[Illustration: Chlamys. (The Figure on the left from a Painting on a
Vase; that on the right from the Brit. Mus.)]
CHLĂMỸS (χλαμύς, _dim._ χλαμύδιον), a scarf, denoted an article of
the _amictus_, or outer raiment of the Greeks. It was for the most
part woollen; and it differed from the _himation_ (ἱμάτιον), or
cloak, the usual amictus of the male sex, in being smaller, finer,
and oblong instead of square, its length being generally about twice
its breadth. The scarf does not appear to have been much worn by
children. It was generally assumed on reaching adolescence, and was
worn by the ephebi from about seventeen to twenty years of age, and
hence was called χλαμὺς ἐφηβηική. It was also worn by the military,
especially of high rank, over their body armour, and by hunters and
travellers, more particularly on horseback. The usual mode of wearing
the scarf was to pass one of its shorter sides round the neck, and
to fasten it by means of a brooch (_fibula_), either over the breast
(cut, HASTA), in which case it hung down the back, or over the
right shoulder, so as to cover the left arm (cut, CAUSIA). In the
following cut it is worn again in another way. The aptitude of the
scarf to be turned in every possible form around the body, made it
useful even for defence. The hunter used to wrap his chlamys about
his left arm when pursuing wild animals, and preparing to fight with
them. The annexed woodcut exhibits a figure of Neptune armed with the
trident in his right hand, and having a chlamys to protect the left.
When Diana goes to the chase, as she does not require her scarf for
purposes of defence, she draws it from behind over her shoulders,
and twists it round her waist so that the belt of her quiver passes
across it. (See woodcut.) Among the Romans the scarf came more
into use under the emperors. Caligula wore one enriched with gold.
Severus, when he was in the country or on an expedition, wore a scarf
dyed with the coccus.
[Illustration: Chlamys. (Neptune from a Coin, and Diana from a Statue
in the Vatican.)]
CHOENIX (χοῖνιξ), a Greek measure of capacity, the size of which is
differently given; it was probably of different sizes in the several
states. Some writers make it equal to three cotylae (nearly 1½ pints
English); others to four cotylae (nearly 2 pints English); others
again make it eight cotylae (nearly 4 pints English).
CHŎRĒGUS (χορηγός), a person who had to bear the expenses of the
choregia (χορηγία), one of the regularly recurring state burthens
(ἐγκύκλιοι λειτουργίαι) at Athens. The choregus was appointed by his
tribe, though we are not informed according to what order. The same
person might serve as choregus for two tribes at once; and after B.C.
412 a decree was passed allowing two persons to unite and undertake a
choregia together. The duties of the choregia consisted in providing
the choruses for tragedies and comedies, the lyric choruses of men
and boys, the pyrrhicists, the cyclic choruses, and the choruses of
flute-players for the different religious festivals at Athens. When
a poet intended to bring out a play, he had to get a chorus assigned
him by the archon [CHORUS], who nominated a choregus to fulfil the
requisite duties. He had first to collect his chorus, and then to
procure a teacher (χοροδιδάσκαλος), whom he paid for instructing the
choreutae. The chorus were generally maintained, during the period
of their instruction, at the expense of the choregus. The choregus
who exhibited the best musical or theatrical entertainment received
as a prize a tripod, which he had the expense of consecrating, and
sometimes he had also to build the monument on which it was placed.
There was a whole street at Athens formed by the line of these
tripod-temples, and called “The Street of the Tripods.”
CHŎRUS (χορός) probably signified originally a company of dancers
dancing in a ring. In later times, a choric performance always
implies the singing or musical recitation of a poetical composition,
accompanied by appropriate dancing and gesticulation, or at least
by a measured march. In all the Dorian states, especially among the
Spartans, choral performances were cultivated with great assiduity.
Various causes contributed to this, as, for example, their universal
employment in the worship of Apollo, the fact that they were not
confined to the men, but that women also took part in them, and that
many of the dances had a gymnastic character given them, and were
employed as a mode of training to martial exercises. [SALTATIO.]
Hence Doric lyric poetry became almost exclusively choral, which
was not the case with the other great school of Greek lyric poetry,
the Aeolian; so that the Doric dialect came to be looked upon as
the appropriate dialect for choral compositions, and Doric forms
were retained by the Athenians even in the choral compositions
which were interwoven with their dramas. The instrument commonly
used in connection with the Doric choral poetry was the cithara.
A great impetus was given to choral poetry by its application to
the dithyramb. This ancient Bacchanalian performance seems to have
been a hymn sung by one or more of an irregular band of revellers,
to the music of the flute. Arion, a contemporary of Periander, was
the first who gave a regular choral form to the dithyramb. This
chorus, which ordinarily consisted of fifty men or youths, danced
in a ring round the altar of Dionysus. Hence such choruses were
termed _cyclic_ (κύκλιοι χοροί). With the introduction of a regular
choral character, Arion also substituted the cithara for the flute.
It was from the dithyramb that the Attic tragedy was developed. For
details see TRAGOEDIA. From the time of Sophocles onwards the regular
number of the chorus in a tragedy was 15; but it is impossible to
arrive at any definite conclusion with regard to the number of the
chorus in the early dramas of Aeschylus. The fact that the number
of the dithyrambic chorus was 50, and that the mythological number
of the Oceanides and Danaides was the same, tempts one to suppose
that the chorus in the Prometheus and the Supplices consisted of
50. Most writers, however, agree in thinking that such a number was
too large to have been employed. The later chorus of 15 was arranged
in a quadrangular form (τετράγωνος). It entered the theatre by the
passage to the right of the spectators. [THEATRUM.] Its entrance
was termed πάροδος; its leaving the stage in the course of the play
μετάστασις; its re-entrance ἐπιπάροδος; its exit ἄφοδος. As it
entered in three lines, with the spectators on its left, the stage on
its right, the middle choreutes of the left row (τρίτος ἀριστέρου)
was the Coryphaeus or Hegemon, who in early times at least was not
unfrequently the choregus himself. Of course the positions first
taken up by the choreutae were only retained till they commenced
their evolutions. To guide them in these, lines were marked upon
the boards with which the orchestra was floored. The flute as well
as the cithara was used as an accompaniment to the choric songs.
The dance of the tragic chorus was called ἐμμέλεια.--The ordinary
number of the chorus in a comedy was 24. Like the tragic chorus it
was arranged in a quadrangular form, and entered the orchestra from
opposite sides, according as it was supposed to come from the city
or from the country. It consisted sometimes half of male and half of
female choreutae. The dance of the comic chorus was the κόρδαξ. In
the Satyric drama the chorus consisted of Satyrs: its number is quite
uncertain. Its dance was called σίκιννις. When a poet intended to
bring forward a play, he had to apply for a chorus (χορὸν αἰτεῖν) to
the archons, to the king archon if the play was to be brought forward
at the Lenaea, to the archon eponymus if at the great Dionysia.
If the play were thought to deserve it, he received a chorus
(χορὸν λαμβάνειν), the expenses of which were borne by a choregus.
[CHOREGUS.] The poet then either trained (διδάσκειν) the chorus
himself, or entrusted that business to a professed chorus trainer
(χοροδιδάσκαλος), who usually had an assistant (ὑποδιδάσκαλος).
For training the chorus in its evolutions there was also an
ὀρχηστοδιδάσκαλος.
CHOUS, or CHOEUS (χοῦς or χοεῦς), was equal to the Roman congius,
and contained six ξέσται, or sextarii (nearly six pints English).
It seems that there was also a smaller measure of the same name,
containing two sextarii (nearly two pints English).
CHRŎNOLŎGĬA (χρονολογία), chronology. The Greeks reckoned their
years generally according to their magistrates, in the early times
according to the years of the reign of their kings, and afterwards
according to their annual magistrates. At Athens the year was called
by the name of one of the nine archons, who from this circumstance
was called ἄρχων ἐπώνυμος, or the archon par excellence; and at
Sparta the years were called after one of the five ephors, who for
this reason was likewise termed ἐπώνυμος. In Argos time was counted
according to the years of the high priestess of Hera, who held her
office for life (ἡρεσίς); and the inhabitants of Elis probably
reckoned according to the Olympic games, which were celebrated every
fifth year during the first full moon which followed after the summer
solstice. Thus there was no era which was used by _all_ the Greeks in
common for the ordinary purposes of life.--Timaeus, who flourished
about B.C. 260, was the first historian who counted the years by
Olympiads, each of which contained four years. The beginning of the
Olympiads is commonly fixed in the year 3938 of the Julian period, or
in B.C. 776. If we want to reduce any given Olympiad to years before
Christ, _e.g._ Ol. 87, we take the number of the Olympiads actually
elapsed, that is, 86, multiply it by 4, and deduct the number
obtained from 776, so that the first year of the 87th Ol. will be the
same as the year 432 B.C. If the number of Olympiads amounts to more
than 776 years, that is, if the Olympiad falls after the birth of
Christ, the process is the same as before, but from the sum obtained
by multiplying the Olympiads by 4, we must deduct the number 776, and
what remains is the number of the years after Christ. As the Olympic
games were celebrated 293 times, we have 293 Olympic cycles, that is,
1172 years, 776 of which fall before, and 396 after Christ.--Some
writers also adopted the Trojan era, the fall of Troy being placed
by Eratosthenes and those who adopted this era, in the year B.C.
1184. After the time of Alexander the Great, several other eras were
introduced in the kingdoms that arose out of his empire. The first
was the Philippic era, sometimes also called the era of Alexander or
the era of Edessa; it began on the 12th of November B.C. 324, the
date of the accession of Philip Arrhidaeus. The second was the era of
the Seleucidae, beginning on the 1st of October B.C. 312, the date
of the victory of Seleucus Nicator at Gaza, and of his re-conquest
of Babylonia. This era was used very extensively in the East. The
Chaldaean era differed from it only by six months, beginning in the
spring of B.C. 311. Lastly, the eras of Antioch, of which there were
three, but the one most commonly used began in November B.C. 49.--The
Romans during the time of the republic reckoned their years by the
names of the consuls, which were registered in the Fasti. Along
with this era there existed another, used only by the historians.
It reckoned the years from the foundation of the city (_ab urbe
condita_); but the year of the foundation of the city was a question
of uncertainty among the Romans themselves. M. Terentius Varro placed
it on the 21st of April in the third year of the 6th Olympiad, that
is, B.C. 753; and this is the era most commonly used. To find out
the year B.C. corresponding to the year A.U.C., subtract the year
A.U.C. from 754; thus 605 A.U.C. = 149 B.C. To find out the year A.D.
corresponding to the year A.U.C., subtract 753 from the year A.U.C.;
thus 767 A.U.C. = 14 A.D.
CHRȲSENDĔTA, costly dishes used by the Romans at their
entertainments, apparently made of silver, with golden ornaments.