Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/607

Rh CAMBVSES. hmevor, that a single battle, in which the Persians were victorious, decided the fate of Egypt ; and, though some of the conquered held out tor a while in Memphis, they were finally obliged to capitu- late, and the whole nation submitted to Cambyses. He received also the voluntary submission of the Greek cities, Cyrene and Barca [see p. 477, b.], and of the neighbouring Libyan tribes, and pro- jected fresh expeditions against the Aethiopians, who were called the " long-lived," and also against Carthage and the Ammonians. Having set out on his march to Aethiopia, he was compelled by want of provisions to return ; the army which he sent against the Ammonians perished in the sands; and the attack on Carthage fell to the ground in conse- quence of the refusal of the Phoenicians to act against their colony. Yet their very refusal serves to shew what is indeed of itself sufficiently obvious, how important the expedition would have been in a commercial point of view, while that against the Ammonians, had it succeeded, would probably have opened to the Persians the caravan-trade of the desert. (Herod, ii. 1, iii. 1-'2G ; Ctes. Pers. 9; Just. i. 9; comp. Heeren's African Natims^ vol. i. eh. 6.) Cambyses appears to have ruled Egypt with a stem and strong hand ; and to him perhaps we may best refer the prediction of Isaiah : " The Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord" (Is. xix. 4 ; see Vitringa, ad loc); and it is possible that his tyranny to the conquered, together with the insults offered by him to their national religion, may have caused some exaggeration in the accounts of his madness, which, in fact, the Egyptians ascribed to his impiety. But, allowing for some over-statement, it does appear that he had been subject from his birth to epileptic fits (Herod, iii. 33) ; and, in addition to the physical tendency to insanity thus created, the habits of despotism would seem to have fostered in him a capricious self-will and a violence of temper bordering upon frenzy. He had long set the laws of Persia at defiance by marrying his sisters, one of whom he is said to have murdered in a fit of passion because she lamented her brother Smerdis, whom he hnd caused to be slain. Of the death of this prince, and of the events that followed upon it, different accounts are given by Herodotus and Ctesias. The former relates that Cambyses, alarmed by a dream which seemed to portend his brother's greatness, sent a confidential minister named Prexaspes to Susa with orders to put him to death. Afterwards, a Magian, who bore the same name as the deceased prince and greatly resembled him in appearance, took advantage of these circumstances to personate him and set up a claim to the throne [Smerdis], and Cambyses, while marching through Syria against this pretender, died at a place named Ecba- tana of an accidental wound in the thigh, b. c. 521. According to Ctesias, the name of the king's mur- dered brother was Tanyoxarces, and a Magian named Sphendadates accused him to the king of an intention to revolt. After his death by poison, Cambyses, to conceal it from his mother Amytis, lojide Sphendadates personate him. The fraud succeeded at first, from the wonderful likeness be- tween the Magian and the murdered prince ; at length, however, Amytis discovered it, and died of poison, which she had voluntarily taken, imprecat- ing curses on Cambyses. The king died at Babylon of an accidental wound in the thigh, and Sphenda- CAMEMATA. ana dates continued to support the character of Tany. oxarces, and maint-iined himself for some time on the throne. (Herod, iii 27-38, 61-66; Ctes.Pe/v. 10-12; Diod. Euc. de Virt. et Vil. p. 556, ed. Wess. ; Strab. x. p. 473, xvii. pp. 805, 816 ; Just, i. 9.) Herodotus says (iii. 89), that the Persian* always spoke of Cambyses by the name of SeoTrrfxT/s, in remembrance of his tyranny. [E. E.] CAMEIRUS (Ka/xejpos), a son of Cercaphus and Cydippe, and a grandson of Helios. The to i of Cameiros, in Rhodes, is said to have derived ita name from him. (Diod. v. 57; Pind. 01. vii. 135, with the SchoL; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 315.) [L. S.] CAME'LIUS, one of the physicians of Augtis- tus, who appears to have lived after Artorius, and to have been succeeded by Antonius Musa. Pliny in rather an obscure passage {H. N. xix. 38), tells us, that he would not allow the emperor to eat lettuce in one of his illnesses, from the use of which plant afterwards, at the recommendation of Anto- nius Musa, he derived much benefit. [W. A. G.J CAME'NAE, not Camoenae^ were Roman divi- nities whose name is connected with carmen (an oracle or prophecy), whence we also find the forms Casmenae, Carmenae^ and Carmentis. The Came- nae were accordingly prophetic nymphs, and they belonged to the religion of ancient Italy, although later traditions represent them as having been in- troduced into Italy from Arcadia. Two of the Camenae were Antevorta and Postvorta. [Ante- VORTA.] The third was Carmenta or Carmentis, a prophetic and healing divinity, who had a temple at the foot of the Capitoline hill, and altars near the porta Carmentalis. Respecting the festival celebrated in her honour, see Diet, of Ant. s. v. Carmentalia. The traditions which assigned a Greek origin to her worship at Rome, state that her original name was Nicostrate, and that she was called Carmentis from her prophetic powers. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 51, 336; Dionys. i. 15, 32.) According to these traditions she was the mother of Evander, the Arcadian, by Hermes, and after having endeavoured to persuade her son to kill Hermes, she fled with him to Italy, where she gave oracles to the people and to Heracles. She was put to death by her son at the age of 110 years, and then obtained divine honours, (Dionys. i. 31, &c.) Hyginus {Fab. 277) further relates, that she changed the fifteen characters of the Greek alphabet, which Evander introduced into Latium, into Roman ones. The fourth and most celebrated Camena was Aegeria or Egeria, [Aegeria.] It must be remarked here, that the Roman poets, even as early as the time of Livius Andronicus, apply the name of Camenae to the Muses. ( Hartung, Die Reliq. d. Rom. ii. p. 198, &c.) [L. S.] CAMENIA'TA, JOANNES {^lai.vvt]s Kafit- vjoTo), cubuclesius, or bearer of the crosier, to the archbishop of Thessalonica, was an eye-witness of the capture of that town by the Arabs in A. D. 904 A. H. 189. Leo, a Syrian renegade, who held a command under the Arabs, made a descent in that year near Thessalonica, with a fleet of fifty-four ships chiefly manned with negro slaves, surprised, took, and plundered the town, then the second in the Greek empire, and sailed off with a great number of captives. Among these were Caraeniata and several of his family, who would have been put to death by the Arabs, had not Cameniata saved his and their lives by shewing the victors a spot where the inhabitants had buried part of their riches.