Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/615

Rh CAPANEUS. parcntly a Greek historian, wlio socnis to liave been a contemporary of Julius Caesar ; for it is on the authority of Cinusius that PlutJirch {dies. 22) relates, that when the senate decreed a supplication on account of the successful proceedings of Caesar in Ciaul, B, c. 55, Cato declared that Caesiir ought to be delivered up to the barbarians, to atone for his violation of the laws of nations. [L. S.] P. CANU'TIUS, or CANNU'TIUS, was bom in the same year as Cicero, B, c. 106, and is de- scribed by the latter as the most eloquent orator out of the senatorial order. After tlie death of P. Sulpicius Rufus, who was one of the most celebra- ted orators of his time, and who left no orations behind him, P. Canutius composed some and pub- lished them under the name of Sulpicius. Canu- tius is frequently mentioned in Cicero's oration for Cluentius as having been engiiged in the prosecu- tion of several of the parties connected with that disgraceful affair. (Cic. Brut. bQ^ pro Cluent. 10, 18 21 27 ^ TI CANU'TIUS or CANNU'TIUS, tribune of the plebs in the year that Caesar was assassi- nated, B. c. 44, was a violent opponent of Antony. When Octavianus drew near to Rome towards the end of October, Canutius went out of the city to meet him, in order to learn his intentions ; and upon Octavianus declaring against Antony, Canu- tius conducted him into the cit}', and spoke to the people on his behalf. Shortly afterwards, Octa- vianus went into Etruria and Antony returned to Rome ; and when the latter summoned the senate on the Capitol on the 28th of November, in order to declare Octavianus an enemy of the state, he would not allow Canutius and two of his other colleagues to approach the Capitol, lest they should put their veto upon the decree of the senate. After the departure of Antony from Rome to pro- secute the war against Dec. Brutus in Cisalpine Gaul, Canutius had full scope for indulging his liostility to Antony, and constantly attacked him in the most furious manner {ccniiinua ruble luce- ruUtt^ Veil. Pat. ii. 64). Upon the establishment of the triumvirate in the following year, b. c. 43, Canutius is said by Velleius Paterculus (/. c.) to have been included in the proscription and put to death ; but this is a mistake, for he was engsiged in the Perusinian war, b. c. 40. As Octavianus had deserted the senatorial party, Canutius became one of his enemies, and accordingly joined Fulvia and L. Antonius in their attempt to crush him in b. c. 40 ; but falling into his hands on the cap- ture of Perusia, Canutius was put to death by his orders. (Appian, JJ. C. in. 41 ; Dion Cass. xlv. 6, 12; Cic. ad Fam. xii. 3,23, P/dlipp. iii. 9; Appian, B. C. v. 49; Dion Cass, xlviii. 14.) The C. Canutius, whom Suetonius {de Clar. lihet. 4) mentions, is in all probability the same as this Ti. Canutius. Whether the Canutius spoken of in the Dialogue " De Oratoribus" (c. 21) is the same as either P. or Ti. Canutius, or a different person altogether, is quite uncertain. CA'PANEUS (Kmravivs), a son of Hipponous and Astynome or Laodice, the daughter of Iphis. (Hygin. Fah. 70; Schol. ad Eurip. Phocn. 101; ud Find. Nam. ix. 30.) He was married to Euadne or laneira, who is also called a daughter of Iphis, and by whom he became the father of Sthenelus. (Schol. ad Find. 01. vi. 46 ; ApoUod. iii. 10. § 8.) He was one of the seven heroes who marched from Argos against Thebes, where he had his station at CAPELLA. 101 the Ogygian or Electrian gate. (Apollod. iii. 6. § 6; Aeschyl. Sept. c. 'Iluih. 423 ; Pans. ix. 8. § 3.^ During the siege of Thebes, he was presumutuoiK enough to say, that even the fire of Zeus should not prevent his scaling the walls of the city ; but when he was ascending the ladder, Zeus struck him with a flash of lightning. (Comp. Eurip. I'liwn. 1172, &c.; comp. Soph. ./4w/iV/. 133; Apollod iii, 6. §7; Ov. Met. ix. 404.) W'hile his body was burning, his wife Euadne leaped into the ilames and des- troyed herself. (Apollod. iii. 7. § 1 ; Eurip. Suppl. 983, &c. ; Philostr. Icon. ii. 31 ; Ov. Ars Am. iii. 21 ; Hygin. Fab. 243.) Capaneus is one of those heroes whom Asclepius was believed to have called back into life. (Apollod. iii. 10. § 3.) At Delphi there was a statue of Capaneus dedicated by the Argives. (Pans. x. 10. § 2.) [L. S.j CAPELIA'NUS. [GoRDiANUS.] CAPELLA, a Roman elegiac poet named by Ovid, concerning whom we know nothing. (Ovid, Ep. ex Font. iv. 16. 36.) [ W. R.j CAPELLA, ANTI'STIUS, the preceptor of the emperor Commodus. (Lamprid. c. 1.) [W'^.R.] CAPELLA, MARTIA'NUS MINEIJS FE- LIX, is generally believed to have flourished to- wards the close of the fifth century of our era, although different critics have fixed upon different epochs, and some, in opposition to all internal evi- dence, would place him as high as the reigns of Maximinus and the Gordians. In MSS. he is frequently styled Afer Carthaginiensis ; and since, when speaking of himself, he employs the expres- sion "Beata alumnum urbs Elissae quem videt," it seems certain that the city of Dido was the place of his education, if not of his birth also. The as- sertions, that he rose to the dignity of proconsul, and composed his book at Rome when far advanced in life, rest entirely upon a few ambiguous and probably corrupt words, which admit of a very dif- ferent interpretation. (Lib. ix. § 999.) Indeed, we know nothing whatever of his personal histoiy, but an ancient biography is said to exist in that portion of Earth's Adversaria which has never yet been published. (Fabric. Bibl. Lai. iii. c. 17) The great work of Capella is composed in a med- ley of prose and various kinds of verse, alter the fa- shion of the Satyra Menippea of Varro and the iraty- ricon of Petronius Arbiter; while, along with these, it probably suggested the form into which Boethuis has thrown his Consolatio Philosophiae. It is a voluminous compilation, forming a sort of encyclo- paedia of the polite learning of the middle ages, and is divided into nine books. The first two, which may be regarded as a mystical introduction to the rest, consist of an elaborate and comi)licated allegory, entitled the Nuptials of Piiilology and Mercury, while in the remaining seven are ex- pounded the principles of the seven liberal arts, which once were believed to embnice the whole circle of philosophy and science. Thus, the third book treats of Grammar ; the fourth of Dialectics, divided into Metaphysics and Logic ; the fifth of Rhetoric ; the sixth of Geometry, consisting chiefly of an abstract of Geography, to which are appended a few simple propositions on lines, surfaces, and so- lids; the seventh of Arithmetic, devoted in a great measure to the properties of numbers ; the eighth of Astronomy ; and the last of Music, including Poetr. We find here an immense mass of leaniing, but the materials are ill-selected, ill-arranged, and ill-digested ; though from amidst much that is dull