Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Calavius 4.
4. Pacuvius Calavius, a contemporary of Hannibal, and a man of great popularity and influence, who, according to the Roman accounts, acquired his power by evil arts, and sacrificed everything to gratify his ambition and love of dominion. In b. c. 217, when Hannibal had gained his victory on lake Trasimenus, Pacuvius Calavius happened to be invested with the chief magistracy at Capua. He had good reasons for believing that the people of Capua, who were hostile towards the senate, intended on the approach of Hannibal to murder all the senators, and surrender the town to the Carthaginians. In order to prevent this and to secure his ascendancy over both parties, he had recourse to the following stratagem. He assembled the senate and declared against a revolt from Rome ; first, because he was connected with the Romans by marriage, his own wife being a daughter of Appius Claudius, and one of his daughters married to a Roman. He then revealed to the senate the intentions of the people, and declared that he would save the senators if they would entrust themselves to him. Fear induced the senators to do as he desired. He then shut all the senators up in the senate-house, and had the doors well guarded, so that no one could leave or enter the edifice. Upon this he assembled the people, told them that all the senators were his prisoners, and advised them to subject each senator to a trial, but before executing one, to elect a better and juster one in his stead. The sentence of death was easily pronounced upon the first senator that was brought to trial, but it was not so easy to elect a better one. The disputes about a successor grew fierce, and the people at last grew tired and were disgusted with their own proceedings, which led to no results. They accordingly ordered that the old senators should retain their dignity and CALDUS. be liberated. Calavius, who by this stratagem had laid the senators under great obligations to himself and the popular party, not only brought about a reconciliation between the people and the senate, but secured to himself the greatest influence in the republic, which he employed to induce his fellow- citizens to espouse the cause of Hannibal. After the battle of Cannae, in b. c. 216, Hannibal took up his winter-quarters at Capua, Perolla, the son of Calavius, had been the strongest opponent of the Carthaginians, and had sided with Decius Magius, but his father obtained his pardon from Hannibal, who even invited father and son to a great en- tertainment which he gave to the most distin- guished Campanians. , But Perolla could not conquer his hatred of the Carthaginians, and went to the repast armed with a sword, intending to murder Hannibal. When Pacuvius Calavius left the biinquet-room, his son followed him and told him of his plan ; but the father worked upon the young man's feelings, and induced him to abandon his bloody design. (Liv. xxiii. 2 — 4, 8, 9.) [L. S.] CALA'VIUS SABI'NUS. [S.abinus.] CALCHAS (KdKxas), a son of Thestor of My- cenae or Megara, was the wisest soothsayer among the Greeks at Troy. (Horn. Jl. i. 69, &c., xiii. 70.) He foretold the Greeks the duration of the Trojan war, even before they sailed from Aulis, and while they were engaged in the war he explained to them the cause of the anger of Apollo. (//. ii. 322 ; Ov. Met. xii. 19, &c. ; Hygin. Fab. 97; Paus. i. 43. § 1.) An oracle had declared that Calchas should die if he should meet with a soothsayer superior to himself; and this came to pass at Claros, for Cal- chas met the famous soothsayer Mopsus in the grove of the Clarian Apollo, and was defeated by him in not being able to state the number of figs on a wild fig-tree, or the number of pigs which a sow was going to give birth to — things which Mopsus told with perfect accuracy. Hereupon, Calchas is said to have died with grief. (Strab. xiv. p. 642, &c., 668 ; Tzetz. ad LycopL 427, 980.) Another story about his death runs thus : a sooth- sayer saw Calchas planting some vines in the grove of Apollo near Grynium, and foretold him that he would never drink any of the wine produced by them. When the grapes had grown ripe and wine was made of them, Calchas invited the soothsayer among his other guests. Even at the moment when Calchas held the cup of wine in his hand, the soothsayer repeated his prophecy. This excited Calchas to such a fit of laughter, that he dropped the cup and choked. (Serv. ud Viry. Eclog. vi. 72.) A third tradition, lastly, states that, when Calchas disputed with Mopsus the administration of the oracle at Claros, he promised victory to Amphima- chus, king of the Lycians, while Mopsus said that he would not be victorious. The latter prophecy was fulfilled ; and Calchas, in his grief at this de- feat, put an end to his life. (Conon, Narrut. 6.) Respecting the oracle of Calchas in Daunia, see Diet, of Ant. s. V. Oraculiim. [L. S.] CALDUS, the name of a family of the plebeian (jielia gens. The word culdus is a shortened form of calidus, and hence Cicero {dc Invent, ii. 9) says, " aliquem Caldum vocari, quod temerario et repentino consilio sit." 1. C. Caelius Caldus, a contemporary of L. Crassus, the orator. No member of his family had yet obtained any of the groat ofiiccs, but he CALECAS. 561 succeeded in raising himself by his activity and eloquence, though his powers as an orator do not appear to have been very great. After having endeavoured in vain to obtain the quaestorship (Cic. pro rianc. 21), he was elected in B. c. 107, tribune of the plebs. His tribuneship is remark- able for a lex tabellaria, which was directed against the le;^ate C. Popillius, and which ordained that in the courts of justice the votes should be given by means of tablets in cases of high treason. Cicero {De Leg. iii. 16) states, that Caldus regretted, throui>hout his life, having proposed this law, as it did injury to the republic. In B.C. 94, he was made consul, together with L. Domitius Aheno- barbus, in preference to a competitor of very high rank, though he himself was a novus homo : and after his consulship he obtained Spain as his pro- vince, as is usually inferred from coins of the gens Caelia which bear his name, the word His {pania) and the figure of a boar, which Eckhel refers to the town of Clunia. (One of these coins is figured in the Diet, of A fit. s. v. Epulones.) During the civil war between Marius and Sulla, a. c. 03, Caldus was a steady supporter of the Marian party, and in con- junction with Carrinas and Brutus, he endeavoured to prevent Pompey from leading his legions to Sulla. But as the three did not act in unison, Pompey made an attack upon the army of Brutus and routed it, whereby the plan of Caldus was com- pletely thwarted. (Cic. de Oral. i. 25, Brut. 45, in Verr. v. 70, de Petit. Cons. 3, pro Muren. 8 ; J. Obsequens, 111 ; Ascon. Aryum. in Cornel, p. 57, ed. Orelli ; Plut. Pomp. 7 ; Cic. ad AtL x. 12, 14 — 16, de Orat. ii. 64; ad Herenn. ii. 13, though it is uncertain whether the Caelius men- tioned in the last two passages is the simie as Caelius Caldus or not ; comp. Eckhel, v, p. 175.) 2. C. Caelius Caldus, a son of L. Caelius Caldus, and a grandson of No. 1, was appointed quaestor in b. c. 50, in Cilicia, which was then under the administration of Cicero. When Cicero departed from the province, he left the administra- tion in the hands of Caldus, although he was not fit for such a post either by his age or his charac- ter. Among the letters of Cicero, there is one {ad Fam. ii. 19) addressed to Caldus at the time when he was quaestor designatus. (Cic. ad Fam. ii. 15, ad Alt. vi. 2, 4—6, vii. 1.) 3. Caldus, the last member of the family who occurs in history. He was one of the Romans who were taken prisoner by the Germans in the defeat of Varus, a. d. 9, and seeing the cruel tor- tures which the bai-barians inflicted upon the pri- soners, he grasped the chains in which he was fet- tered and dashed them against his own head with such force, that he died on the spot. (Veil. Pat. ii. 120.) The name Caldus occurs on several coins of the Caelia gens. One of the most important is given, as is mentioned above, iu the Diet, of Ant. [L.S.] CALE'CAS, JOANNES {'Iw^vtis KoAii/ms), was patriarch of Constantinople from a. d. 1333 to to 1347. (Cantacuz. Hid. Byz. iii. 21.) He was 2o