Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/588

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CRASSUS, Marcus Licinius, the triumvir, surnamed the Rich on account of his wealth, which he acquired by educating slaves and selling them at a high price, by work ing silver mines, and by skilful purchases of land and houses. The proscription of Cinna obliged him to flee to Spain ; but after China s death he passed into Africa, and thence to Italy, where he ingratiated himself with Sulla. Having been sent against Spartacus, he gained a decisive victory, in which 12,000 of the rebels were killed, and was honoured with an ovation at his return. Soon afterwards he was elected consul with Pompey, 72 B.C., and he dis played his opulence by entertaining the populace at 10,000 tables. He was afterwards censor, and he joined Pompey and Caesar in forming the first triumvirate. As his love of riches was greater than his love of glory, Crassus was satisfied with the province of Syria, which promised to be an inexhaustible source of wealth. Having crossed the Euphrates he hastened to make himself master of Parthia ; but he was defeated and taken prisoner by Surena, the Parthian general, who put him to death by pouring molten gold down his throat. His head was then cut off and sent to Orodes. See Roman History.

CRATES, of Athens, an Athenian actor and author of comedies of the 5th century B.C. He acted in the comedies of Cratinus ; and his own pieces are distinguished chiefly, first, by the fact that they did not depend for their interest upon political references, and secondly, by the fact that he introduced drunkards on the stage, a class of characters that had never appeared there before, although very frequently after his time.

CRATES, of Mallus in Cilicia, a Greek grammarian and Stoic philosopher of the 2d century B.C., was leader of the literary school and head of the library of Pergamus. Almost the only event of his life with which we are acquainted is the visit which he made to Rome about 157 B.C. as ambassador of Attalus II., king of Pergamus, and which is said to have given an impulse to the study of Latin grammar. Crates wrote many works commentaries on the Theogony, Euripides, and Aristo phanes, a treatise on the Attic dialect, and works oa agriculture and geography, but some suppose the geo grapher to have been a different person.

CRATES, of Thebes, a Cynic philosopher of the 4th century B.C., was a pupil of Diogenes, whose extreme cynicism he rivalled. He gave up his large fortune, directing the banker to whom he intrusted it to give it to his sons if they should prove fools, but to the poor if his sons should prove philosophers. He besides attacked all who did not follow his example, not scrupling to force himself into their houses, and thus he gained the nickname of the " door-opener." Poor and ugly as he was, he gained the affection of a young woman of good family, Hip- parchia, who refused to marry the most eligible suitors, for his sake threatened to commit suicide, and at last was allowed by her parents to become his wife. Crates was the author of a number of philosophical letters ; but those published under his name among the Aldine classics and by Boissonacle are not genuine.

CRATINUS (519-423 B.C.), one of the greatest of the Athenian masters of comedy. Our knowledge of his personal history consists of only one or two facts : he was the son of a certain Callimedes ; he was triarch of the ^Enean tribe ; he died iu 423 B.C., at the age (Lucian tells us) of ninety-seven ; and the end of his life was devoted to drinking. His comedies also are now lost, with the exception of small fragments ; but as to their character his contemporaries are in general agreement. They were distinguished by their direct and vigorous political satire, a marked exception being the burlesque Odvfffc i g, which was probably written vhilo a law was in force forbiddin< all political references on the stage, and which is also remarkable for the absence of the chorus. Persius calls their author " the bold ; " and even Pericles, when at the height of his power, did not escape their vehement attacks. Qf his last comedy the plot has come down to us. It was occasioned by the sneers of Aristophanes and others who declared that he was no better than a doting drunkard. Roused by the taunt Cratinus put forth all his strength, and in 423 B.C. produced the Ilvrtvr], or Lottie, which so completely vindicated his powers that he gained the first prize, and triumphed over the Clouds of Aristophanes.. This victory, however, was very possibly determined partly by other than artistic considerations, for Aristophanes would have to struggle against the influence of the sophists, the rhetoricians, and the disciples of Socrates. 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. The style of Cratinus has been likened to that of ^Eschylus ; and Aristophanes, in the Knights, compares him to a rushing torrent. He appears to have been fond of lofty diction and bold figures, and he was most successful in the lyrical parts of his dramas, his choruses being the popular festal songs of his day. Cratinus is said to have been the first I to fix the number of actors at three ; but the statement is I very doubtful, for Aristotle says that in his time the author of the rule was not known.

CRATIPPUS, a Peripatetic philosopher, belonging to Mytilene, was contemporary with Cicero, whose son he taught at Athens, and by whom he is praised in the Do Officiis as the greatest of his school. He was also ths friend of Pompey, whose flight after the battle of Pharsalia he shared, for the purpose, it is said, of convinc ing him of the justice of providence ; and Brutus, while at Athens after the assassination of Ctesar, attended his lectures. The only work attributed to Cratippus is a treatise on divination. His view of the subject is given by Cicero in the De Divinationc (i. 32). 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.

CRATIPPUS, a contemporary of Thucydides, to whose history he made considerable additions, filling in omissions and continuing it to the time of Conou.

CRAUFORD, Quentin (1743-lS19),an English author. In early life he went to India, where he entered the British army, and on the conclusion of peace devoted himself to commerce. Returning to Europe before the age of forty with a handsome fortune, he settled at 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, and where he remained till his death, with the exception of ten years from the out break of the Revolution to the Peace of Amiens.


He wrote, among other works, The History, lldigion, Learning, and Manners of the Uindus (London, 1790), Eesearches Concerning the Laws, Theology, Learning, and Commerce of Ancient and Modern India (1817), History of the Bastille (London, 1792), On Pericles and the Arts in Greece, Essay on Swift an.l his Influence on the British Government, Notice sur Marie Antoinette, with whom he had personal acquaintance (Paris 1809), Mcmoires de Mme. du Haussct.

CRAWFORD, Thomas (1814-1857), American sculptor,

was born of Irish parents at New York, March 22, 1814. He showed at an early age great taste for art. and learnt to

draw and to carve in wood. In his nineteenth year he