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

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The town lay on a hill of tufa, running from N.E. to S.W., isolated except
on the N.E., and about 300 ft. above sea-level. The modern town, at the
western extremity, probably occupies the site of the acropolis. The line of
the city walls, of rectangular blocks of tufa, can be traced, and there
seem to have been eight gates in the circuit, which was about 4 m. in
length. There are no remains of buildings of importance, except the
theatre, in which many inscriptions and statues of emperors were found. The
necropolis in the hill to the north-west, known as the Banditaccia, is
important. The tomb chambers are either hewn in the rock or covered by
mounds. One of the former class was the family tomb of the
Tarchna-Tarquinii, perhaps descended from the Roman kings; others are
interesting from their architectural and decorative details. One
especially, the Grotta dei Bassirilievi, has interesting reliefs cut in the
rock and painted, while the walls of another were decorated with painted
tiles of terracotta. The most important tomb of all, the Regolini-Galassi
tomb (taking its name from its discoverers), which lies S.W. of the ancient
city, is a narrow rock-hewn chamber about 60 ft. long, lined with masonry,
the sides converging to form the roof. The objects found in it (a chariot,
a bed, silver goblets with reliefs, rich gold ornaments, &c.) are now in
the Etruscan Museum at the Vatican: they are attributed to about the middle
of the 7th century B.C. At a short distance from the modern town on the
west, thousands of votive terracottas were found in 1886, some representing
divinities, others parts of the human body (_Notizie degli Scavi_, 1886,
38). They must have belonged to some temple.

See G. Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_, i. 226 seq.; C. Huelsen
in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopaedie_, iii. 1281.

(T. AS.)

CAERLEON, an ancient village in the southern parliamentary division of
Monmouthshire, England, on the right (west) bank of the Usk, 3 m. N.E. of
Newport. Pop. (1901) 1411. Its claim to notice rests on its Roman and
British associations. As _Isca Silurum_, it was one of the three great
legionary fortresses of Roman Britain, established either about A.D. 50
(Tacitus, _Annals_, xii. 32), or perhaps, as coin-finds suggest, about A.D.
74-78 in the governorship of Julius Frontinus, and in either case intended
to coerce the wild Silures. It was garrisoned by the Legio II. Augusta from
its foundation till near the end of the Roman rule in Britain. Though never
seriously excavated, it contains plentiful visible traces of its Roman
period--part of the ramparts, the site of an amphitheatre, and many
inscriptions, sculptured stones, &c., in the local museum. No civil life or
municipality seems, however, to have grown up outside its walls, as at York
(_Eburacum_). Like Chester (see DEVA), it remained purely military, and the
common notion that it was the seat of a Christian bishopric in the 4th
century is unproved and improbable. Its later history is obscure. We do not
know when the legion was finally withdrawn, nor what succeeded. But Welsh
legend has made the site very famous with tales of Arthur (revived by
Tennyson in his _Idylls_), of Christian martyrs, Aaron and Julius, and of
an archbishopric held by St Dubric and shifted to St David's in the 6th
century. Most of these traditions date from Geoffrey of Monmouth (about
1130-1140), and must not be taken for history. The ruins of Caerleon
attracted notice in the 12th and following centuries, and gave plain cause
for legend-making. There is better, but still slender, reason for the
belief that it was here, and not at Chester, that five kings of the Cymry
rowed Edgar in a barge as a sign of his sovereignty (A.D. 973). The name
Caerleon seems to be derived from the Latin _Castra legionum_, but it is
not peculiar to Caerleon-on-Usk, being often used of Chester and
occasionally of Leicester and one or two other places.

(F. J. H.)

CAERPHILLY, a market town of Glamorganshire, Wales, 1521/4 m. from London by
rail _via_ Cardiff, 7 m. from Cardiff, 12 m. from Newport and 6 m. from
Pontypridd. The origin of the name is unknown. It was formerly in the
ancient parish of Eglwysilan, but from that and Bedwas (Mon.) an
ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1850, while the whole of the parishes
of Eglwysilan and Llanfabon, with a total acreage of 14,426, were in 1893
constituted into an urban district; its population in 1901 was 15,385, of
which 4343 were in the "town" ward. In 1858 was opened the Rhymney railway
from Rhymney to Caerphilly and on to Taff's Well, whence it had running
powers over the Taff Vale railway to Cardiff, but in 1871, by means of a
tunnel about 2000 yds. long, under Cefn Onn, a direct line was provided
from Caerphilly to Cardiff. A branch line, 4 m. long, was opened in 1894 to
Senghenydd. The Pontypridd and Newport railway was constructed in 1887, and
there is a joint station at Caerphilly for both railways. Some 2 m.
eastwards there is a station on the Brecon and Merthyr railway at Bedwas.

The ancient commote of Senghenydd (corresponding to the modern hundred of
Caerphilly) comprised the mountainous district extending from the ridge of
Cefn Onn on the south to Breconshire on the north, being bounded by the
rivers Taff and Rumney on the west and east. Its inhabitants, though
nominally subject to the lords of Glamorgan since Fitzhamon's conquest,
enjoyed a large measure of independence and often raided the lowlands. To
keep these in check, Gilbert de Clare, during the closing years of the
reign of Henry III., built the castle of Caerphilly on the southern edge of
this district, in a wide plain between the two rivers. It had probably not
been completed, though it was already defensible, when Prince Llewelyn ab
Griffith, incensed by its construction and claiming its site as his own,
laid siege to it in 1271 and refused to retire except on conditions.
Subsequently completed and strengthened it became and still remains (in the
words of G.T. Clark) "both the earliest and the most complete example in
Britain of a concentric castle of the type known as 'Edwardian', the circle
of walls and towers of the outer, inner and middle wards exhibiting the
most complete illustration of the most scientific military architecture".
The knoll on which it stood was converted almost into an island by the
damming up of an adjacent brook, and the whole enclosed area amounted to 30
acres. The great hall (which is 73 ft. by 35 ft. and about 30 ft. high) is
a fine example of Decorated architecture. This and other additions are
attributed to Hugh le Despenser (1318-1326). Edward II. visited the castle
shortly before his capture in 1326. The defence of the castle was committed
by Henry IV. to Constance, Lady Despenser, in September 1403, but it was
shortly afterwards taken by Owen Glyndwr, to whose mining operations
tradition ascribes the leaning position of a large [v.04 p.0938] circular
tower, about 50 ft. high, the summit of which overhangs its base about 9
ft. Before the middle of the 15th century it had ceased to be a fortified
residence and was used as a prison, which was also the case in the time of
Leland (1535), who describes it as in a ruinous state. It is still,
however, one of the most extensive and imposing ruins of the kind in the
kingdom.

The town grew up around the castle but never received a charter or had a
governing body. In 1661 the corporation of Cardiff complained of Cardiff's
impoverishment by reason of a fair held every three weeks for the previous
four years at Caerphilly, though "no Borough." Its markets during the 19th
century had been chiefly noted for the Caerphilly cheese sold there. The
district was one of the chief centres of the Methodist revival of the 18th
century, the first synod of the Calvinistic Methodists being held in 1743
at Watford farm close to the town, from which place George Whitefield was
married at Eglwysilan church two years previously. The church of St Martin
was built in 1879, and there are Nonconformist chapels. Mining is now the
chief industry of the district.

(D. LL. T.)

CAESALPINUS (CESALPINO), ANDREAS (1519-1603), Italian natural philosopher,
was born in Arezzo in Tuscany in 1519. He studied anatomy and medicine at
the university of Pisa, where he took his doctor's degree in 1551, and in
1555 became professor materia medica and director of the botanical garden.
Appointed physician to Pope Clement VIII., he removed in 1592 to Rome,
where he died on the 23rd of February 1603. Caesalpinus was the most
distinguished botanist of his time. His work, _De Plantis libri xvi._
(Florence, 1583), was not only the source from which various subsequent
writers, and especially Robert Morison (1620-1683) derived their ideas of
botanical arrangement but it was a mine of science to which Linnaeus
himself gratefully avowed his obligations. Linnaeus's copy of the book
evinces the great assiduity with which he studied it; he laboured
throughout to remedy the defect of the want of synonyms, sub-joined his own
generic names to nearly every species, and particularly indicated the two
remarkable passages where the germination of plants and their sexual
distinctions are explained. Caesalpinus was also distinguished as a
physiologist, and it has been claimed that he had a clear idea of the
circulation of the blood (see HARVEY, WILLIAM). His other works include
_Daemonum investigatio peripatetica_ (1580), _Quaestionum medicarum libri
ii._ (1593), _De Metallicis_ (1596), and _Quaestionum peripateticarum libri
v._ (1571)

CAESAR, GAIUS JULIUS (102-44 B.C.), the great Roman soldier and statesman,
was born on the 12th of July 102 B.C.[1] [Sidenote: Early years.] His
family was of patrician rank and traced a legendary descent from Iulus, the
founder of Alba Longa, son of Aeneas and grandson of Venus and Anchises.
Caesar made the most of his divine ancestry and built a temple in his forum
to Venus Genetrix; but his patrician descent was of little importance in
politics and disqualified Caesar from holding the tribunate, an office to
which, as a leader of the popular party, he would naturally have aspired.
The Julii Caesares, however, had also acquired the new _nobilitas_, which
belonged to holders of the great magistracies. Caesar's uncle was consul in
91 B.C., and his father held the praetorship. Most of the family seem to
have belonged to the senatorial party (_optimates_); but Caesar himself was
from the first a _popularis_. The determining factor is no doubt to be
sought in his relationship with C. Marius, the husband of his aunt Julia.
Caesar was born in the year of Marius's first great victory over the
Teutones, and as he grew up, inspired by the traditions of the great
soldier's career, attached himself to his party and its fortunes. Of his
education we know scarcely anything. His mother, Aurelia, belonged to a
distinguished family, and Tacitus (_Dial. de Orat._ xxviii.) couples her
name with that of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, as an example of the
Roman matron whose _disciplina_ and _severitas_ formed her son for the
duties of a soldier and statesman. His tutor was M. Antonius Gnipho, a
native of Gaul (by which Cisalpine Gaul may be meant), who is said to have
been equally learned in Greek and Latin literature, and to have set up in
later years a school of rhetoric which was attended by Cicero in his
praetorship 66 B.C. It is possible that Caesar may have derived from him
his interest in Gaul and its people and his sympathy with the claims of the
Romanized Gauls of northern Italy to political rights.

In his sixteenth year (87 B.C.) Caesar lost his father, and assumed the
_toga virilis_ as the token of manhood. The social war (90-89 B.C.) had
been brought to a close by the enfranchisement of Rome's Italian subjects;
and the civil war which followed it led, after the departure of Sulla for
the East, to the temporary triumph of the _populares_, led by Marius and
Cinna, and the indiscriminate massacre of their political opponents,
including both of Caesar's uncles. Caesar was at once marked out for high
distinction, being created _flamen Dialis_ or priest of Jupiter. In the
following year (which saw the death of Marius) Caesar, rejecting a proposed
marriage with a wealthy capitalist's heiress, sought and obtained the hand
of Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, and thus became further identified with
the ruling party. His career was soon after interrupted by the triumphant
return of Sulla (82 B.C.), who ordered him to divorce his wife, and on his
refusal deprived him of his property and priesthood and was induced to
spare his life only by the intercession of his aristocratic relatives and
the college of vestal virgins.

Released from his religious obligations, Caesar now (81 B.C.) left Rome for
the East and served his first campaign under Minucius Thermus, who was
engaged in stamping out the embers of resistance to Roman rule in the
province of Asia, and received from him the "civic crown" for saving a
fellow-soldier's life at the storm of Mytilene. In 78 B.C. he was serving
under Servilius Isauricus against the Cilician pirates when the news of
Sulla's death reached him and he at once returned to Rome. Refusing to
entangle himself in the abortive and equivocal schemes of Lepidus to
subvert the Sullan constitution, Caesar took up the only instrument of
political warfare left to the opposition by prosecuting two senatorial
governors, Cn. Cornelius Dolabella (in 77 B.C.) and C. Antonius (in 76
B.C.) for extortion in the provinces of Macedonia and Greece, and though he
lost both cases, probably convinced the world at large of the corruption of
the senatorial tribunals. After these failures Caesar determined to take no
active part in politics for a time, and retraced his steps to the East in
order to study rhetoric under Molon, at Rhodes. On the journey thither he
was caught by pirates, whom he treated with consummate nonchalance while
awaiting his ransom, threatening to return and crucify them; when released
he lost no time in carrying out his threat. Whilst he was studying at
Rhodes the third Mithradatic War broke out, and Caesar at once raised a
corps of volunteers and helped to secure the wavering loyalty of the
provincials of Asia. When Lucullus assumed the command of the Roman troops
in Asia, Caesar returned to Rome, to find that he had been elected to a
seat on the college of _pontifices_ left vacant by the death of his uncle,
C. Aurelius Cotta. He was likewise elected first of the six _tribuni
militum a populo_, but we hear nothing of his service in this capacity.
Suetonius tells us that he threw himself into the agitation for the
restoration of the ancient powers of the tribunate curtailed by Sulla, and
that he secured the passing of a law of amnesty in favour of the partisans
of Sertorius. He was not, however, destined to compass the downfall of the
Sullan _regime_; the crisis of the Slave War placed the Senate at the mercy
of Pompey and Crassus, who in 70 B.C. swept away the safeguards of
senatorial ascendancy, restored the initiative in legislation to the
tribunes, and replaced the Equestrian order, _i.e._ the capitalists, in
partial possession of the jury-courts. This judicial reform (or rather
compromise) was the work of Caesar's uncle, L. Aurelius Cotta. Caesar
himself, however, gained no accession of influence. In 69 B.C. he served as
quaestor under Antistius Vetus, governor of Hither Spain, and on his way
back to Rome (according to Suetonius) promoted a revolutionary agitation
[v.04 p.0939] amongst the Transpadanes for the acquisition of full
political rights, which had been denied them by Sulla's settlement.

Caesar was now best known as a man of pleasure, celebrated for his debts
and his intrigues; in politics he had no force behind [Sidenote: Opposition
to the Optimates.] him save that of the discredited party of the
_populares_, reduced to lending a passive support to Pompey and Crassus.
But as soon as the proved incompetence of the senatorial government had
brought about the mission of Pompey to the East with the almost unlimited
powers conferred on him by the Gabinian and Manilian laws of 67 and 66 B.C.
(see POMPEY), Caesar plunged into a network of political intrigues which it
is no longer possible to unravel. In his public acts he lost no opportunity
of upholding the democratic tradition. Already in 68 B.C. he had paraded
the bust of Marius at his aunt's funeral; in 65 B.C., as curule aedile, he
restored the trophies of Marius to their place on the Capitol; in 64 B.C.,
as president of the murder commission, he brought three of Sulla's
executioners to trial, and in 63 B.C. he caused the ancient procedure of
trial by popular assembly to be revived against the murderer of Saturninus.
By these means, and by the lavishness of his expenditure on public
entertainments as aedile, he acquired such popularity with the plebs that
he was elected _pontifex maximus_ in 63 B.C. against such distinguished
rivals as Q. Lutatius Catulus and P. Servilius Isauricus. But all this was
on the surface. There can be no doubt that Caesar was cognizant of some at
least of the threads of conspiracy which were woven during Pompey's absence
in the East. According to one story, the _enfants perdus_ of the
revolutionary party--Catiline, Autronius and others--designed to
assassinate the consuls on the 1st of January 65, and make Crassus
dictator, with Caesar as master of the horse. We are also told that a
public proposal was made to confer upon him an extraordinary military
command in Egypt, not without a legitimate king and nominally under the
protection of Rome. An equally abortive attempt to create a counterpoise to
Pompey's power was made by the tribune Rullus at the close of 64 B.C. He
proposed to create a land commission with very wide powers, which would in
effect have been wielded by Caesar and Crassus. The bill was defeated by
Cicero, consul in 63 B.C. In the same year the conspiracy associated with
the name of Catiline came to a head. The charge of complicity was freely
levelled at Caesar, and indeed was hinted at by Cato in the great debate in
the senate. But Caesar, for party reasons, was bound to oppose the
execution of the conspirators; while Crassus, who shared in the accusation,
was the richest man in Rome and the least likely to further anarchist
plots. Both, however, doubtless knew as much and as little as suited their
convenience of the doings of the left wing of their party, which served to
aggravate the embarrassments of the government.

As praetor (62 B.C.) Caesar supported proposals in Pompey's favour which
brought him into violent collision with the senate. This was a
master-stroke of tactics, as Pompey's return was imminent. Thus when Pompey
landed in Italy and disbanded his army he found in Caesar a natural ally.
After some delay, said to have been caused by the exigencies of his
creditors, which were met by a loan of L200,000 from Crassus, Caesar left
Rome for his province of Further Spain, where he was able to retrieve his
financial position, and to lay the foundations of a military reputation. He
returned to Rome in 60 B.C. to find that the senate had sacrificed the
support of the capitalists (which Cicero had worked so hard to secure), and
had finally alienated Pompey by refusing to ratify his acts and grant lands
to his soldiers. Caesar at once approached both Pompey and Crassus, who
alike detested the existing system of government but were personally at
variance, and succeeded in persuading them to forget their quarrel and join
him in a coalition which should put an end to the rule of the oligarchy. He
even made a generous, though unsuccessful, endeavour to enlist the support
of Cicero. The so-called First Triumvirate was formed, and constitutional
government ceased to exist save in name.

The first prize which fell to Caesar was the consulship, to secure which he
forewent the triumph which he had earned in Spain. His colleague was M.
Bibulus, who belonged to the straitest sect of the senatorial oligarchy
and, together with [Sidenote: Coalition with Pompey and Crassus.] his
party, placed every form of constitutional obstruction in the path of
Caesar's legislation. Caesar, however, overrode all opposition, mustering
Pompey's veterans to drive his colleague from the forum. Bibulus became a
virtual prisoner in his own house, and Caesar placed himself outside the
pale of the free republic. Thus the programme of the coalition was carried
through. Pompey was satisfied by the ratification of his acts in Asia, and
by the assignment of the Campanian state domains to his veterans, the
capitalists (with whose interests Crassus was identified) had their bargain
for the farming of the Asiatic revenues cancelled, Ptolemy Auletes received
the confirmation of his title to the throne of Egypt (for a consideration
amounting to L1,500,000), and a fresh act was passed for preventing
extortion by provincial governors.

It was now all-important for Caesar to secure practical irresponsibility by
obtaining a military command. The senate, [Sidenote: Gallic wars.] in
virtue of its constitutional prerogative, had assigned as the _provincia_
of the consuls of 59 B.C. the supervision of roads and forests in Italy.
Caesar secured the passing of a legislative enactment conferring upon
himself the government of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria for five years, and
exacted from the terrorized senate the addition of Transalpine Gaul, where,
as he well knew, a storm was brewing which threatened to sweep away Roman
civilization beyond the Alps. The mutual jealousies of the Gallic tribes
had enabled German invaders first to gain a foothold on the left bank of
the Rhine, and then to obtain a predominant position in Central Gaul. In 60
B.C. the German king Ariovistus had defeated the Aedui, who were allies of
Rome, and had wrested from the Sequani a large portion of their territory.
Caesar must have seen that the Germans were preparing to dispute with Rome
the mastery of Gaul; but it was necessary to gain time, and in 59 B.C.
Ariovistus was inscribed on the roll of the friends of the Roman people. In
58 B.C. the Helvetii, a Celtic people inhabiting Switzerland, determined to
migrate for the shores of the Atlantic and demanded a passage through Roman
territory. According to Caesar's statement they numbered 368,000, and it
was necessary at all hazards to save the Roman province from the invasion.
Caesar had but one legion beyond the Alps. With this he marched to Geneva,
destroyed the bridge over the Rhone, fortified the left bank of the river,
and forced the Helvetii to follow the right bank. Hastening back to Italy
he withdrew his three remaining legions from Aquileia, raised two more,
and, crossing the Alps by forced marches, arrived in the neighbourhood of
Lyons to find that three-fourths of the Helvetii had already crossed the
Saone, marching westward. He destroyed their rearguard, the Tigurini, as it
was about to cross, transported his army across the river in twenty-four
hours, pursued the Helvetii in a northerly direction, and utterly defeated
them at Bibracte (Mont Beuvray). Of the survivors a few were settled
amongst the Aedui; the rest were sent back to Switzerland lest it should
fall into German hands.

The Gallic chiefs now appealed to Caesar to deliver them from the actual or
threatened tyranny of Ariovistus. He at once demanded a conference, which
Ariovistus refused, and on hearing that fresh swarms were crossing the
Rhine, marched with all haste to Vesontio (Besancon) and thence by way of
Belfort into the plain of Alsace, where he gained a decisive victory over
the Germans, of whom only a few (including Ariovistus) reached the right
bank of the Rhine in safety. These successes roused natural alarm in the
minds of the Belgae--a confederacy of tribes in the north-west of Gaul,
whose civilization was less advanced than that of the Celtae of the
centre--and in the spring of 57 B.C. Caesar determined to anticipate the
offensive movement which they were understood to be preparing and marched
northwards into the territory of the Remi (about Reims), who alone amongst
their neighbours were friendly to Rome. He successfully checked the advance
of the enemy at the passage of the Aisne (between Laon and Reims) and their
ill-organized force melted away as he advanced. But the Nervii, and their
neighbours further to the north-west, remained to be dealt with, and were
[v.04 p.0940] crushed only after a desperate struggle on the banks of the
Sambre, in which Caesar was forced to expose his person in the _melee_.
Finally, the Aduatuci (near Namur) were compelled to submit, and were
punished for their subsequent treachery by being sold wholesale into
slavery. In the meantime Caesar's lieutenant, P. Crassus, received the
submission of the tribes of the north-east, so that by the close of the
campaign almost the whole of Gaul--except the Aquitani in the
south-west--acknowledged Roman suzerainty.

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