Part 202

"Earlier than 735 B. C., … though we do not know the precise era of its commencement, there existed one solitary Grecian establishment in the Tyrrhenian Sea,—the Campanian Cumæ, near Cape Misenum; which the more common opinion of chronologists supposed to have been founded in 1050 B. U. and which has even been carried back by some authors to 1139 B. C. … We may at least feel certain that it is the most ancient Grecian establishment in any part of Italy. … The Campanian Cumæ—known almost entirely by this its Latin designation—received its name and a portion of its inhabitants from the Æolic Kymê in Asia Minor. … Cumæ, situated on the neck of the peninsula which terminates in Cape Misenum, occupied a lofty and rocky hill overhanging the sea and difficult of access on the land side. … In the hollow rock under the very walls of the town was situated the cavern of the prophetic Sibyl,—a parallel and reproduction of the Gergithian Sibyl, near Kymê in Æolis: in the immediate neighborhood, too, stood the wild woods and dark lake of Avernus, consecrated to the subterranean gods, and offering an establishment of priests, with ceremonies evoking the dead, for purposes of prophecy or for solving doubts and mysteries. It was here that Grecian imagination localized the Cimmerians and the fable of Odysseus; and the Cumæans derived gains from the numerous visitors to this holy spot, perhaps hardly less than those of the inhabitants of Krissa from the vicinity of Delphi. Of the relations of these Cumæans with the Hellenic world generally, we unfortunately know nothing; but they seem to have been in intimate connection with Rome during the time of the kings, and especially during that of the last king Tarquin,—forming the intermediate link between the Greek and Latin world, whereby the feelings of the Teukrians and Gergitheans near the Æolic Kymê and the legendary stories of Trojan as well as Grecian heroes,—Æneas and Odysseus—passed into the antiquarian imagination of Rome and Latium. The writers of the Augustan age knew Cumæ only in its decline, and wondered at the vast extent of its ancient walls, yet remaining in their time. But during the two centuries prior to 500 B. C. these walls inclosed a full and thriving population, in the plenitude of prosperity."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 22._

See, also, SIBYLS

CUMANS, OR KOMANS, The.

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1114-1301.

CUMBERLAND GAP, The capture of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER: TENNESSEE).

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CUMBRIA: The British kingdom.

"The Britons of Cumbria occupy a tolerably large space on the map, but a very small one in history;—their annals have entirely perished;—and nothing authentic remains concerning them, except a very few passages, wholly consisting of incidental notices relating to their subjection and their misfortunes. Romance would furnish much more; for it was in Cumbria that Rhyderc, or Roderic the magnificent, is therein represented to have reigned, and Merlin to have prophesied. Arthur held his court in merry Carlisle; and Peredur, the Prince of Sunshine, whose name we find amongst the princes of Strathclyde, is one of the great heroes of the 'Mabinogion,' or tales of youth, long preserved by tradition amongst the Cymri. These fantastic personages, however, are of importance in one point of view, because they show, what we might otherwise forget—that from the Ribble in Lancashire, or thereabouts, up to the Clyde, there existed a dense population composed of Britons, who preserved their national language and customs, agreeing in all respects with the Welsh of the present day. So that even in the tenth century, the ancient Britons still inhabited the greater part of the western coast of the island, however much they had been compelled to yield to the political supremacy of the Saxon invaders. The 'Regnum Cumbrense' comprehended many districts, probably governed by petty princes or Reguli, in subordination to a chief monarch or Pendragon. Reged appears to have been somewhere in the vicinity of Annandale. Strathclyde is of course the district or vale of Clydesdale. In this district, or state, was situated Alcluyd, or Dunbritton, now Dumbarton, where the British kings usually resided; and the whole Cumbrian kingdom was not infrequently called Strathclyde, from the ruling or principal state; just as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is often designated in common language as 'England,' because England is the portion where the monarch and legislature are found. Many dependencies of the Cumbrian kingdom extended into modern Yorkshire, and Leeds was the frontier town between the Britons and the Angles. … The kings of Cumbria became the vassals, or 'men,' of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Eugenius had thus submitted to Athelstane. Of the nature of the obligation I shall speak hereafter. The Anglo-Saxon kings appear to have been anxious to extend and confirm their supremacy; Edmund proceeded against Donald, or Dumhnail, the Scottish King of Cumbria (A. D. 945), with the most inveterate and implacable hostility. … Edmund, having thus obtained possession of Cumbria, granted the country to Malcolm, King of the Scots, upon condition, as the chronicles say, of being his co-operator, both by sea and by land. … From this period the right of the Scottish kings or princes to the kingdom of Cumbria, as vassals of the English crown, seems to have been fully admitted: and the rights of the Scottish kings to the 'Earldom of Cumberland'—for such it was afterwards termed—were founded upon Edmund's grant. The Britons of Strathclyde, and Reged, and Cumbria, gradually melted away into the surrounding population; and, losing their language, ceased to be discernible as a separate race. Yet it is most probable that this process was not wholly completed until a comparatively recent period."

_F. Palgrave, History of the Anglo-Saxons, chapter 11._

Cumbria and Cambria (Wales), the two states long maintained by the Britons, against the Angles and Saxons, bore, in reality, the same name, Cumbria being the more correct form of it. The earliest development of the so-called Welsh poetry seems to have been in Cumbria rather than in Wales. Taliesen and Aneurin were Cumbrian bards, and Arthur, if any historical personage stands behind his kingly shadow, was probably a Cumbrian hero.

_J. Rhys, Celtic Britain._

ALSO IN: _W. F. Skene, The Four Ancient Books of Wales._

See, also, KYMRY, ALCLYDE, and SCOTLAND: 10TH-11TH CENTURIES.

CUNARD LINE, The founding of the.

See STEAM NAVIGATION: ON THE OCEAN.

CUNAXA, Battle of (B. C. 401).

See PERSIA: B. C. 401-400.

CUNEIFORM WRITING.

The characters employed for the written languages of ancient Babylonia and Assyria, have been called cuneiform, from the Latin cunens, a wedge, because the marks composing them are wedge-shaped. All knowledge of those characters and of the languages expressed in them had been lost for many centuries, and its recent recovery is one of the most marvelous achievements of our age. "Travellers had discovered inscriptions engraved in cuneiform, or, as they were also termed, arrow-headed characters, on the ruined monuments of Persepolis and other ancient sites in Persia. Some of these monuments were known to have been erected by the Achæmenian princes—Darius, the son of Hystaspes, and his successors—and it was therefore inferred that the inscriptions also had been carved by order of the same kings. The inscriptions were in three different systems of cuneiform writing; and since the three kinds of inscription were always placed side by side, it was evident that they represented different versions of the same text. … It was clear that the three versions of the Achæmenian inscriptions were addressed to the three chief populations of the Persian Empire, and that the one which invariably came first was composed in ancient Persian, the language of the sovereign himself. Now this Persian version happened to offer the decipherer less difficulties than the two others which accompanied it. The number of distinct characters employed in writing it did not exceed forty, while the words were divided from one another by a slanting wedge. Some of the words contained so many characters that it was plain that these latter must denote letters and not syllables, and that consequently the Persian cuneiform system must have consisted of an alphabet, and not of a syllabary. It was further plain that the inscriptions had to be read from left to right, since the ends of all the lines were exactly underneath one another on the left side, whereas they terminated irregularly on the right. … The clue to the decipherment of the inscriptions was first discovered by the successful guess of a German scholar, Grotefend. Grotefend noticed that the inscriptions generally began with three or four words, one of which varied, while the others remained unchanged. The variable word had three forms, though the same form always appeared on the same monument. Grotefend, therefore, conjectured that this word represented the name of a king, the words which followed it being royal titles." Working on this conjecture, he identified the three names with Darius, Xerxes and Artaxerxes, and one of the supposed titles with a Zend word for "king," which gave him a considerable part of the cuneiform alphabet. He was followed in the work by Burnouf, Lassen and Sir Henry Rawlinson, until, finally, Assyrian inscriptions were read with "almost as much certainty as a page of the Old Testament."

_A. H. Sayce, Fresh Light from the ancient monuments, chapter 1._

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CUNIBERTUS, King of the Lombards, A. D. 691-700.

CUNIMARÉ, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: GUCK OR Coco GROUP.

CURDS, OR KURDS, The.

See CARDUCHI.

CURFEW-BELL, The.

"Except from its influence upon the imagination, it would be hardly worth while to notice the legend of the curfew-bell, so commonly supposed to have been imposed by William [the Conqueror] upon the English, as a token of degradation and slavery; but the 'squilla di lontano, che paja il giorno pianger che si muore,' was a universal custom of police throughout the whole of mediaeval Europe, not unconnected with devotional feeling."

Sir F. Palgrave, History of Normandy and England, volume 3, page 627.

"In the year [1061] after King Henry's death [Henry I. of France], in a Synod held at Caen by the Duke's authority [Duke William of Normandy, who became in 1066 the Conqueror, and King of England], and attended by Bishops, Abbots, and Barons, it was ordered that a bell should be rung every evening, at hearing of which prayer should be offered, and all people should get within their houses and shut their doors. This odd mixture of piety and police seems to be the origin of the famous and misrepresented Curfew. Whatever was its object, it was at least not ordained as any special hardship on William's English subjects."

_E. A. Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest of England, chapter 12, section 3 (volume 3)._

CURIA, Ancient Roman.

See COMITIA-CURIATA.

CURIA, Municipal, of the later Roman empire. Decuriones.

"It is only necessary in this work to describe the general type of the municipal organization which existed in the provinces of the Roman Empire after the time of Constantine. … The proprietors of land in the Roman provinces generally dwelt in towns and cities, as a protection against brigands and man-stealers. Every town had an agricultural district which formed its territory, and the landed proprietors constituted the municipality. The whole local authority was vested in an oligarchical senate called the Curia, consisting probably of one hundred of the wealthiest landed proprietors in the city or township. This body elected the municipal authorities and officers, and filled up vacancies in its own body. It was therefore independent of the proprietors from among whom it was taken, and whose interests it ought to have represented. The Curia—not the body of landed proprietors—formed therefore the Roman municipality. The Curia was used by the imperial government as an instrument of fiscal extortion."

_G. Finlay, Greece under the Romans, chapter 2, section 1._

"When the progress of fiscal tyranny had almost sapped the vigor of society, the decuriones [members of the municipal curiæ, called, also, curiales] … being held jointly responsible for the taxation, became the veriest slaves of the empire. Responsible jointly for the taxes, they were, by the same token, responsible for their colleagues and their successors; their estates were made the securities of the imperial dues; and if any estate was abandoned by its proprietor, they were compelled to occupy it and meet the imposts exigible from it. Yet they could not relinquish their offices; they could not leave the city except by stealth; they could not enter the army, or the priesthood, or any office which might relieve them from municipal functions. … Even the children of the Curial were adscribed to his functions, and could engage in no course of life inconsistent with the onerous and intolerable duty. In short, this dignity was so much abhorred that the lowest plebeian shunned admission to it, the members of it made themselves bondmen, married slave-women, or joined the barbaric hordes in order to escape it; and malefactors, Jews and heretics were sometimes condemned to it, as an appropriate penalty for their offenses."

_P. Godwin, History of France: Ancient Gaul, book 2, chapter 8._

ALSO IN: _T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, book 3, chapter 9._

_F. Guizot, History of Civilization, volume 2 (volume 1, France), lecture 2._

See, also ROME: A. D. 363-379.

CURIA, Papal. College of Cardinals. Consistory.

"The Court of Rome, commonly called the Roman Curia, consisted of a number of dignified ecclesiastics who assisted the Pope in the executive administration. The Pontiff's more intimate advisers, or, as we should say, his privy council, were the College of Cardinals [see PAPACY: A. D. 1059], consisting of a certain number of cardinal bishops, cardinal priests, and cardinal deacons. The cardinal deacons, at first seven and afterwards fourteen in number, were originally ecclesiastics appointed as overseers and guardians of the sick and poor in the different districts of Rome. Equal to them in rank were the fifty cardinal priests, as the chief priests of the principal Roman churches were called; who, with the cardinal deacons, formed, in very early times, the presbytery, or senate of the Bishop of Rome. … According to some authorities, cardinal bishops were instituted in the 9th century; according to others not till the 11th, when seven bishops of the dioceses nearest to Rome—Ostia, Porto, Velitrae, Tusculum, Præneste, Tibur, and the Sabines—were adopted by the Pope partly as his assistants in the service of the Lateran, and partly in the general administration of the Church. In process of time, the appointment of such cardinal bishops was extended not only to the rest of Italy but also to foreign countries. Though the youngest of the cardinals in point of time, cardinal bishops were the highest in rank, and enjoyed the pre-eminence in the College. Their titles were derived from their dioceses. … But they were also called by their own names. The number of the cardinals was indefinite and varying. The Council of Basle endeavoured to restrict it to 24. But this was not carried out, and Pope Sixtus V. at length fixed the number at 70. The Council called the Consistory, which advised with the Pope both in temporal and ecclesiastical matters, was ordinarily private, and confined to the cardinals alone; though on extraordinary occasions, and for solemn purposes of state, as in the audiences of foreign ambassadors, &c., other prelates, and even distinguished laymen, might appear in it."

_T. H. Dyer, History of Modern Europe, volume 1, page 38._

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CURIA REGIS OF THE NORMAN KINGS.

"The Curia Regis [under the Norman Kings of England], the supreme tribunal of judicature, of which the Exchequer was the financial department or session, was … the court of the king sitting to administer justice with the advice of his counsellors; those counsellors being, in the widest acceptation, the whole body of tenants-in-chief, but in the more limited usage, the great officers of the household and specially appointed judges. The great gatherings of the national council may be regarded as full sessions of the Curia Regis, or the Curia Regis as a perpetual committee of the national council."

_William Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, 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.