or Bottle, which gained the first prize over the Clouds of Aristophanes. In this comedy, good-humouredly making fun of his own weakness, Cratinus represents the comic muse as the faithful wife of his youth. His guilty fondness for a rival—the bottle—has aroused her jealousy. She demands a divorce from the archon; but her husband’s love is not dead and he returns penitent to her side. In Grenfell and Hunt’s Oxyrhynchus Papyri, iv. (1904), containing a further instalment of their edition of the Behnesa papyri discovered by them in 1896–1897, one of the greatest curiosities is a scrap of paper bearing the argument of a play by Cratinus,—the Dionysalexandros (i.e. Dionysus in the part of Paris), aimed against Pericles; and the epitome reveals something of its wit and point. The style of Cratinus has been likened to that of Aeschylus; and Aristophanes, in the Knights, compares him to a rushing torrent. He appears to have been fond of lofty diction and bold figures, and was most successful in the lyrical parts of his dramas, his choruses being the popular festal songs of his day. According to the statement of a doubtful authority, which is not borne out by Aristotle, Cratinus increased the number of actors in comedy to three. He wrote 21 comedies and gained the prize nine times.
Fragments in Meineke, Fragmenta Comicorum Graecorum, or Kock, Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta. A younger Cratinus flourished in the time of Alexander the Great. It is considered that some of the comedies ascribed to the elder Cratinus were really the work of the younger.
CRATIPPUS (fl. c. 375 B.C.), Greek historian. There are only three or four references to him in ancient literature, and his importance is due to the fact that he has been identified by several scholars (e.g. Blass) with the author of the historical fragment
discovered by Grenfell and Hunt, and published by them in Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. v. It may be regarded as a fairly certain inference from a passage in Plutarch (De Gloria Atheniensium, p. 345 E, ed. Bernardakis, ii. p. 455) that he was an Athenian writer, intermediate in date between Thucydides and Xenophon, and that his work continued the narrative of Thucydides, from the point at which the latter historian stopped (410 B.C.) down to the battle of Cnidus (394 B.C.).
The fragments are published in C. Müller’s Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum. For authorities see under Theopompus.
CRATIPPUS, of Mitylene (1st century B.C.), Peripatetic philosopher, contemporary with Cicero, whose son he taught at Athens, and by whom he is praised in the De officiis as the greatest of his school. He was the friend of Pompey also and shared his flight after the battle of Pharsalia, for the purpose, it is said, of convincing him of the justice of providence. Brutus, while at Athens after the assassination of Caesar, attended his lectures. The freedom of Rome was conferred upon him by Caesar, at the request of Cicero. The only work attributed to him is a treatise on divination, but his reputation may be gauged by the fact that in 44 B.C. the Areopagus invited him to succeed Andronicus of Rhodes as scholarch. He seems to have held that, while motion, sense and appetite cannot exist apart from the body, thought reaches its greatest power when most free
from bodily influence, and that divination is due to the direct action of the divine mind on that faculty of the human soul which is not dependent on the body.
Cicero, De divinatione, i. 3, 32, 50, ii. 48, 52; De officiis, i. 1, iii. 2; Plutarch, Cicero, 24.
CRAU (from a Celtic root meaning “stone”), a region of southern France, comprised in the department of Bouches-du-Rhone, and bounded W. by the canal from Arles to Port du Bouc and the Rhone, N. by the chain of the Alpines separating it
from an analogous region, the Petite Crau, E. by the hills around
Salon and Istres, S. by the gulf of Fos, an inlet of the Mediterranean
Sea. Covering an area of about 200 sq. m., the Crau is a
low-lying, waterless plain, owing its formation to a sudden
inundation, according to some authorities, of the Rhone and the
Durance, according to others of the Durance alone. Its surface
is formed chiefly of stones varying in size from an egg to a man’s
head; these, mixed with a proportion of fine soil, overlie a
subsoil formed of stones cemented into a hard mass by deposits of
calcareous mud, beneath which lies a bed of loose stones, once the
sea-bed. Naturally sterile and poor in lime, the Crau is adapted
for agriculture by the process of warping, carried out by means of
the Canal de Craponne, which dates from the middle of the 16th
century; about one-quarter of the region in the north and east
has thus been covered by the rich deposits of the waters of the
Durance. The soil also responds in places to deep cultivation
and the application of artificial manures. By these aids, uncultivated
land, which before supplied only rough and scanty
pasture for a few sheep, has been fitted for the growth of the vine,
olive and other fruits; where irrigation is practicable, water-meadows
have been formed. The dryness of the climate is
unfavourable to the production of cereals.
CRAUCK, GUSTAVE (1827–1905), French sculptor, was born
and died at Valenciennes, where a special museum for his works
was erected in his honour. Though little known to the world
at large during his long life, he ranks among the best modern
sculptors of France. At Paris his “Coligny” monument is in the
rue de Rivoli; his “Victory” in the Place des Arts et Métiers;
and “Twilight” in the Avenue de l’Observatoire. Among his
finest works is his “Combat du Centaure,” on which he was
engaged for thirty years, the figure of the Lapith having been
modelled after the athlete, Eugene Sandow. In 1907 an exhibition
of his works was held in the École des Beaux-Arts.
CRAUFURD, QUINTIN (1743–1819), British author, was born at Kilwinnock on the 22nd of September 1743. In early life he went to India, where he entered the service of the East India
Company. Returning to Europe before the age of forty with a handsome fortune, he settled in Paris, where he gave himself to the cultivation of literature and art, and formed a good library
and collection of paintings, coins and other objects of antiquarian interest. Craufurd was on intimate terms with the French court, especially with Marie Antoinette, and was one of those who
arranged the flight to Varennes. He escaped to Brussels, but in 1792 he returned to Paris in the hope of rescuing the royal prisoners. He lived among the French émigrés until the peace of
Amiens made it possible to return to Paris. Through Talleyrand’s influence he was able to remain in Paris after the war was renewed, and he died there on the 23rd of November 1819.
He wrote, among other works, The History, Religion, Learning and Manners of the Hindus (1790), Secret History of the King of France and his Escape from Paris (first published in 1885), Researches concerning the Laws, Theology, Learning and Commerce of Ancient and Modern India (1817), History of the Bastille (1798), On Pericles and the Arts in Greece (1815), Essay on Swift and his Influence on the British Government (1808), Notice sur Marie Antoinette (1809), Mémoires de Mme du Hausset (1808).
CRAUFURD, ROBERT (1764–1812), British major-general, was born at Newark, Ayrshire, on the 5th of May 1764, and entered the 25th Foot in 1779. As captain in the 75th regiment he first saw active service against Tippoo Sahib in 1790–92. The next year he was employed, under his brother Charles, with the Austrian armies operating against the French. Returning to England in 1797, he soon saw further service, as a lieutenant-colonel, on Lake’s staff in the Irish rebellion. A year later he was British commissioner on Suvarov’s staff when the Russians invaded Switzerland, and at the end of 1799 was in the Helder expedition. From 1801 to 1805 Lieutenant-Colonel Craufurd sat in parliament for East Retford, but in 1807 he resumed active service with Whitelock in the unfortunate Buenos Aires expedition. He was almost the only one of the senior officers who added to his reputation in this affair, and in 1808 he received a brigade command under Sir John Moore. His regiments were heavily engaged in the earlier part of the famous retreat, but were not present at Corunna, having been detached to Vigo, whence they returned to England. Later in 1809, once more in the Peninsula, Brigadier-General Craufurd was three marches or more in rear of Wellesley’s army when a report came in that a great battle was in progress. The march which followed is one almost unparalleled in military annals. The three battalions of the “Light Brigade” (43rd, 52nd and 95th) started in full marching order, and arrived at the front on the day after the battle of Talavera, having covered 62 m. in twenty-six hours. Beginning their career with this famous march, these regiments and their
