the 9th century, and when, in 912, Neustria was ceded to the Normans by Charles the Simple, it was a large and important city. Under the dukes of Normandy, and par ticularly under William the Conqueror, it rapidly increased. It became the capital of Lower Normandy, and in 1346 was besieged and taken by Edward III. of England. It was again taken by the English in 1417, and was retained by them till 1459, when it capitulated to the French, in whose possession it has since continued. In 1793 the city was the focus of the Girondist movement against the Convention, Among the numsrous celebrities to whom Caen has given birth may be mentioned Malherbs, Boisrobert, Huet bishop of Avranches, and Tannegui Lefebvre. Population in 1872,
39,415 in the city, and 41,210 in the commune.
See L AbbtS de la Hue, Essaishistonquts sur la ville de Caen, 1820- 42 ; Mancel, Histoire de la ville de Caen, 1844 ; Vauthier, ditto, 1843 ; L Abbe Daniel, Enibellissements de la ville de Caen, 1842 ; Freeman s Norman Conquest, vol. iii. ; Macquoid s Normandy, 1874.
CÆRE ([ Greek ]), called by the Greeks Agylla ([ Greek ]), which is probably an Etruscan name, a city of Southern Etruria, near the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Its site is occupied by the modern Cervetri (Ccere vetus), situated in the district of Civita Vecchia, about 32 miles from Rome. In the Virgilian legend of ^Eneas, Caere appears as the seat of the Etruscan king Mezentius ; but the earliest fact in its genuine annals is its participation in an attack on the city of Alalia in Corsica. It afforded a refuge to the Tar- quins on their expulsion from Rome, and it was afterwards chosen by the Romans as the securest hiding-place of their treasures during the Gallic occupation of their city. In the time of Strabo the city had become of little import ance, and was even outgrown by the neighbouring village of Aqii(t Cceretance. It continued, however, to rank as a municipium, and in the 4th century of the Christian era had a "bishop" of its own; but in 1250 it was deserted by a large part of its inhabitants, who removed to what is now the village of Ceri. The chief building of modern date in Cervetri is the castle of the Ruspoli family, who are in possession of the seigniory. From the inhabitants being admitted to ths privilege of Roman citizenship, but without the right of suffrage, the " Caerite franchise " came to be a proverbial expression denoting disfranchisement. A large number of interesting Etruscan remains have been found in the tombs of Caere, among which may be specially mentioned "paintings of high antiquity and inscriptions showing one of the sepulchres to have belonged to the Tarquin or Tarclmas family.
See Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. ii. ; Visconti, Antichi monumcnti discoperti nel ducato di Cere, 1836 ; Canina, Descrizione di Cere Antica, 1838 ; Griffii, Monumentidi Cere Antica, 1841 ; Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, vol. ii. ; Noel des Vergers, VEtrurie et Us Etrusques, 2 vols. 1862-4 ; Aug. J. Hare, Days near Rome, 1875, vol. iii.; Journal dcs Savants, 1843, &c. ; and various articles in the Annali and Bulletino dell Institute di Corrisp. Archeol. di Roma, especially 1869, 1873, and 1874.
CAERLEON, the Isca Silurum of the Romans, is situated upon the right bank of the river Usk, about 3^ miles N. of Newport in Monmouthshire. Its name appears to be a corruption of the Latin Castrum Legionis,[1] and there can be no doubt that the place was the station of the second Augustan legion, and ranked as a colony and capital of Britannia Secunda in the period of Roman dominion. The existing remains of ancient Caerleon still in situ are unimportant, consisting only of fragments of the city walls and a grass-grown amphitheatre (comprising an area of 222 feet by 192 feet), in which the tiers of seats are indistinctly visible. The hamlet on the opposite bank of the river preserves its Roman name of Ultra Pontem, and it is probable that the connecting bridge was a pontoon similar in character to that which survived to the close of the last century. The local museum is rich in objects of interest, collected (chiefly through the zeal of Mr J. E. Lee, the author of Isca, Silurum), either in Caerleon or its immediate neighbourhood. It includes a tesselated pavement of much beauty brought from Caerwent, four Tuscan pillars which are thought to have supported a temple of Diana, a large number of inscribed and sepulchral stones, a .series of coins from the time of Otho to that of Honorius, stone coffins, amphora?, antefixa, amulets, enamels, and Samian ware of home and foreign manufacture. It is remarkable that on two inscriptions the name of Geta (the younger son of Severus) has been mutilated and partially effaced evidence of the hatred in which the civil governor was held by his brother Caracalla. In the recent restoration of the Parish church (in style Early English, with traces of rude Norman) a good deal of Roman masonry was brought to light, and upon the hill side, which formed the burial place of the ancient city, fragments of urns and memorial slabs are even now often exhumed. Enough has been discovered to prove that Caerleon was a place of great importance in Roman times, but not enough to support the hyperbolical language of Giraldus Cambrensis (borrowed from Geoffrey of Monmouth) that its " splendid palaces, with their gilded roofs, once emulated the grandeur of Rome" (bk. ix. c. 12). Although the chief historic interest attaching to Caerleon is derived from the impress left upon it by Roman occupation, it has also a less substantial claim to notice in connection with the romance of Arthur and the Round Table. It was hither the "blameless king" came at Pentecost to ba crowned, and made high festival with the chieftains from Lothian and Orkney, from Gower and Carados. Here, too, if we follow the laureate s version, Arthur took counsel with " Dubric, the high saint " and Guinevere climbed—
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" The giant tower, from whose high crest, the} say, Men saw the goodly hills of Somerset, And white sails flying on the yellow sea." (Idylls of the King, Enid.)
The lofty mound upon which this tower is said to have stood is close to the Roman amphitheatre, to which the name of Arthur s Round Table has been given. The tumulus is evidently artificial, and may perhaps have supported the keep of the castle mentioned in Domesday, the ruins of which, now limited to a solitary bastion on the river side, were very extensive, even in Leland s time. The grantee of Caerleon at the Norman Conquest was William de Scohies, and the lordship was subsequently enjoyed by the Crown and the great families of Clare and Mortimer. From the latter it devolved to King Edward IV., and in later times has been held by the Morgans of Llantarnam and the Howes, Lords Chedworth. The chief proprietor at the present time is Sir Digby Mackworth, Bart. The ecclesiastical history of Caerleon reaches back to the first introduction of Christianity into Britain, when it was constituted the seat of an archbishopric. It sent a representative to the councils of Sardis (347 A.D.) and Rimini (359) ; and in the persecution of Diocletian during the previous century two of its citizens, Aaron and Julius, are said to have suffered martyrdom. The see was transferred to St David s in the 1 1 th century, and at the present time Caerleon is included within the diocese of Llandaff. Some remains of a Cistercian priory may still be traced, but even the memory of Dubricius, the stout opponent of the Pelagian heresy, has perished with his
dwelling-place.}}CAERMARTHEN. See Carmarthen.
CAERNARVON. See Carnarvon.
- ↑ Nennius, writing about two centuries before Geoffrey of Monmouth, says (c. 56), "Belhim gestum est in urbe Leogis, qua: Britannice Cair Lion rticitur."
