CĂDUS (κάδος, κάδδος), a large vessel usually made of earthenware,
which was used for keeping wine, drawing water, &c. The name of
cadus was sometimes given to the vessel or urn in which the counters
or pebbles of the dicasts were put, when they gave their vote on a
trial, but the diminutive καδίσκος was more commonly used in this
signification.
CAELĀTŪRA (τορευτική), a branch of the fine arts, under which all
sorts of ornamental work in metal, except actual statues, appear to
be included. The principal processes, which these words were used
to designate, seem to have been of three kinds: hammering metal
plates into moulds or dies, so as to bring out a raised pattern;
engraving the surface of metals with a sharp tool; and working a
pattern of one metal upon or into the surface of another: in short,
the various processes which we describe by the words _chasing_,
_damascening_, &c. The objects on which the _caelator_ exercised his
art were chiefly weapons and armour--especially shields, chariots,
tripods, and other votive offerings, quoits, candelabra, thrones,
curule chairs, mirrors, goblets, dishes, and all kinds of gold and
silver plate. The ornamental work with which the chaser decorated
such objects consisted either of simple running patterns, chiefly in
imitation of plants and flowers, or of animals, or of mythological
subjects, and, for armour, of battles. The mythological subjects
were reserved for the works of the greatest masters of the art: they
were generally executed in very high relief (_anaglypha_). In the
finest works, the ornamental pattern was frequently distinct from
the vessel, to which it was either fastened permanently, or so that
it could be removed at pleasure, the vessel being of silver, and the
ornaments of gold, _crustae aut emblemata_. The art of ornamental
metal-work was in an advanced stage of progress among the Greeks of
the heroic period, as we see from numerous passages of Homer: but its
origin, in the high artistic sense, is to be ascribed to Phidias,
and its complete development to Polycletus. In the last age of the
Roman Republic, the prevailing wealth and luxury, and the presence of
Greek artists at Rome, combined to bring the art more than ever into
requisition. After this period it suddenly fell into disuse.