[1] The claims to a part of the first two were very old in origin,
but all were heavily clouded by interruptions of possession,
contested interpretations of Spanish-British treaties, and active
controversy with the Central American States. The claim to some of
the territory was new and still more contestable. See particularly on
these claims Travis'e book cited below.
[2] The islands were ceded to Honduras. The Mosquito Coast was
recognized as under Nicaraguan rule limited by an attenuated British
protectorate over the Indians, who were given a reservation and
certain peculiar rights. They were left free to accept full
Nicaraguan rule at will. This they did in 1894.
[3] It was argued, e.g., that the "general principle" of that
engagement was contingent on the prior realization of its "particular
object," which had failed, and the treaty had determined as a special
contract; moreover, none of the additional treaties to embody the
"general principle" had been negotiated, and Great Britain had not
even offered co-operation in the protection and neutrality-guarantee
of the Panama railway built in 1850-1855, so that her rights had
lapsed; certain engagements of the treaty she had violated, and
therefore the whole treaty was voidable, &c.
CLAY-WITH-FLINTS, in geology, the name given by W. Whitaker in 1861 to a
peculiar deposit of stiff red, brown or yellow clay containing unworn
whole flints as well as angular shattered fragments, also with a
variable admixture of rounded flint, quartz, quartzite and other
pebbles. It occurs "in sheets or patches of various sizes over a large
area in the south of England, from Hertfordshire on the north to Sussex
on the south, and from Kent on the east to Devon on the west. It almost
always lies on the surface of the Upper Chalk, but in Dorset it passes
on to the Middle and Lower Chalk, and in Devon it is found on the
Chert-Beds of the Selbornian group" (A.J. Jukes-Browne, "The
Clay-with-Flints, its Origin and Distribution," _Q.J.G.S._, vol. lxii.,
1906, p. 132). Many geologists have supposed, and some still hold, that
the Clay-with-Flints is the residue left by the slow solution and
disintegration of the Chalk by the processes of weathering; on the other
hand, it has long been known that the deposit very frequently contains
materials foreign to the Chalk, derived either from the Tertiary rocks
or from overlying drift. In the paper quoted above, Jukes-Browne ably
summarizes the evidence against the view that the deposit is mainly a
Chalk residue, and brings forward a good deal of evidence to show that
many patches of the Clay-with-Flints lie upon the same plane and may be
directly associated with Reading Beds. He concludes "that the material
of the Clay-with-Flints has been chiefly and almost entirely derived
from Eocene clay, with addition of some flints from the Chalk; that its
presence is an indication of the previous existence of Lower Eocene Beds
on the same site and nearly at the same relative level, and,
consequently, that comparatively little Chalk has been removed from
beneath it. Finally, I think that the tracts of Clay-with-Flints have
been much more extensive than they are now" (loc. cit. p. 159).
It is noteworthy that the Clay-with-Flints is developed over an area
which is just beyond the limits of the ice sheets of the Glacial epoch,
and the peculiar conditions of late Pliocene and Pleistocene times;
involving heavy rains, snow and frost, may have had much to do with the
mingling of the Tertiary and Chalky material. Besides the occurrence in
surface patches, Clay-with-Flints is very commonly to be observed
descending in "pipes" often to a considerable depth into the Chalk;
here, if anywhere, the residual chalk portion of the deposit should be
found, and it is surmised that a thin layer of very dark clay with
darkly stained flints, which appears in contact with the sides and
bottom of the pipe, may represent all there is of insoluble residue.
A somewhat similar deposit, a "_conglomerat de silex_" or "_argue a
silex_," occurs at the base of the Eocene on the southern and western
borders of the Paris basin, in the neighbourhood of Chartres, Thimerais
and Sancerrois. (J. A. H.)
CLAZOMENAE (mod. _Kelisman_), an ancient town of Ionia and a member of
the Ionian Dodecapolis (Confederation of Twelve Cities), on the Gulf of
Smyrna, about 20 m. W. of that city. Though not in existence before the
arrival of the Ionians in Asia, its original founders were largely
settlers from Phlius and Cleonae. It stood originally on the isthmus
connecting the mainland with the peninsula on which Erythrae stood; but
the inhabitants, alarmed by the encroachments of the Persians, removed
to one of the small islands of the bay, and there established their
city. This island was connected with the mainland by Alexander the Great
by means of a pier, the remains of which are still visible. During the
5th century it was for some time subject to the Athenians, but about the
middle of the Peloponnesian war (412 B.C.) it revolted. After a brief
resistance, however, it again acknowledged the Athenian supremacy, and
repelled a Lacedaemonian attack. Under the Romans Clazomenae was
included in the province of Asia, and enjoyed an immunity from taxation.
The site can still be made out, in the neighbourhood of Vourla, but
nearly every portion of its ruins has been removed. It was the
birthplace of the philosopher Anaxagoras. It is famous for its painted
terra-cotta sarcophagi, which are the finest monuments of Ionian
painting in the 6th century B.C. (E. GR.)
CLEANTHES (c. 301-232 or 252 B.C.), Stoic philosopher, born at Assos in
the Troad, was originally a boxer. With but four drachmae in his
possession he came to Athens, where he listened first to the lectures of
Crates the Cynic, and then to those of Zeno, the Stoic, supporting
himself meanwhile by working all night as water-carrier to a gardener
(hence his nickname [Greek: phrehantles]). His power of patient
endurance, or perhaps his slowness, earned him the title of "the Ass";
but such was the esteem awakened by his high moral qualities that, on
the death of Zeno in 263, he became the leader of the school. He
continued, however, to support himself by the labour of his own hands.
Among his pupils were his successor, Chrysippus, and Antigonus, king of
Macedon, from whom he accepted 2000 minae. The manner of his death was
characteristic. A dangerous ulcer had compelled him to fast for a time.
Subsequently he continued his abstinence, saying that, as he was already
half-way on the road to death, he would not trouble to retrace his
steps.
Cleanthes produced very little that was original, though he wrote some
fifty works, of which fragments have come down to us. The principal is
the large portion of the _Hymn to Zeus_ which has been preserved in
Stobaeus. He regarded the sun as the abode of God, the intelligent
providence, or (in accordance with Stoical materialism) the vivifying
fire or aether of the universe. Virtue, he taught, is life according to
nature; but pleasure is not according to nature. He originated a new
theory as to the individual existence of the human soul; he held that
the degree of its vitality after death depends upon the degree of its
vitality in this life. The principal fragments of Cleanthes's works are
contained in Diogenes Laertius and Stobaeus; some may be found in Cicero
and Seneca.
See G.C. Mohinke, _Kleanthes der Stoiker_ (Greifswald, 1814); C.
Wachsmuth, _Commentationes de Zenone Citiensi et Cleanthe Assio_
(Goettingen, 1874-1875); A.C. Pearson, _Fragments of Zeno and
Cleanthes_ (Camb., 1891); article by E. Wellmann in Ersch and Gruber's
_Allgemeine Encyklopaedie_; R. Hirzel, _Untersuchungen zu Ciceros
philosophischen Schriften_, ii. (1882), containing a vindication of
the originality of Cleanthes; A.B. Krische, _Forschungen auf dem
Gebiete der alten Philosophie_ (1840); also works quoted under STOICS.
CLEARCHUS, the son of Rhamphias, a Spartan general and condottiere. Born
about the middle of the 5th century B.C., Clearchus was sent with a
fleet to the Hellespont in 411 and became governor ([Greek: harmostes])
of Byzantium, of which town he was _proxenus_. His severity, however,
made him unpopular, and in his absence the gates were opened to the
Athenian besieging army under Alcibiades (409). Subsequently appointed
by the ephors to settle the political dissensions then rife at Byzantium
and to protect the city and the neighbouring Greek colonies from
Thracian attacks, he made himself tyrant of Byzantium, and, when
declared an outlaw and driven thence by a Spartan force, he fled to
Cyrus. In the "expedition of the ten thousand" undertaken by Cyrus to
dethrone his brother Artaxerxes Mnemon, Clearchus led the
Peloponnesians, who formed the right wing of Cyrus's army at the battle
of Cunaxa (401). On Cyrus's death Clearchus assumed the chief command
and conducted the retreat, until, being treacherously seized with his
fellow-generals by Tissaphernes, he was handed over to Artaxerxes and
executed (Thuc. viii. 8. 39, 80; Xen. _Hellenica_, i. 3. 15-19;
_Anabasis_, i. ii.; Diodorus xiv. 12. 19-26). In character he was a
typical product of the Spartan educational system. He was a warrior to
the finger-tips ([Greek: polemikos kai philopolemos eschatos]. Xen.
_Anab._ ii. 6. 1), and his tireless energy, unfaltering courage and
strategic ability made him an officer of no mean order. But he seems to
have had no redeeming touch of refinement or humanity.
CLEARFIELD, a borough and the county-seat of Clearfield county,
Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the W. branch of the Susquehanna river, in the
W. central part of the state. Pop. (1890) 2248; (1900) 5081 (310
foreign-born); (1910) 6851. It is served by the New York Central &
Hudson River, the Pennsylvania, and the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg
railways. The borough is about 1105 ft. above sea-level, in a rather
limited space between the hills, which command picturesque views of the
narrow valley. The river runs through the borough. Coal and fireclay
abound in the vicinity, and these, with leather, iron, timber and the
products of the fertile soil, are the bases of its leading industries.
Before the arrival of the whites the place had been cleared of timber
(whence its name), and in 1805 it was chosen as a site for the
county-seat of the newly erected county and laid out as a town; in 1840
it was incorporated as a borough.
CLEARING-HOUSE, the general term for a central institution employed in
connexion with large and interrelated businesses for the purpose of
facilitating the settlement of accounts.
_Banking._--The London Clearing-House was established between 1750 and
1770 as a place where the clerks of the bankers of the city of London
could assemble daily to exchange with one another the cheques drawn upon
and bills payable at their respective houses. Before the clearing-house
existed, each banker had to send a clerk to the places of business of
all the other bankers in London to collect the sums payable by them in
respect of cheques and bills; and it is obvious that much time was
consumed by this process, which involved the use of an unnecessary
quantity of money and corresponding risks of safe carriage. In 1775 a
room in Change Alley was settled upon as a common centre of exchange;
this was afterwards removed to Post Office Court, Lombard Street. This
clearing centre was at first confined to the bankers--at that time and
long afterwards exclusively private bankers--doing business within the
city, and the bankers in the west end of the metropolis used some one or
other of the city banks as their agent in clearing. When the joint-stock
banks were first established, the jealousy of the existing banks was
powerful enough to exclude them altogether from the use of the
Clearing-House; and it was not until 1854 that this feeling was removed
so as to allow them to be admitted.
At first the Clearing-House was simply a place of meeting, but it came
to be perceived that the sorting and distribution of cheques, bills, &c,
could be more expeditiously conducted by the appointment of two or three
common clerks to whom each banker's clerk could give all the instruments
of exchange he wished to collect, and from whom he could receive all
those payable at his own house. The payment of the balance settled the
transaction, but the arrangements were afterwards so perfected that the
balance is now settled by means of transfers made at the Bank of England
between the Clearing-House account and those of the various banks, the
Clearing-House, as well as each banker using it, having an account at
the Bank of England. The use of the Clearing-House was still further
extended in 1858, so as to include the settlement of exchanges between
the country bankers of England. Before that time each country banker
receiving cheques on other country bankers sent them to those other
bankers by post (supposing they were not carrying on business in the
same place), and requested that the amount should be paid by the London
agent of the banker on whom the cheques were drawn to the London agent
of the banker remitting them. Cheques were thus collected by
correspondence, and each remittance involved a separate payment in
London. Since 1858, accordingly, a country banker sends cheques on other
country banks to his London correspondent, who exchanges them at the
Clearing-House with the correspondents of the bankers on whom they are
drawn.
The Clearing-House consists of one long room, lighted from the roof.
Around the walls and down the centre are placed desks, allotted to the
various banks, according to the amount of their business. The desks are
arranged alphabetically, so that the clerks may lose no time in passing
round the room and delivering their "charges" or batches of cheques to
the representatives of the various banks. There are three clearings in
London each day. The first is at 10.30 A.M., the second at noon, and the
third at 2.30 P.M. It is the busiest of all, and continues until five
minutes past four, when the last delivery must be made. The three
clearings were, in 1907, divided into town, metropolitan and country
clearings, each with a definite area. All the clearing banks have their
cheques marked with the letters "T," "M" and "C," according to the
district in which the issuing bank is situated. Every cheque issued by
the clearing banks, even though drawn in the head office of a bank, goes
through the Clearing-House.
The amount of business transacted at the Clearing-House varies very much
with the seasons of the year, the busiest time being when dividends are
paid and stock exchange settlements are made, but the volume of
transactions averages roughly from 200 to 300 millions sterling a week,
and the yearly clearances amount to something like L12,000,000,000.
There are provincial clearing-houses at Manchester, Liverpool,
Birmingham, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Leeds, Sheffield, Leicester and Bristol.
There are also clearing-houses in most of the large towns of Scotland
and Ireland. In New York and the other large cities of the United States
there are clearing-houses providing accommodation for the various
banking institutions (see BANKS AND BANKING).
The progress of banking on the continent of Europe has been slow in
comparison with that of the United Kingdom, and the use of cheques is
not so general, consequently the need for clearing-houses is not so
great. In France, too, the greater proportion of the banking business
is carried on through three banks only, the Banque de France, the
Societe Generale and the Credit Lyonnais, and a great part of their
transactions are settled at their own head offices. But at the same time
large sums pass through the Paris Chambre de Compensation (the
clearing-house), established in 1872.
There are clearing-houses also in Berlin, Hamburg and many other
European cities.
_Railways._--The British Railway Clearing-House was established in 1842,
its purpose, as defined by the Railway Clearing-House Act of 1850, being
"to settle and adjust the receipts arising from railway traffic within,
or partly within, the United Kingdom, and passing over more than one
railway within the United Kingdom, booked or invoiced at throughout
rates or fares." It is an independent body, governed by a committee
which is composed of delegates (usually the chairman or one of the
directors) from each of the railways that belong to it. Any railway
company may be admitted a party to the clearing-system with the assent
of the committee, may cease to be a member at a month's notice, and may
be expelled if such expulsion be voted for by two-thirds of the
delegates present at a specially convened meeting. The cost of
maintaining it is defrayed by contributions from the companies
proportional to the volume of business passed through it by each. It has
two main functions. (1) When passengers or goods are booked through
between stations belonging to different railway companies at an
inclusive charge for the whole journey, it distributes the money
received in due proportions between the companies concerned in rendering
the service. To this end it receives, in the case of passenger traffic,
a monthly return of the tickets issued at each station to stations on
other lines, and, in the case of goods traffic, it is supplied by both
the sending and receiving stations (when these are on different
companies' systems) with abstracts showing the character, weight, &c.,
of the goods that have travelled between them. By the aid of these
particulars it allocates the proper share of the receipts to each
company, having due regard to the distance over which the traffic has
been carried on each line, to the terminal services rendered by each
company, to any incidental expenses to which it may have been put, and
to the existence of any special agreements for the division of traffic.
(2) To avoid the inconvenience of a change of train at points where the
lines of different companies meet, passengers are often, and goods and
minerals generally, carried in through vehicles from their
starting-point to their destination. In consequence, vehicles belonging
to one company are constantly forming part of trains that belong to, and
run over the lines of, other companies, which thus have the temporary
use of rolling stock that does not belong to them. By the aid of a large
staff of "number takers" who are stationed at junctions all over the
country, and whose business is to record particulars of the vehicles
which pass through those junctions, the Clearing-House follows the
movements of vehicles which have left their owners' line, ascertains how
far they have run on the lines of other companies, and debits each of
the latter with the amount it has to pay for their use. This charge is
known as "mileage"; another charge which is also determined by the
Clearing-House is "demurrage," that is, the amount exacted from the
detaining company if a vehicle is not returned to its owners within a
prescribed time. By the exercise of these functions the Clearing-House
accumulates a long series of credits to, and debits against, each
company; these are periodically added up and set against each other,
with the result that the accounts between it and the companies are
finally settled by the transfer of comparatively small balances. It also
distributes the money paid by the post-office to the railways on account
of the conveyance of parcel-post traffic, and through its lost luggage
department many thousands of articles left in railway carriages are
every year returned to their owners. Its situation in London further
renders it a convenient meeting-place for several "Clearing-House
Conferences" of railway officials, as of the general managers, the goods
managers, and the superintendents of the line, held four times a year
for the consideration of questions in which all the companies are
interested. The Irish Railway Clearing-House, established in 1848, has
its headquarters in Dublin, and was incorporated by act of parliament in
1860.
_General_.--The principle of clearing adopted by banks and railways has
been applied with considerable success in other businesses.
In 1874 the London Stock Exchange Clearing-House was established for the
purpose of settling transactions in stock, the clearing being effected
by balance-sheets and tickets; the balance of stock to be received or
delivered is shown on a balance-sheet sent in by each member, and the
items are then cancelled against one another and tickets issued for the
balances outstanding. The New York Stock Exchange Clearing-House was
established in 1892. The settlements on the Paris Bourse are cleared
within the Bourse itself, through the Compagnie des Agents de Change de
Paris.
In 1888 a society was formed in London called the Beetroot Sugar
Association for clearing bargains in beetroot sugar. For every 500 bags
of sugar of a definite weight which a broker sells, he issues a
_filiere_ (a form something like a dock-warrant), giving particulars as
to the ship, the warehouse, trade-marks, &c. The filiere contains also a
series of transfer forms which are filled up and signed by each
successive holder, so transferring the property to a new purchaser. The
new purchaser also fills up a coupon attached to the transfer, quoting
the date and hour of sale. This coupon is detached by the seller and
retained by him as evidence to determine any liability through
subsequent delay in the delivery of the sugar. Any purchaser requiring
delivery of the sugar forwards the filiere to the clearing-house, and
the officials then send on his name to the first seller who tenders him
the warrant direct. These filieres pass from hand to hand within a limit
of six days, a stamp being affixed on each transfer as a clearing-house
fee. The difference between each of the successive transactions is
adjusted by the clearing-house to the profit or loss of the seller.
The London Produce Clearing-House was established in 1888 for regulating
and adjusting bargains in foreign and colonial produce. The object of
the association is to guarantee both to the buyer and the seller the
fulfilment of bargains for future delivery. The transactions on either
side are allowed to accumulate during a month and an adjustment made at
the end by a settlement of the final balance owing. On the same lines
are the Caisse de Liquidation at Havre and the Waaren Liquidations Casse
at Hamburg. The Cotton Association also has a clearing-house at
Liverpool for clearing the transactions which arise from dealings in
cotton.
AUTHORITIES.--W. Howarth, _Our Clearing System and Clearing Houses_
(1897), _The Banks in the Clearing House_ (1905); J.G. Cannon,
_Clearing-houses, their History, Methods and Administration_ (1901);
H.T. Easton, _Money, Exchange and Banking_ (1905); and the various
volumes of the _Journal of the Institute of Bankers_. (T.A.I.)
CLEAT (a word common in various forms to many Teutonic languages, in the
sense of a wedge or lump, cf. "clod" and "clot"), a wedge-shaped piece
of wood fastened to ships' masts and elsewhere to prevent a rope, collar
or the like from slipping, or to act as a step; more particularly a
piece of wood or metal with double or single horns used for belaying
ropes. A "cleat" is also a wedge fastened to a ship's side to catch the
shores in a launching cradle or dry dock. "Cleat" is also used in mining
for the vertical cleavage-planes of coal.
CLEATOR MOOR, an urban district in the Egremont parliamentary division
of Cumberland, England, 4 m. S.E. of White-haven, served by the Furness,
London & North-Western and Cleator & Workington Junction railways. Pop.
(1901) 8120. The town lies between the valleys of the Ehen and its
tributary the Dub Beck, in a district rich in coal and iron ore. The
mining of these, together with blast furnaces and engineering works,
occupies the large industrial population.
CLEAVERS, or GOOSE-GRASS, _Galium Aparine_ (natural order Rubiaceae), a
common plant in hedges and waste places, with a long, weak, straggling,
four-sided, green stem, bearing whorls of 6 to 8 narrow leaves, 1/2 to 2
in. long, and, like the angles of the stem, rough from the presence of
short, stiff, downwardly-pointing, hooked hairs. The small, white,
regular flowers are borne, a few together, in axillary clusters, and are
followed by the large, hispid, two-celled fruit, which, like the rest of
the plant, readily clings to a rough surface, whence the common name.
The plant has a wide distribution throughout the north temperate zone,
and is also found in temperate South America.
CLEBURNE, a town and the county-seat of Johnson county, Texas, U.S.A.,
25 m. S. of Fort Worth. Pop. (1890) 3278; (1900) 7493, including 611
negroes; (1910) 10,364. It is served by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe,
the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, and the Trinity & Brazos Valley railways.
It is the centre of a prosperous farming, fruit and stock-raising
region, has large railway repair shops, flour-mills, cotton gins and
foundries, a canning factory and machine shops. It has a Carnegie
library, and St Joseph's Academy (Roman Catholic; for girls). The town
was named in honour of Patrick Ronayne Cleburne (1828-1864), a
major-general of the Confederate army, who was of Irish birth, practised
law in Helena, Arkansas, served at Shiloh, Perryville, Stone River,
Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Ring-gold Gap, Jonesboro and Franklin,
and was killed in the last-named battle; he was called the "Stonewall of
the West."
CLECKHEATON, an urban district in the Spen Valley parliamentary division
of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 51/2 m. S. by E. of Bradford, on
the Lancashire & Yorkshire, Great Northern and London & North-Western
railways. Pop. (1901) 12,524. A chamber of commerce has held meetings
here since 1878. The industries comprise the manufacture of woollens,
blankets, flannel, wire-card and machinery.
CLEETHORPES, a watering-place of Lincolnshire, England; within the
parliamentary borough of Great Grimsby, 3 m. S.E. of that town by a
branch of the Great Central railway. Pop. of urban district of
Cleethorpe with Thrunscoe (1901) 12,578. Cleethorpes faces eastward to
the North Sea, but its shore of fine sand, affording good bathing,
actually belongs to the estuary of the Humber. There is a pier, and the
sea-wall extends for about a mile, forming a pleasant promenade. The
suburb of New Clee connects Cleethorpes with Grimsby. The church of the
Holy Trinity and St Mary is principally Norman of various dates, but
work of a date apparently previous to the Conquest appears in the tower.
Cleethorpes is greatly favoured by visitors from the midland counties,
Lancashire and Yorkshire.
CLEFT PALATE and HARE-LIP, in surgery. _Cleft Palate_ is a congenital
cleavage, or incomplete development in the roof of the mouth, and is
frequently associated with hare-lip. The infant is prevented from
sucking, and an operation is necessary. Cleft-palate is often a
hereditary defect. The most favourable time for operating is between the
age of two weeks and three months, and if the cleft is closed at this
early date, not only are the nutrition and general development of the
child greatly improved, but the voice is probably saved from much of the
unpleasant tone which is usually associated with a defective roof to the
mouth and is apt to persist even if a cleft has been successfully
operated on later in childhood. The greatest advance which has been made
in the operative treatment of cleft palate is due to the teaching of Dr
Truman W. Brophy, who adopted the ingenious plan of thrusting together
to the middle line of the mouth the halves of the palate which nature
had unfortunately left apart. But, as noted above, this operation must,
to give the best results, be undertaken in the earliest months of
infancy. After the cleft in the palate has been effectually dealt with,
the hare-lip can be repaired with ease and success.
_Hare-lip_.--In the hare the splitting of the lip is in the middle line,
but in the human subject it is on one side, or on both sides of the
middle line. This is accounted for on developmental grounds: a cleft in
the exact middle line is of extremely rare occurrence. Hare-lip is often
associated with cleft palate. Though we are at present unable to explain
why development should so frequently miss the mark in connexion with the
formation of the lip and palate, it is unlikely that maternal
impressions have anything to do with it. As a rule, the supposed
"fright" comes long after the lips are developed. They are completely
formed by the ninth week. Heredity has a powerful influence in many
cases. The best time for operating on a hare-lip depends upon various
circumstances. Thus, if it is associated with cleft palate, the palatine
cleft has first to be closed, in which case the child will probably be
several months old before the lip is operated on. If the infant is in so
poor a state of nutrition that it appears unsuitable for surgical
treatment, the operation must be postponed until his condition is
sufficiently improved. But, assuming that the infant is in fair health,
that he is taking his food well and thriving on it, that he is not
troubled by vomiting or diarrhoea, and that the hare-lip is not
associated with a defective palate, the sooner it is operated on the
better. It may be successfully done even within a few hours of birth.
When a hare-lip is unassociated with cleft palate, the infant may
possibly be enabled to take the breast within a short time of the gap
being closed. In such a case the operation may be advisably undertaken
within the first few days of birth. The case being suitable, the
operation may be conveniently undertaken at any time after the tenth
day. (E. O.*)
CLEISTHENES, the name of two Greek statesmen, (1) of Athens, (2) of
Sicyon, of whom the first is far the more important.
1. CLEISTHENES, the Athenian statesman, was the son of Megacles and
Agariste, daughter of Cleisthenes of Sicyon. He thus belonged, through
his father, to the noble family of the Alcmaeonidae (q.v.), who bore
upon them the curse of the Cylonian massacre, and had been in exile
during the rule of the Peisistratids. In the hope of washing out the
stigma, which damaged their prestige, they spent the latter part of
their exile in carrying out with great splendour the contract given out
by the Amphictyons for the rebuilding of the temple at Delphi (destroyed
by fire in 548 B.C.). By building the pronaos of Parian marble instead
of limestone as specified in the contract, they acquired a high
reputation for piety; the curse was consigned to oblivion, and their
reinstatement was imposed by the oracle itself upon the Spartan king,
Cleomenes (q.v.). Cleisthenes, to whom this far-seeing atonement must
probably be attributed, had also on his side (1) the malcontents in
Athens who were disgusted with the growing severity of Hippias, and (2)
the oligarchs of Sparta, partly on religious grounds, and partly owing
to their hatred of tyranny. Aristotle's _Constitution of Athens_,
however, treats the alliance of the Peisistratids with Argos, the rival
of Sparta in the Peloponnese, as the chief ground for the action of
Sparta (_c._ 19). In _c._ 513 B.C. Cleisthenes invaded Attica, but was
defeated by the tyrant's mercenaries at Leipsydrium (S. of Mt. Parnes).
Sparta then, in tardy obedience to the oracle, threw off her alliance
with the Peisistratids, and, after one failure, expelled Hippias in
511-510 B.C., leaving Athens once again at the mercy of the powerful
families.
Home and foreign policy.
Cleisthenes, on his return, was in a difficulty; he realized that Athens
would not tolerate a new tyranny, nor were the other nobles willing to
accept him as leader of a constitutional oligarchy. It was left for him
to "take the people into partnership" as Peisistratus had in a different
way done before him. Solon's reforms had failed, primarily because they
left unimpaired the power of the great landed nobles, who, in their
several districts, doubled the roles of landlord, priest and patriarch.
This evil of local influence Peisistratus had concealed by satisfying
the nominally sovereign people that in him they had a sufficient
representative. It was left to Cleisthenes to adopt the remaining remedy
of giving substance to the form of the Solonian constitution. His first
attempts roused the aristocrats to a last effort; Isagoras appealed to
the Spartans (who, though they disliked tyranny, had no love for
democracy) to come to his aid. Cleisthenes retired on the arrival of a
herald from Cleomenes, reviving the old question of the curse; Isagoras
thus became all-powerful[1] and expelled seven hundred families. The
democrats, however, rose, and after besieging Cleomenes and Isagoras in
the Acropolis, let them go under a safe-conduct, and brought back the
exiles.
Apart from the reforms which Cleisthenes was now able to establish, the
period of his ascendancy is a blank, nor are we told when and how it
came to an end. It is clear, however--and it is impossible in connexion
with the Pan-hellenic patriotism to which Athens laid claim, to overrate
the importance of the fact--that Cleisthenes, hard pressed in the war
with Boeotia, Euboea and Sparta (Herod, v. 73 and foll.), sent
ambassadors to ask the help of Persia. The story, as told by Herodotus,
that the ambassadors of their own accord agreed to give "earth and
water" (i.e. submission) in return for Persian assistance, and that the
Ecclesia subsequently disavowed their action as unauthorized, is
scarcely credible. Cleisthenes (1) was in full control and must have
instructed the ambassadors; (2) he knew that any help from Persia meant
submission. It is practically certain, therefore, that he (cf. the
Alcmaeonids and the story of the shield at Marathon) was the first to
"medize" (see Curtius, _History of Greece_). Probably he had hoped to
persuade the Ecclesia that the agreement was a mere form. Aelian says
that he himself was a victim to his own device of ostracism (q.v.);
this, though apparently inconsistent with the _Constitution of Athens_
(_c._ 22), may perhaps indicate that his political career ended in
disgrace, a hypothesis which is explicable on the ground of this act of
treachery in respect of the attempted Persian alliance. Whether to
Cleisthenes are due the final success over Boeotia and Euboea, the
planting of the 4000 cleruchs on the Lelantine Plain, and the policy of
the Aeginetan War (see AEGINA), in which Athens borrowed ships from
Corinth, it is impossible to determine. The eclipse of Cleisthenes in
all records is one of the most curious facts in Greek history. It is
also curious that we do not know in what official capacity Cleisthenes
carried his reforms. Perhaps he was given extraordinary _ad hoc_ powers
for a specified time; conceivably he used the ordinary mechanism. It
seems clear that he had fully considered his scheme in advance, that he
broached it before the last attack of Isagoras, and that it was only
after the final expulsion of Isagoras and his Spartan allies that it
became possible for him to put it into execution.