CĂPUT EXTŌRUM. The Roman soothsayers (_haruspices_) pretended to a
knowledge of coming events from the inspection of the entrails of
victims slain for that purpose. The part to which they especially
directed their attention was the liver, the convex upper portion of
which seems to have been called the _caput extorum_. Any disease
or deficiency in this organ was considered an unfavourable omen;
whereas, if healthy and perfect, it was believed to indicate good
fortune. If no caput was found, it was a bad sign (_nihil tristius
accidere potuit_); if well defined or double, it was a lucky omen.
CĂRĂCALLA, an outer garment used in Gaul, and not unlike the Roman
_lacerna_. It was first introduced at Rome by the emperor Aurelius
Antoninus Bassianus, who compelled all the people that came to
court to wear it, whence he obtained the surname of Caracalla. This
garment, as worn in Gaul, does not appear to have reached lower than
the knee, but Caracalla lengthened it so as to reach the ankle.
CARCER (_kerker_, German; γοργύρα, Greek), a prison, is connected
with ἕρκος and εἵργω, the guttural being interchanged with the
aspirate. (1) GREEK. Imprisonment was seldom used amongst the Greeks
as a legal punishment for offences; they preferred banishment to
the expense of keeping prisoners in confinement. The prisons in
different countries were called by different names; thus there
was the _Ceadas_ (Κεάδας), at Sparta; and, among the Ionians, the
_Gorgyra_ (γοργύρα), as at Samos. The prison at Athens was in former
times called _Desmoterion_ (δεσμωτήριον), and afterwards, by a
sort of euphemism, οἴκημα. It was chiefly used as a guard-house or
place of execution, and was under the charge of the public officers
called the Eleven.--(2) ROMAN. A prison was first built at Rome by
Ancus Martius, overhanging the forum. This was enlarged by Servius
Tullius, who added to it a souterrain, or dungeon, called from him
the _Tullianum_. Sallust describes this as being twelve feet under
ground, walled on each side, and arched over with stone work. For
a long time this was the only prison at Rome, being, in fact, the
“Tower,” or state prison of the city, which was sometimes doubly
guarded in times of alarm, and was the chief object of attack in
many conspiracies. There were, however, other prisons besides this,
though, as we might expect, the words of Roman historians generally
refer to this alone. In the _Tullianum_ prisoners were generally
executed, and this part of the prison was also called _robur_.