Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/630

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CARCINUS.
CARFULENUS.

length a great battle was fought at Clusium between Carbo and Sulla: it lasted for a whole day, but the victory was not decided. Pompey and Crassus were engaged against Carrinas in the neighbourhood of Spoletium, and when Carbo sent out an army to his relief, Sulla, who was informed of the route which this army took, attacked it from an ambuscade and killed nearly 2000 men. Carrinas himself however escaped. Marcius, who was sent by Carbo to the relief of Praeneste, was likewise attacked from an ambuscade by Pompey, and lost many of his men. His soldiers, who considered him to be the cause of their defeat, deserted him, with the exception of a few cohorts, with which he returned to Carbo. Shortly after Carbo and Norbanus made an attack upon the camp of Metellus near Faventia, but time and place were unfavourable to them, and they were defeated: about 10,000 of their men were slain, and 6000 deserted to Metellus, so that Carbo was obliged to withdraw to Arretium with about 1000 men.

The desertion and treachery in the party, which had hitherto supported the cause of Marius, increased every day: Norbanus despairing of success fled to Rhodes, where he put an end to his life soon afterwards; and when Carbo found that the relief of Praeneste, whither he had sent two legions under Damasippus, was hopeless, he too resolved to quit Italy, although he had still large forces at his command, and his generals, Carrinas, Marcius, and Damasippus, were continuing the war in Italy. Carbo fled to Africa. After his party in Italy had been completely defeated, Pompey was sent against the remains of it in Sicily, whither Carbo then repaired. From thence he went to the island of Cossyra, where he was taken prisoner by the emissaries of Pompey. His companions were put to death at once, but Carbo himself was brought in chains before Pompey at Lilybaeum, and after a bitter invective against him, Pompey had him executed and sent his head to Sulla, b. c. 82. (Appian, B. C. i. 69—96; Liv. Epit. 79, 83, 88, 89; Plut. Sull. 22, &c., Pomp. 10, &c.; Cic. c. Verr. i. 4, 13; Pseudo-Ascon. in Verr. p. 129, ed. Orelli; Cic. ad Fam. ix. 21; Eutrop. v. 8, 9; Oros. v. 20; Zonar. x. 1.)

8. Papirius Carbo, a son of Rubria, who is mentioned only by Cicero (ad Fam. ix. 21), and is ironically called there a friend of Cicero. Who he was is unknown.


CARCI'NUS, the father of Agathocles. [Agathocles.]

CARCINUS (Καρκίνος). 1. Suidas mentions three distinct poets of this name. The first he calls a native of Agrigentum in Sicily; the second an Athenian, and son of Theodectes or Xenocles; and the third simply an Attic poet. The first of these poets is not mentioned any where else, and his existence is more than doubtful. The investigations of Meineke on the poets of the name Carcinus have shewn incontrovertibly that we have to distinguish between two tragic poets of this name, both of whom were natives of Athens. The first, or elder one, who was a very skilful scenic dancer (Athen. i. p. 22), is occasionally alluded to by Aristophanes (Nub. 1263, Pax, 794, with the Schol.); but his dramas, of which no fragments have come down to us, seem to have perished at an early time.

The younger Carcinus was a son either of Theodectes or of Xenocles; and if the latter statement be true, he is a grandson of Carcinus the elder. (Comp. Harpocrat. s. v. Καρκίνος.) He is in all probability the same as the one who spent a great part of his life at the court of Dionysius II. at Syracuse. (Diog. Laërt. ii. 7.) This supposition agrees with the statement of Suidas, according to whom Carcinus the son of Xenocles lived about b. c. 380; for Dionysius was expelled from Syracuse in b. c. 356. (Comp. Diod. v. 5, where Wesseling is thinking of the fictitious Carcinus of Agrigentum.) The tragedies which are referred to by the ancients under the name of Carcinus, probably all belong to the younger Carcinus. Suidas attributes to him 160 tragedies, but we possess the titles and fragments of nine only and some fragments of uncertain dramas. The following titles are known: Alope (Aristot. Ethic. Nicom. vii. 7), Achilles (Athen. v. p. 189), Thyestes (Aristot. Poet. 16), Semele (Athen. xiii. p. 559), Amphiaraus (Aristot. Poet. 17), Medeia (Aristot. Rhet. ii. 23), Oedipus (Aristot. Rhet. iii. 15), Tereus (Stobaeus, Serm. ciii. 3), and Orestes. (Phot. Lex. p. 132.) As regards the character of the poems of Carcinus, it is usually inferred, from the phrase Καρκίνου ποιήματα, used to designate obscure poetry (Phot. Lex. s. v.), and is also attested by other authorities (Athen. viii. p. 351), that the style of Carcinus was of a studied obscurity; though in the fragments extant we can scarcely perceive any trace of this obscurity, and their style bears a close resemblance to that of Euripides. (Meineke, Hist. Crit. com. Graec. p. 505, &c.)

2. Of Naupactus, is mentioned by Pausanias (x. 38. § 6) among the cyclic poets; and Charon of Lampsacus, before whose time Carcinus must have lived, attributed to him the epic poem Ναυπάκτια, which all others ascribed to a Milesian poet.

3. A Greek rhetorician, who is referred to by Alexander (De Fig. Dict.), but of whom nothing further is known.


CA'RCIUS, the commander of a portion of the fleet of Octavianus in the war against Sext. Pompeius, b. c. 36. (Appian, B. C. v. 111.)


CA'RDEA, a Roman divinity presiding over and protecting the hinges of doors (cardo). What Ovid (Fast. vi. 101, &c.) relates of Carna belongs to Cardea: the poet seems, in fact, in that passage to confound three distinct divinities—Carna, Cardea, and Crane, the last of whom he declares to be merely an ancient form of Carna. Cardea was beloved by Janus, and after yielding to his embraces, the god rewarded her by giving her the protection of the hinges of doors, and the power of preventing evil daemons from entering houses. She especially protected little children in their cradles against formidable night-birds, which witches used to metamorphose themselves into, and thus to attack children by night time, tearing them from their cradles and sucking the blood out of them. Cardea exercised this power by means of white thorn and other magic substances, and is said to have done so first in the case of Procas, prince of Alba. (Tertull. de Cor. 13.)


CARDIA'NUS HIERO'NYMUS. [Hieronymus.]


CARE'NES or CARRHE'NES, a general of the Parthians who was defeated in a battle with Gotarzes in a. d. 49. (Tac. Ann. xii. 12–14.)


D. CARFULE'NUS, called Carsuleius by Appian, served under Julius Caesar in the Alexandrine war (b. c. 47), in which he is spoken of as