
of the passage from Homer proposed for their prize, and, though his attempt
passed without notice, he received so much encouragement from his friends
that he contemplated translating the whole of the _Iliad_. But at the [v.04
p.0914] desire of his father he relinquished these pleasant literary
employments, and resolving to engage in some settled profession selected
that of medicine. In 1789 his _Observations sur les hôpitaux_ procured him
an appointment as administrator of hospitals in Paris, and in 1795 he
became professor of hygiene at the medical school of Paris, a post which he
exchanged for the chair of legal medicine and the history of medicine in
1799. From inclination and from weak health he never engaged much in
practice as a physician, his interests lying in the deeper problems of
medical and physiological science. During the last two years of Mirabeau's
life he was intimately connected with that extraordinary man, and wrote the
four papers on public education which were found among the papers of
Mirabeau at his death, and were edited by the real author soon afterwards
in 1791. During the illness which terminated his life Mirabeau confided
himself entirely to the professional skill of Cabanis. Of the progress of
the malady, and the circumstances attending the death of Mirabeau, Cabanis
drew up a detailed narrative, intended as a justification of his treatment
of the case. Cabanis espoused with enthusiasm the cause of the Revolution.
He was a member of the Council of Five Hundred and then of the Conservative
senate, and the dissolution of the Directory was the result of a motion
which he made to that effect. But his political career was not of long
continuance. A foe to tyranny in every shape, he was decidedly hostile to
the policy of Bonaparte, and constantly rejected every solicitation to
accept a place under his government. He died at Meulan on the 5th of May
1808.
A complete edition of Cabanis's works was begun in 1825, and five volumes
were published. His principal work, _Rapports du physique et du moral de
l'homme_, consists in part of memoirs, read in 1796 and 1797 to the
Institute, and is a sketch of physiological psychology. Psychology is with
Cabanis directly linked on to biology, for sensibility, the fundamental
fact, is the highest grade of life and the lowest of intelligence. All the
intellectual processes are evolved from sensibility, and sensibility itself
is a property of the nervous system. The soul is not an entity, but a
faculty; thought is the function of the brain. Just as the stomach and
intestines receive food and digest it, so the brain receives impressions,
digests them, and has as its organic secretion, thought. Alongside of this
harsh materialism Cabanis held another principle. He belonged in biology to
the vitalistic school of G.E. Stahl, and in the posthumous work, _Lettre
sur les causes premières_ (1824), the consequences of this opinion became
clear. Life is something added to the organism; over and above the
universally diffused sensibility there is some living and productive power
to which we give the name of Nature. But it is impossible to avoid
ascribing to this power both intelligence and will. In us this living power
constitutes the ego, which is truly immaterial and immortal. These results
Cabanis did not think out of harmony with his earlier theory.
CABARRUS, FRANÇOIS (1752-1810), French adventurer and Spanish financier,
was born at Bayonne, where his father was a merchant. Being sent into Spain
on business he fell in love with a Spanish lady, and marrying her, settled
in Madrid. Here his private business was the manufacture of soap; but he
soon began to interest himself in the public questions which were
ventilated even at the court of Spain. The enlightenment of the 18th
century had penetrated as far as Madrid; the king, Charles III., was
favourable to reform; and a circle of men animated by the new spirit were
trying to infuse fresh vigour into an enfeebled state. Among these Cabarrus
became conspicuous, especially in finance. He originated a bank, and a
company to trade with the Philippine Islands; and as one of the council of
finance he had planned many reforms in that department of the
administration, when Charles III. died (1788), and the reactionary
government of Charles IV. arrested every kind of enlightened progress. The
men who had taken an active part in reform were suspected and prosecuted.
Cabarrus himself was accused of embezzlement and thrown into prison. After
a confinement of two years he was released, created a count and employed in
many honourable missions; he would even have been sent to Paris as Spanish
ambassador, had not the Directory objected to him as being of French birth.
Cabarrus took no part in the transactions by which Charles IV. was obliged
to abdicate and make way for Joseph, brother of Napoleon, but his French
birth and intimate knowledge of Spanish affairs recommended him to the
emperor as the fittest person for the difficult post of minister of
finance, which he held at his death. His beautiful daughter Thérèse, under
the name of Madame Tallien (afterwards princess of Chimay), played an
interesting part in the later stages of the French Revolution.
CABASILAS, NICOLAUS (d. 1371), Byzantine mystic and theological writer. He
was on intimate terms with the emperor John VI. Cantacuzene, whom he
accompanied in his retirement to a monastery. In 1355 he succeeded his
uncle Nilus Cabasilas, like himself a determined opponent of the union of
the Greek and Latin churches, as archbishop of Thessalonica. In the
Hesychast controversy he took the side of the monks of Athos, but refused
to agree to the theory of the uncreated light. His chief work is his
[Greek: Peri tês en Christôi zôês] (_ed. pr._ of the Greek text, with
copious introduction, by W. Gass, 1849; new ed. by M. Heinze, 1899), in
which he lays down the principle that union with Christ is effected by the
three great mysteries of baptism, confirmation and the eucharist. He also
wrote homilies on various subjects, and a speech against usurers, printed
with other works in Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, c. i. A large number of his
works is still extant in MS.
See C. Krumbacher, _Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur_ (1897), and
article in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie_
(1901).
CABATÚAN, a town of the province of Ilóilo, Panay, Philippine Islands, on a
branch of the Suague river, 15 m. N.W. of Ilóilo, the capital. Pop. (1903)
16,497. In 1903, after the census had been taken, the neighbouring town of
Maasin, with a population of 8401, was annexed to Cabatúan. Its climate is
healthful. The surrounding country is very fertile and produces large
quantities of rice, as well as Indian corn, tobacco, sugar, coffee and a
great variety of fruits. The language is Visayan. Cabatúan was founded in
1732.
CABBAGE. The parent form of the variety of culinary and fodder vegetables
included under this head is generally supposed to be the wild or sea
cabbage (_Brassica oleracea_), a plant found near the sea coast of various
parts of England and continental Europe, although Alphonse de Candolle
considered it to be really descended from the two or three allied species
which are yet found growing wild on the Mediterranean coast. In any case
the cultivated varieties have departed very widely from the original type,
and they present very marked and striking dissimilarities among themselves.
The wild cabbage is a comparatively insignificant plant, growing from 1 to
2 ft. high, in appearance very similar to the corn mustard or charlock
(_Sinapis arvensis_), but differing from it in having smooth leaves. The
wild plant has fleshy, shining, waved and lobed leaves (the uppermost being
undivided but toothed), large yellow flowers, elongated seed-pod, and seeds
with conduplicate cotyledons. Notwithstanding the fact that the cultivated
forms differ in habit so widely, it is remarkable that the flower,
seed-pods and seeds of the varieties present no appreciable difference.
John Lindley proposed the following classification for the various forms,
which includes all yet cultivated: (1) All the leaf-buds active and open,
as in wild cabbage and kale or greens; (2) All the leaf-buds active, but
forming heads, as in Brussels sprouts; (3) Terminal leaf-bud alone active,
forming a head, as in common cabbage, savoys, &c.; (4) Terminal leaf-bud
alone active and open, with most of the flowers abortive and succulent, as
in cauliflower and broccoli; (5) All the leaf-buds active and open, with
most of the flowers abortive and succulent, as in sprouting broccoli. The
last variety bears the same relation to common broccoli as Brussels sprouts
do to the common cabbage. Of all these forms there are numerous gardeners'
varieties, all of which reproduce faithfully enough their parent form by
proper and separate cultivation.
Under Lindley's first class, common or Scotch kale or borecole (_Brassica
oleracea_ var. _acephala_ or var. _fimbriata_) includes several varieties
which are amongst the hardiest of our esculents, and seldom fail to yield a
good supply of winter greens. They require well-enriched soil, and
sufficient space for full exposure to air; and they should also be sown
early, so as to be well [v.04 p.0915] established and hardened before
winter. The main crops should be sown about the first week of April, or, in
the north, in the third week of March, and a succession a month later. The
Buda kale is sown in May, and planted out in September, but a sowing for
late spring use may be made in the last week of August and transplanted
towards the end of September. To prevent overcrowding, the plants should be
transplanted as soon as they are of sufficient size, but if the ground is
not ready to receive them a sufficient number should be pricked out in some
open spot. In general the more vigorous sorts should be planted in rows 3
ft. and the smaller growers 2 ft. apart, and 18 in. from plant to plant. In
these the heads should be first used, only so much of the heart as is fresh
and tender being cut out for boiling; side shoots or sprouts are afterwards
produced for a long time in succession, and may be used so long as they are
tender enough to admit of being gathered by snapping their stalks asunder.
The plant sends up a stout central stem, growing upright to a height of
about 2 ft., with close-set, large thick, plain leaves of a light red or
purplish hue. The lower leaves are stripped off for use as the plants grow
up, and used for the preparation of broth or "Scotch kail," a dish at one
time in great repute in the north-eastern districts of Scotland. A very
remarkable variety of open-leaved cabbage is cultivated in the Channel
Islands under the name of the Jersey or branching cabbage. It grows to a
height of 8 ft, but has been known to attain double that altitude. It
throws out branches from the central stem, which is sufficiently firm and
woody to be fashioned into walking-sticks; and the stems are even used by
the islanders as rafters for bearing the thatch on their cottage-roofs.
Several varieties are cultivated as ornamental plants on account of their
beautifully coloured, frizzled and laciniated leaves.
Brussels sprouts (_Brassica oleracea_ var. _bullata gemmifera_) are
miniature cabbage-heads, about an inch in diameter, which form in the axils
of the leaves. There appears to be no information as to the plant's origin,
but, according to Van Mons (1765-1842), physician and chemist, it is
mentioned in the year 1213, in the regulations for holding the markets of
Belgium, under the name of _spruyten_ (sprouts). It is very hardy and
productive, and is much esteemed for the table on account of its flavour
and its sightly appearance. The seed should be sown about the middle of
March, and again in the first or second week in April for succession. Any
good garden soil is suitable. For an early crop it may be sown in a warm
pit in February, pricked out and hardened in frames, and planted out in a
warm situation in April. The main crop may be planted in rows 2 ft.
asunder, the plants 18 in. apart. They should be got out early, so as to be
well established and come into use before winter. The head may be cut and
used after the best of the little rosettes which feather the stem have been
gathered; but, if cut too early, it exposes these rosettes, which are the
most delicate portion of the produce, to injury, if the weather be severe.
The earliest sprouts become fit for use in November, and they continue
good, or even improve in quality, till the month of March following; by
successive sowings the sprouts are obtained for the greater part of the
year.
The third class is chiefly represented by the common or drumhead cabbage,
_Brassica oleracea_ var. _capitata_, the varieties of which are
distinguished by difference in size, form and colour. In Germany it is
converted into a popular article of diet under the name of _Sauerkraut_ by
placing in a tub alternate layers of salt and cabbage. An acid fermentation
sets in, which after a few days is complete, when the vessel is tightly
covered over and the product kept for use with animal food.
The savoy is a hardy green variety, characterized by its very wrinkled
leaves. The Portugal cabbage, or _Couve Tronchuda_, is a variety, the tops
of which form an excellent cabbage, while the midribs of the large leaves
are cooked like sea-kale.
Cabbages contain a very small percentage of nitrogenous compounds as
compared with most other articles of food. Their percentage composition,
when cooked, is--water, 97.4; fat, 0.1; carbohydrate, 0.4; mineral matter,
0.1; cellulose, 1.3; nitrogenous matter (only about half being proteid),
0.6. Their food-value, apart from their anti-scorbutic properties, is
therefore practically nil.
The cabbage requires a well-manured and well-wrought loamy soil. It should
have abundant water in summer, liquid manure being specially beneficial.
Round London where it is grown in perfection, the ground for it is dug to
the depth of two spades or spits, the lower portion being brought up to the
action of the weather, and rendered available as food for the plants; while
the top-soil, containing the eggs and larvae of many insects, being deeply
buried, the plants are less liable to be attacked by the club disease.
Farm-yard manure is that most suitable for the cabbage, but artificial
manures such as guano, superphosphate of lime or gypsum, together with
lime-rubbish, wood-ashes and marl, may, if required, be applied with
advantage.
The first sowing of cabbage should be made about the beginning of March;
this will be ready for use in July and August, following the autumn-sown
crops. Another sowing should be made in the last week of March or first
week of April, and will afford a supply from August till November; and a
further crop may be made in May to supply young-hearted cabbages in the
early part of winter. The autumn sowing, which is the most important, and
affords the supply for spring and early summer use, should be made about
the last week in August, in warm localities in the south, and about a
fortnight earlier in the north; or, to meet fluctuations of climate, it is
as well in both cases to anticipate this sowing by another two or three
weeks earlier, planting out a portion from each, but the larger number from
that sowing which promises best to stand without running to seed.
The cabbages grown late in autumn and in the beginning of winter are
denominated coleworts (vulg. collards), from a kindred vegetable no longer
cultivated. Two sowings are made, in the middle of June and in July, and
the seedlings are planted a foot or 15 in. asunder, the rows being 8 or 10
in. apart. The sorts employed are the Rosette and the Hardy Green.
About London the large sorts, as Enfield Market, are planted for spring
cabbages 2 ft. apart each way; but a plant from an earlier sowing is
dibbled in between every two in the rows, and an intermediate row a foot
apart is put in between the permanent rows, these extra plants being drawn
as coleworts in the course of the winter. The smaller sorts of cabbage may
be planted 12 in. apart, with 12 or 15 in. between the rows. The large
sorts should be planted 2 ft. apart, with 2½ ft. between the rows. The only
culture required is to stir the surface with the hoe to destroy the weeds,
and to draw up the soil round the stems.
The red cabbage, _Brassica oleracea_ var. _capitata rubra_, of which the
Red Dutch is the most commonly grown, is much used for pickling. It is sown
about the end of July, and again in March or April. The Dwarf Red and
Utrecht Red are smaller sorts. The culture is in every respect the same as
in the other sorts, but the plants have to stand until they form hard close
hearts.
Cauliflower, which is the chief representative of class 4, consists of the
inflorescence of the plant modified so as to form a compact succulent white
mass or head. The cauliflower (_Brassica oleracea_ var. _botrytis
cauliflora_) is said by our old authors to have been introduced from
Cyprus, where, as well as on the Mediterranean coasts, it appears to have
been cultivated for ages. It is one of the most delicately flavoured of
vegetables, the dense cluster formed by its incipient succulent flower-buds
being the edible portion.
The sowing for the first or spring crop, to be in use in May and June,
should be made from the 15th to the 25th of August for England, and from
the 1st to the 15th of August for Scotland. In the neighbourhood of London
the growers adhere as nearly as possible to the 21st day. A sowing to
produce heads in July and August takes place in February on a slight
hotbed. A late spring sowing to produce cauliflowers in September or
October or later, should be made early in April and another about the 20th
of May.
The cauliflower succeeds best in a rich soil and sheltered position; but,
to protect the young plants in winter, they are sometimes pricked out in a
warm situation at the foot of a south [v.04 p.0916] wall, and in severe
weather covered with hoops and mats. A better method is to plant them
thickly under a garden frame, securing them from cold by coverings and
giving air in mild weather. For a very early supply, a few scores of plants
may be potted and kept under glass during winter and planted out in spring,
defended with a hand-glass. Sometimes patches of three or four plants on a
south border are sheltered by hand-glasses throughout the winter. It is
advantageous to prick out the spring-sown plants into some sheltered place
before they are finally transplanted in May. The later crop, the
transplanting of which may take place at various times, is treated like
early cabbages. After planting, all that is necessary is to hoe the ground
and draw up the soil about the stems.
It is found that cauliflowers ready for use in October may be kept in
perfection over winter. For this purpose they are lifted carefully with the
spade, keeping a ball of earth attached to the roots. Some of the large
outside leaves are removed, and any points of leaves that immediately
overhang the flower are cut off. They are then placed either in pots or in
garden frames, the plants being arranged close together, but without
touching. In mild dry weather the glass frames are drawn off, but they are
kept on during rainstorms, ventilation being afforded by slightly tilting
the frames, and in severe frost they are thickly covered with mats.
Broccoli is merely a variety of cauliflower, differing from the other in
the form and colour of its inflorescence and its hardiness. The broccoli
(_Brassica oleracea_ var. _botrytis asparagoides_) succeeds best in loamy
soil, somewhat firm in texture. For the autumn broccolis the ground can
scarcely be too rich, but the winter and spring sorts on ground of this
character are apt to become so succulent and tender that the plants suffer
from frost even in sheltered situations, while plants less stimulated by
manure and growing in the open field may be nearly all saved, even in
severe winters. The main crops of the early sorts for use in autumn should
be sown early in May, and planted out while young to prevent them coming
too early into flower; in the north they may be sown a fortnight earlier.
The later sorts for use during winter and spring should be sown about the
middle or end of May, or about ten days earlier in the north. The seed-beds
should be made in fresh light soil; and if the season be dry the ground
should be well watered before sowing. If the young plants are crowding each
other they should be thinned. The ground should not be dug before planting
them out, as the firmer it is the better; but a shallow drill may be drawn
to mark the lines. The larger-growing sorts may be put in rows 3 ft. apart,
and the plants about 2½ ft. apart in the rows, and the smaller-growing ones
at from 2 to 2½ ft. between, and 1½ to 2 ft. in the rows. If the ground is
not prepared when young plants are ready for removal, they should be
transferred to nursery beds and planted at 3 to 4 in. apart, but the
earlier they can be got into their permanent places the better.
It is of course the young flower-heads of the plant which are eaten. When
these form, they should be shielded from the light by bending or breaking
down an inner leaf or two. In some of the sorts the leaves naturally curve
over the heads. To prevent injury to the heads by frost in severe winters,
the plants should be laid in with their heads sloping towards the north,
the soil being thrown back so as to cover their stems; or they may be taken
up and laid in closely in deep trenches, so that none of the lower bare
portion of the stem may be exposed. Some dry fern may also be laid over the
tops. The spring varieties are extremely valuable, as they come at a season
when the finer vegetables are scarce. They afford a supply from December to
May inclusive.
Broccoli sprouts, the representative of the fifth class, are a form of
recent introduction, and consist of flowering sprouts springing from the
axils of the leaves. The purple-leaved variety is a very hardy and
much-esteemed vegetable.
Kohl-rabi (_Brassica oleracea_ var. _caulo-rapa_) is a peculiar variety of
cabbage in which the stem, just above ground, swells into a fleshy
turnip-like mass. It is much cultivated in certain districts as a food for
stock, for which purpose the drumhead cabbage and the thousand-headed kale
are also largely used. Kohl-rabi is exceedingly hardy, withstanding both
severe frosts and drought. It is not much grown in English gardens, though
when used young it forms a good substitute for turnips. The seeds should be
sown in May and June, and the seedlings should be planted shallowly in
well-manured ground, 8 or 10 in. apart, in rows 15 in. asunder; and they
should be well watered, so as to induce quick growth.
The varieties of cabbage, like other fresh vegetables, are possessed of
anti-scorbutic properties; but unless eaten when very fresh and tender they
are difficult of digestion, and have a very decided tendency to produce
flatulence.
Although the varieties reproduce by seed with remarkable constancy,
occasional departures from the types occur, more especially among the
varieties of spring cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli. The departures,
known technically as "rogues," are not as a rule sufficiently numerous to
materially affect crops grown for domestic purposes. Rogues appearing among
the stocks of seed-growers, however, if allowed to remain, very materially
affect the character of particular stocks by the dissemination of strange
pollen and by the admixture of their seed. Great care is exercised by
seed-growers, with reputations to maintain, to eliminate these from among
their stock-plants before the flowering period is reached.
Several species of palm, from the fact of yielding large sapid central buds
which are cooked as vegetables, are known as cabbage-palms. The principal
of these is _Areca oleracea_, but other species, such as the coco-palm, the
royal palm (_Oreodoxa regia_), _Arenga saccharifera_ and others yield
similar edible leaf-buds.
CABEIRI, in Greek mythology, a group of minor deities, of whose character
and worship nothing certain is known. Their chief seats of worship were the
islands of Lemnos, Imbros and Samothrace, the coast of Troas, Thessalia and
Boeotia. The name appears to be of Phoenician origin, signifying the
"great" gods, and the Cabeiri seem to have been deities of the sea who
protected sailors and navigation, as such often identified with the
Dioscuri, the symbol of their presence being St Elmo's fire. Originally the
Cabeiri were two in number, an older identified with Hephaestus (or
Dionysus), and a younger identified with Hermes, who in the Samothracian
mysteries was called Cadmilus or Casmilus. Their cult at an early date was
united with that of Demeter and Kore, with the result that two pairs of
Cabeiri appeared, Hephaestus and Demeter, and Cadmilus and Kore. According
to Mnaseas[1] (quoted by the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius i. 917) they
were four in number:--Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos, Casmilus. It is there
stated that Axieros is Demeter; Axiokersa, Persephone; Axiokersos, Hades;
and Casmilus, Hermes. The substitution of Hades for Hephaestus is due to
the fact that Hades was regarded as the husband of Persephone. Cabeiro, who
is mentioned in the logographers Acusilaus and Pherecydes as the wife of
Hephaestus, is identical with Demeter, who indeed is expressly called
[Greek: Kabeiria] in Thebes. Roman antiquarians identified the Cabeiri with
the three Capitoline deities or with the Penates. In Lemnos an annual
festival of the Cabeiri was held, lasting nine days, during which all the
fires were extinguished and fire brought from Delos. From this fact and
from the statement of Strabo x. p. 473, that the father of the Cabeiri was
Camillus, a son of Hephaestus, the Cabeiri have been thought to be, like
the Corybantes, Curetes and Dactyli, demons of volcanic fire. But this view
is not now generally held. In Lemnos they fostered the vine and fruits of
the field, and from their connexion with Hermes in Samothrace it would also
seem that they promoted the fruitfulness of cattle.
By far the most important seat of their worship was Samothrace. Here, as
early as the 5th century B.C., their mysteries, possibly under Athenian
influence, attracted great attention, and initiation was looked upon as a
general safeguard against all misfortune. But it was in the period after
the death of Alexander the Great that their cult reached its height.
Demetrius Poliorcetes, Lysimachus and Arsinoë regarded the Cabeiri with
especial favour, and initiation was sought, not only by large numbers of
pilgrims, but by persons of distinction. Initiation included also an asylum
or refuge within the strong walls of Samothrace, for which purpose it was
used among others by Arsinoë, who, to show her gratitude, afterwards caused
a monument to be erected there, the ruins of which were explored in [v.04
p.0917] 1874 by an Austrian archaeological expedition. In 1888 interesting
details as to the Boeotian cult of the Cabeiri were obtained by the
excavations of their temple in the neighbourhood of Thebes, conducted by
the German archaeological institute. The two male deities worshipped were
Cabeiros and a boy: the Cabeiros resembles Dionysus, being represented on
vases as lying on a couch, his head surrounded with a garland of ivy, a
drinking cup in his right hand; and accompanied by maenads and satyrs. The
boy is probably his cup-bearer. The Cabeiri were held in even greater
esteem by the Romans, who regarded themselves as descendants of the
Trojans, whose ancestor Dardanus (himself identified in heroic legend with
one of the Cabeiri) came from Samothrace. The identification of the three
Capitoline deities with the Penates, and of these with the Cabeiri, tended
to increase this feeling.
See C.A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_ (1829); F.G. Welcker, _Die Aeschylische
Trilogie und die Kabirenweihe zu Lemnos_ (1824); J.P. Rossignol, _Les
Métaux dans l'antiquité_ (1863), discussing the gods of Samothrace (the
Dactyli, the Cabeiri, the Corybantes, the Curetes, and the Telchines) as
workers in metal, and the religious origin of metallurgy; O. Rubensohn,
_Die Mysterienheiligtümer in Eleusis und Samothrake_ (1892); W.H. Roscher,
_Lexikon der Mythologie_ (_s.v._ "Megaloi Theoi"); L. Preller, _Griechische
Mythologie_ (4th ed., appendix); and the article by F. Lenormant in
Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités_.
[1] A grammarian of Patrae in Achaea (or Patara in Lycia), pupil of
Eratosthenes (275-195 B.C.), and author of a periplus and a collection of
Delphic oracles.
CABER TOSSING (Gaelic _cabar_, a pole or beam), a Scottish athletic
exercise which consists in throwing a section of a trunk of a tree, called
the "caber," in such a manner that it shall turn over in the air and fall
on the ground with its small end pointing in the direction directly
opposite to the "tosser." Tossing the caber is usually considered to be a
distinctly Scottish sport, although "casting the bar," an exercise
evidently similar in character, was popular in England in the 16th century
but afterwards died out. The caber is the heavy trunk of a tree from 16 to
20 ft. long. It is often brought upon the field heavier than can be thrown
and then cut to suit the contestants, although sometimes cabers of
different sizes are kept, each contestant taking his choice. The toss is
made after a run, the caber being set up perpendicularly with the heavy end
up by assistants on the spot indicated by the tosser, who sets one foot
against it, grasps it with both hands, and, as soon as he feels it properly
balanced, gives the word to the assistants to let go their hold. He then
raises the caber and gets both hands underneath the lower end. "A practised
hand, having freed the caber from the ground, and got his hands underneath
the end, raises it till the lower end is nearly on a level with his elbows,
then advances for several yards, gradually increasing his speed till he is
sometimes at a smart run before he gives the toss. Just before doing this
he allows the caber to leave his shoulder, and as the heavy top end begins
to fall forward, he throws the end he has in his hands upwards with all his
strength, and, if successful, after the heavy end strikes the ground the
small end continues its upward motion till perpendicular, when it falls
forward, and the caber lies in a straight line with the tosser" (W.M.
Smith). The winner is he who tosses with the best and easiest style,
according to old Highland traditions, and whose caber falls straightest in
a direct line from him. In America a style called the Scottish-American
prevails at Caledonian games. In this the object is distance alone, the
same caber being used by all contestants and the toss being measured from
the tosser's foot to the spot where the small end strikes the ground. This
style is repudiated in Scotland. Donald Dinnie, born in 1837 and still a
champion in 1890, was the best tosser of modern times.
See W.M. Smith, _Athletics and Athletic Sports in Scotland_ (Edinburgh,
1891).