Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4

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(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 Wuerttemberg 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 _facia_ = 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
Provencal 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 L2. 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 21/2 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, FERNAN (1796-1877), the pseudonym adopted from the name of a
village in the province of Ciudad Real by the Spanish novelist Cecilia
Francisca Josefa Boehl de Faber y Larrea. Born at Morges in Switzerland on
the 24th of December 1796, she was the daughter of Johan Nikolas Boehl 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 espanol anterior a 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, marques 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 Arron de Ayala, a man considerably
her junior. Arron 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 Fernan 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 Jose Joaquin 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 o la Espana treinta anos ha_ are
excellent specimens of picturesque narration. It would be difficult to
maintain that Fernan 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 naive truthfulness still
attracted readers who were interested in records of national customs and
manners.

Her _Obras completas_ are included in the _Coleccion de escritores
castellanos_: a useful biography by Fernando de Gabriel Ruiz de Apodaca
precedes the _Ultimas producciones de Fernan 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 (Correze) 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 hopitaux_ 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.

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