away through fear during the heat of the persecution. Cyprian, although inspired by lofty notions of the prerogatives of the church, and inclined to severity of opinion towards heretics, and especially heretical dissentients from the belief in the divine authorship of the episcopal order and the unity of Christendom, was leniently disposed towards those who had temporarily fallen from the faith. He set himself in opposition to Novatian, a presbyter of Rome, who advocated their permanent exclusion from the church; and it was his influence which guided the tolerant measures of the Carthaginian synods on the subject. While in this question he went hand in hand with Cornelius, bishop of Rome, his strict attitude in the matter of baptism by heretics brought him into serious conflict with the Roman bishop Stephen. It would almost have come to a rupture, since both parties held firmly to their standpoint, had not a new persecution arisen under the emperor Valerian, which threw all internal quarrels into the background in face of the common danger. Stephen became a martyr in August 257. Cyprian was at first banished to Curubis in Africa Proconsularis. But soon he was recalled, taken into custody, and finally condemned to death. He was beheaded on the 14th of September 258, the first African bishop to obtain the martyr’s crown.
All Cyprian’s literary works were written in connexion with his episcopal office; almost all his treatises and many of his letters have the character of pastoral epistles, and their form occasionally betrays the fact that they were intended as addresses. These writings bear the mark of a clear mind and a moderate and gentle spirit. Cyprian had none of that character which makes the reading of Tertullian, whom he himself called his magister, so interesting and piquant, but he possessed other qualities which Tertullian lacked, especially the art of presenting his thoughts in simple, smooth and clear language, yet in a style which is not wanting in warmth and persuasive power. Like Tertullian, and often in imitation of him, Cyprian took certain apologetic, dogmatic and pastoral themes as subjects of his treatises. By far the best known of these is the treatise De catholicae ecclesiae unitate, called forth in A.D. 251 by the schism at Carthage, but particularly by the Novatian schism at Rome. In this is proclaimed the doctrine of the one church founded upon the apostle Peter, whose “tangible bond is her one united episcopate, an apostleship universal yet only one—the authority of every bishop perfect in itself and independent, yet not forming with all the others a mere agglomeration of powers, but being a tenure upon a totality like that of a shareholder in some joint property.”
Attention must also be called to the treatise Ad Donatum (De gratia dei), in which the new life after regeneration with its moral effects is set forth in a pure and clear light, as contrasted with the night of heathendom and its moral degradation, which were known to the author from personal experience. The numerous Letters of Cyprian are not only an important source for the history of church life and of ecclesiastical law, on account of their rich and manifold contents, but in large part they are important monuments of the literary activity of their author, since, not infrequently, they are in the form of treatises upon the topic in question. Of the eighty-two letters in the present collection, sixty-six were written by Cyprian. In the great majority of cases the chronology of their composition, as far as the year is concerned, presents no difficulties; more precise assignments are mainly conjectural. In the editions of the works of Cyprian a number of treatises are printed which, certainly or probably, were not written by him, and have therefore usually been described as pseudo-Cyprianic. Several of them, e.g. the treatise on dice (De aleatoribus), have attracted the attention of scholars, who are never weary of the attempt to determine the identity of the author, unfortunately hitherto without much success.
The best, though by no means faultless, edition of Cyprian’s works is that of W. von Hartel in the Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum (3 vols., Vienna, 1868–1871). There is an English translation in the Library of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. The most complete monograph is that by Archbishop E. W. Benson, Cyprian, his Life, his Times, his Work (London, 1897). See also J. A. Faulkner, Cyprian the Churchman (Cincinnati and New York, 1906).
CYPRINODONTS. In spite of their name, the small fishes called Cyprinodonts are in no way related to the Cyprinids, or carp family, but are near allies of the pike, characterized by a flat head with protractile mouth beset with cardiform, villiform, or compressed, bi- or tri-cuspid teeth, generally large scales, and the absence of a well-developed lateral line. About two hundred species are known, mostly inhabitants of the fresh and brackish waters of America; only about thirty are known from the old world (south Europe, south Asia, China and Japan, and Africa). Several forms occur in the Oligocene and Miocene beds of Europe. Many species are ovo-viviparous, and from their small size and lively behaviour they are much appreciated as aquarium fishes.
In many species the sexes are dissimilar, the female being larger and less brilliantly coloured, with smaller fins; the anal fin of the male may be modified into an intromittent organ by means of which internal fertilization takes place, the ova developing in a sort of uterus. In the remarkable genus Anableps, from Central and South America, the strongly projecting eyes are divided by a horizontal band of the conjunctiva into an upper part adapted for vision in the air, and a lower for vision in the water, and the pupil is also divided into two parts by a constriction.
The latest monograph of these fishes is by S. Garman in Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool. xix. (1895).
The Amblyopsidae, which include the remarkable blind cave fishes of North America (Mammoth cave and others), are nearly related to the Cyprinodontidae, and like many of them ovo-viviparous. Chologaster, from the lowland streams and swamps of the south Atlantic states, has the eyes well developed and the body is coloured. Amblyopsis and Typhlichthys, which are evidently derived from Chologaster, or from forms closely related to it, but living in complete darkness, have the eyes rudimentary and more or less concealed under the skin, and the body is colourless.
See F. W. Putnam, Amer. Nat. (1872), p. 6, and P. Boston Soc. xvii. (1875), p. 222; and C. H. Eigenmann, Archiv. für Entwickelungsmechanik der Organismen, viii. (1899), p. 545. (G. A. B.)
CYPRUS, one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean, nominally in the dominion of Turkey, but under British administration, situated in the easternmost basin of that sea, at roughly equal distance from the coasts of Asia Minor to the north and of Syria to the east. The headland of Cape Kormakiti in Cyprus is distant 44 m. from Cape Anamur in Asia Minor, and its north-east point, Cape St Andrea, is 69 m. from Latakieh in Syria. It lies between 34° 33′ and 35° 41′ N., and between 32° 20′ and 34° 35′ E., so that it is situated in almost exactly the same latitude as Crete. Its greatest length is about 141 m., from Cape Drepano in the west to Cape St Andrea in the north-east, and its greatest breadth, from Cape Gata in the south to Cape Kormakiti in the north, reaches 60 m.; while it retains an average width of from 35 to 50 m. through the greater part of its extent, but narrows suddenly to less than 10 m. about 34° E., and from thence sends out a long narrow tongue of land towards the E.N.E. for a distance of 46 m., terminating in Cape St Andrea. The coast-line measures 486 m. Cyprus is the largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily and Sardinia. In 1885 a trigonometrical survey and a map on the scale of 1 in. to 1 m. were made by Captain (afterwards Lord) Kitchener, R.E., who worked out the area of the island at 3584 sq. m., or a little more than the area of Norfolk and Suffolk.
Mountains.—Great part of the island is occupied by two mountain ranges, both of which have a general direction from west to east. Of these the most extensive, as well as the most lofty, is that which fills up almost the whole southern portion of the island, and is generally designated by modern geographers as Mount Olympus, though that name appears to have been applied by the ancients only to one particular peak. The highest summit is known at the present day as Mount Troödos, and attains an elevation of 6406 ft. It sends down subordinate ranges or spurs, of considerable altitude, on all sides, one of which extends to Cape Arnauti (the ancient Acamas), which forms the
