chapter 11, section 127.

"Not long after the granting of Magna Charta, the Curia Regis was permanently divided into three committees or courts, each taking a certain portion of the business: (1) Fiscal matters were confined to the Exchequer; (2) civil disputes, where neither the king's interest nor any matter savouring of a criminal nature were involved, were decided in the Common Pleas; and (3) the court of King's Bench retained all the remaining business and soon acquired the exclusive denomination of the ancient Curia Regis."

"But the same staff of judges was still retained for all three courts, with the chief justiciar at their head. Towards the end of Henry III.'s reign, the three courts received each a distinct staff, and on the abolition by Edward I. of the office of chief justiciar, the only remaining bond of union being severed, they became completely separated. Some trace of their ancient unity of organization always survived, however, in the court of Exchequer Chamber; until at length after six centuries of independent existence they were again united by the Judicature Act, 1873. Together with the Court of Chancery and the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty courts, they now form divisions of a consolidated High Court of Justice, itself a branch of the Supreme Court of Judicature."

_T. P. Taswell-Langmead, English Constitutional History, page 154._

"The Aula Regia, or Curia Regis ... has been described in various and at first sight contradictory terms. Thus it has been called the highest Law Court, the Ministry of the King, a Legislative Assembly, &c. The apparent inconsistency of these descriptions vanishes on closer inspection, and throws great light on mediæval history. For the Curia Regis possessed every attribute which has been ascribed to it."

_A. V. Dicey, The Privy Council, part 1._

ALSO IN: _R. Gneist, History of the English Constitution, chapter 19._

CURIALES.

See CURIA, MUNICIPAL.

CURIOSOLITÆ, The.

See VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL.

CURTIS, George W., and Civil-Service Reform.

See CIVIL SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES.

CURULE ÆDILES.

See ROME: B. C. 494-492.

CURULE CHAIR.

In ancient Rome, "certain high offices of state conferred upon the holder the right of using, upon public occasions, an ivory chair of peculiar form. This chair was termed Sella Curulis. ... This was somewhat in the form of a modern camp-stool."

_W. Ramsay, Manual of Roman Antiquity, chapters 2 and 4._

CURZOLA, Battle of (1298).

See GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299.

CUSCO: The Capital of the Incas of Peru.

See PERU: A. D. 1533-154.8.

CUSH.--CUSHITES.

"Genesis, like the Hebrews of later date, includes under the name of Cush the nations dwelling to the South, the Nubians, Ethiopians and tribes of South Arabia."

_M. Duncker, History of Antiquity, book 2, chapter 1._

See, also, HAMITES, and ARABIA.

CUSHING, Lieutenant William B. Destruction of the ram Albemarle.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D.1864 (OCTOBER: NORTH CAROLINA).

CUSTER'S LAST BATTLE.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1876.

CUSTOMS DUTIES.

See TARIFF.

CUSTOMS UNION, The German (Zollverein).

See TARIFF: A. D. 1833.

CUSTOZZA, Battles of (1848 and 1866).

See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849; and 1862-1866.

CUTLER, Manasseh, and the Ordinance of 1787.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1787.

CUYRIRI, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: GUCK OR COCO GROUP.

CYCLADES, The.--SPORADES, The.

"Among the Ionic portion of Hellas are to be reckoned (besides Athens) Eubœa, and the numerous group of islands included between the southernmost Eubœan promontory, the eastern coast of Peloponnesus, and the northwestern coast of Krête. Of these islands some are to be considered as outlying prolongations, in a southeasterly direction, of the mountain-system of Attica; others of that of Eubœa; while a certain number of them lie apart from either system, and seem referable to a volcanic origin. To the first class belong Keôs, Kythnus, Seriphus, Pholegandrus, Sikinus, Gyarus, Syra, Paros, and Antiparos; to the second class Andros, Tênos, Mykonos, Dêlos, Naxos, Amorgos; to the third class Kimôlus, Mêlos, Thêra. These islands passed amongst the ancients by the general name of the Cyclades and the Sporades; the former denomination being commonly understood to comprise those which immediately surrounded the sacred island of Dêlos,--the latter being given to those which lay more scattered and apart. But the names are not applied with uniformity or steadiness even in ancient times: at present, the whole group are usually known by the title of Cyclades."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 12._

CYDONIA, Battles and siege of (B. C. 71-68).

See CRETE: B. C. 68-66.

CYLON, Conspiracy of.

See ATHENS: B. C. 612-595.

CYMBELINE, Kingdom of.

See COLCHESTER, ORIGIN OF.

CYMRY, The.

See KYMRY, THE.

CYNOSARGES AT ATHENS, The.

See GYMNASIA, GREEK.

CYNOSCEPHALÆ, Battle of (B. C. 364).

The battle in which Pelopidas, the Theban patriot, friend and colleague of Epaminondas, was slain. It was fought B. C. 364, in Thessaly, near Pharsalus, on the heights called Cynoscephalæ, or the Dog's Heads, and delivered the Thessalian cities from the encroachments of the tyrant of Pheræ.

_C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 40._

CYNOSCEPHALÆ: (B. C. 197).

See GREECE: B. C. 214-146.

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CYNOSSEMA, Naval battle of.

Two successive naval battles fought, one in July and the second in October, B. C. 411, between the Athenians and the Peloponnesian allies, in the Hellespont, are jointly called the Battle of Cynossema. The name was taken from the headland called Cynossema, or the "Dog's Tomb," "ennobled by the legend and the chapel of the Trojan queen Hecuba." The Athenians had the advantage in both encounters, especially in the latter one, when they were joined by Alcibiades, with reenforcements, just in time to decide the doubtful fortunes of the day.

_E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 4, chapter 5._

ALSO IN: _G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 63._

See GREECE: B. C. 411-407.

CYNURIANS, The.

See KYNURIANS.

CYPRUS: Origin of the name.

"The Greek name of the island was derived from the abundance in which it produced the beautiful plant ('Copher') which furnishes the 'al-henna,' coveted throughout the East for the yellow dye which it communicates to the nails. It was rich in mines of copper, which has obtained for it the name by which it is known in the modern languages of the West."

_J. Kenrick, Phœnicia, chapter 4._

CYPRUS: Early History.

"The first authentic record with regard to Cyprus is an inscription on an Egyptian tombstone of the 17th century B. C., from which it appears that the island was conquered by Thothmes III. of Egypt, in whose reign the exodus of the Children of Israel is supposed to have taken place. This was no doubt anterior to the establishment of any Greek colonies, and probably, also, before the Phœnicians had settled in the island. ... As appears from various inscriptions and other records, Cyprus became subject successively to Egypt, as just mentioned, to Assyria, to Egypt again in 568 B. C., when it was conquered by Amasis, and in 525 B. C. to Persia. Meanwhile the power of the Greeks had been increasing. ... The civilization of the West was about to assert itself at Marathon and Salamis; and Cyprus, being midway between East and West, could not fail to be involved in the coming conflict. On the occasion of the Ionic revolt [see PERSIA: B. C. 521-493] the Greek element in Cyprus showed its strength: and in 502 B. C. the whole island, with the single exception of the Phœnician town of Amathus, took part with the Ionians in renouncing the authority of the Persian king." But in the war which followed, the Persians, aided by the Phœnicians of the mainland, reconquered Cyprus, and the Cyprian Greeks were long disheartened. They recovered their courage, however, about 410 B. C. when Evagoras, a Greek of the royal house of Teucer, made himself master of Salamis, and finally established a general sovereignty over the island--even extending his power to the mainland and subjugating Tyre. "The reign of Evagoras is perhaps the most brilliant period in the history of Cyprus. Before his death, which took place in 374 B. C., he had raised the island from the position of a mere dependency of one or other of the great Eastern monarchies, had gained for it a place among the lending states of Greece, and had solved the question as to which division of the ancient world the Cyprian people should be assigned. Consequently when, some forty years later, the power of Persia was shattered by Alexander the Great at the battle of Issus, the kings of the island hastened to offer him their submission as the leader of the Greek race, and sent 120 ships to assist him in the siege of Tyre." After Alexander's death, Cyprus was disputed between Antigonus and Ptolemy.

See MACEDONIA: B. C. 310-301.

The king of Egypt secured the prize, and the island remained under the Greek-Egyptian crown, until it passed, with the rest of the heritage of the Ptolemys to the Romans. "When the [Roman] empire was divided, on the death of Constantine the Great, Cyprus, like Malta, passed into the hands of the Byzantine Emperors. Like Malta, also, it was exposed to frequent attacks from the Arabs; but, although they several times occupied the island and once held it for no less than 160 years, they were always expelled again by the Byzantine Emperors, and never established themselves there as firmly as they did in Malta. The crusades first brought Cyprus into contact with the western nations of modern Europe."

_C. P. Lucas, Historical Geography of British Colonies, section 1, chapter 2._

ALSO IN: _R. H. Lang, CYPRUS, chapter 1-8._

_F. Von Loher, CYPRUS, chapter 12 and 30._

_L. P. Di Cesnola, Cyprus; its ancient cities, &c._

CYPRUS: B. C. 58. Annexed to the Roman Dominions.

"The annexation of Cyprus was decreed in 696 [B. C. 58] by the people [of Rome], that is, by the leaders of the democracy, the support given to piracy by the Cypriots being alleged as the official reason why that course should now be adopted. Marcus Cato, intrusted by his opponents with the execution of this measure, came to the island without an army; but he had no need of one. The king [a brother of the king of Egypt] took poison; the inhabitants submitted without offering resistance to their inevitable fate, and were placed under the governor of Cilicia."

_T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 5, chapter 4._

CYPRUS: A. D. 117. Jewish insurrection.

"This rich and pleasant territory [the island of Cyprus] had afforded a refuge to the Jews of the continent through three generations of disturbance and alarm, and the Hebrew race was now [A. D. 117] probably not inferior there in number to the native Syrians or Greeks. On the first outburst of a Jewish revolt [against the Roman domination, in the last year of the reign of Trajan] the whole island fell into the hands of the insurgents, and became an arsenal and rallying point for the insurrection, which soon spread over Egypt, Cyrene and Mesopotamia. The leader of the revolt in Cyprus bore the name of Artemion, but we know no particulars of the war in this quarter, except that 240,000 of the native population is said to have fallen victims to the exterminating fury of the insurgents. When the rebellion was at last extinguished in blood, the Jews were forbidden thenceforth to set foot on the island; and even if driven thither by stress of weather, the penalty of death was mercilessly enforced. ... The Jewish population of Cyrenaica outnumbered the natives. ... The hostility of the Jews in these parts was less directed against the central government and the Roman residents than the native race. ... Of these 220,000 are said to have perished."

_C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 65._

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CYPRUS: A. D. 1191. Conquest by Richard Cœur de Lion. Founding of the Latin Kingdom.

During the civil strife and confusion of the last years of the Comnenian dynasty of emperors at Constantinople, one of the members of the family, Isaac Comnenos, secured the sovereignty of Cyprus and assumed the title of emperor. With the alliance of the king of Sicily, he defeated the Byzantine forces sent against him, and was planted securely, to all appearance, on his newly built throne at the time of the Third Crusade. Circumstances at that time (A. D. 1191) gave him a fatal opportunity to provoke the English crusaders. First, he seized the property and imprisoned the crews of three English ships that were wrecked on the Cyprian coast. Not satisfied with that violence, he refused shelter from the storm to a vessel which bore Berengaria of Navarre, the intended wife of King Richard. "The king of England immediately sailed to Cyprus; and when Isaac refused to deliver up the ship-wrecked crusaders, and to restore their property, Richard landed his army and commenced a series of operations, which ended in his conquering the whole island, in which he abolished the administrative institutions of the Eastern Empire, enslaving the Greek race, introducing the feudal system, by which he riveted the chains of a foreign domination, and then gave it as a present to Guy of Lusignan, the titular king of Jerusalem, who became the founder of a dynasty of Frank kings in Cyprus."

_G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, from 716 to 1453, book 3, chapter 3, section 1._

Before giving Cyprus to Guy of Lusignan, Richard had sold the island to the Templars, and Guy had to pay the knights heavily for the extinguishment of their rights. Richard, therefore, was rather a negotiator than a giver in the transaction.

_William Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Mediæval and Modern History, lecture 8._

CYPRUS: A. D. 1192-1489. The kingdom under the house of Lusignan.

"The house of Lusignan maintained itself in Cyprus for nearly three centuries, during which, although fallen somewhat from the blessedness which had been broken up by Isaac Comnenus, the island seems to have retained so much fertility and prosperity as to make its later history very dark by contrast. ... Guy, we are told, received Cyprus for life only, and did homage for the island to Richard. As he already bore the title of king, the question whether he should hold Cyprus as a kingdom does not seem to have arisen. ... On his death, in April, 1194, Richard putting in no claim for the reversion, his brother, Amalric of Lusignan, constable of Palestine, entered on the possession as his heir. ... Amalric succeeded to the crown of Jerusalem; the crown of Jerusalem, which, after the year 1269, became permanently united with that of Cyprus, was an independent crown, and the king of Jerusalem an anointed king: the union of the crowns therefore seems to have precluded any question as to the tenure by which the kingdom of Cyprus should be held. ... The homage then due to Richard, or to the crown of England, ceased at the death of Guy."

_William Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Mediæval and Modern History, lecture 8._

See, also, JERUSALEM: A. D. 1291.

CYPRUS: A. D. 1291-1310. The Knights Hospitallers of St. John.

See HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN: A. D. 1118-1310.

CYPRUS: A. D. 1489-1570. A Venetian dependency.

The last reigning king of Cyprus was James II., a bastard brother of Queen Charlotte, whom he drove from the Cypriot throne in 1464. This king married a Venetian lady, Caterina Cornaro, in 1471 and was declared to be "the son-in·law of the Republic." The unscrupulous republic is said to have poisoned its son·in-law in order to secure the succession. He died in 1473, and a son, born after his death, lived but two years. Cyprus was then ruled by the Venetians for fifteen years in the name of Caterina, who finally renounced her rights wholly in favor of the republic. After 1489, until its conquest by the Turks, Cyprus was a Venetian dependency, in form as well as in fact, but tributary to the Sultan of Egypt.

_William Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Mediæval and Modern History, lecture 8._

CYPRUS: A. D. 1570-1571. Conquest by the Turks.

See TURKS: A. D. 1566-1571.

CYPRUS: A. D. 1821. Turkish massacre of Christians.

See GREECE: A. D. 1821-1829.

CYPRUS: A. D. 1878. Control surrendered by Turkey to England.

See TURKS: A. D. 1878, THE TREATIES OF SAN STEFANO AND BERLIN.

CYPRUS: End----------

CYREANS, The.

See PERSIA: B. C. 401-400.

CYRENAICA.--CYRENE.--KYRENE.

A city, growing into a kingdom, which was founded at an early day by the Greeks, on that projecting part of the coast of Libya, or northern Africa, which lies opposite to Greece. The first settlers were said to have been from the little island of Thera, whose people were bold and enterprising. The site they chose "was of an unusual nature, especially for islanders, and lay several miles away from the sea, the shores of which were devoid of natural bays for anchorage. But, with this exception, every advantage was at hand: instead of the narrow stony soil of their native land, they found the most fertile corn-fields, a broad table-land with a healthy atmosphere and watered by fresh springs; a well-wooded coast-land, unusually well adapted for all the natural products which the Hellenes deemed essential; while in the background spread mysteriously the desert, a world passing the comprehension of the Hellenes, out of which the Libyan tribes came to the shore with horses and camels, with black slaves, with apes, parrots and other wonderful animals, with dates and rare fruits. ... An abundant spring of water above the shore was the natural point at which the brown men of the deserts and the mariners assembled. Here regular meetings became customary. The bazaar became a permanent market, and the market a city which arose on a grand scale, broad and lofty, on two rocky heights, which jut out towards the sea from the plateau of the desert. This city was called Cyrene. ... Large numbers of population immigrated from Crete, the islands and Peloponnesus. A large amount of new land was parcelled out, the Libyans were driven back, the landing-place became the port of Apollonia, and the territory occupied by the city itself was largely extended. Cyrene became, like Massalia, the starting point of a group of settlements, the centre of a small Greece: Barca and Hesperides [afterwards called Berenice] were her daughters. Gradually a nation grew up, which extended itself and its agriculture, and contrived to cover a large division of African land with Hellenic culture. This was the new era which commenced for Cyrene with the reign of the third king, the Battus who, on account of the marvellously rapid rise of his kingdom, was celebrated as 'the fortunate' in all Hellas. The Battiadæ [the family or dynasty of Battus] were soon regarded as a great power."

_E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 2, chapter 3._

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Cyrenaica became subject to Egypt under the Ptolemys, and was then usually called Pentapolis, from the five cities of Cyrene, Apollonia, Arsinoë (formerly Teuchira), Berenice (formerly Hesperis, or Hesperides) and Ptolemais (the port of Barca). Later it became a province of the Roman Empire, and finally, passing under Mahometan rule, sank to its present state, as a district, called Barca, of the kingdom of Tripoli.--Cyrene was especially famous for the production of a plant called silphium--supposed to be assafœtida--on which the ancients seem to have set an extraordinary value. This was one of the principal sources of the wealth of Cyrene.--

_E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography,