Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/616

Rh 598 CAPELLA. and frivolous, we can occasionally extract curious and valu<able information, derived without doubt from treatises which have long since perished. Thus, for example, in one remarkable passage (viii. § 857) we detect a hint of the true constitution of the solar sj'stem. It is here so distinctly main- tained that the planets Mercur}^ and Venus revolve round the sun, and not round the earth, and their position with regard to these bodies and to each other is so correctly described, that the historians of science have considered it not improbable that Copernicus, who quotes Martianus, may have de- rived the first germ of his theory from this source. The style is in the worst possible taste, and looks like a caricature of Apuleius and Tertullian. It is overloaded with far-fetched metaphors, and has all the sustained grandiloquence, the pompous preten- sion, and the striving after false sublimity, so cha- racteristic of the African school, while the diction abounds in strange words, and is in the highest degree harsh, obscure, and barbarous. Some al- lowance must be made, however, for the circum- stances under which the book has been transmitted to us. It was highly esteemed during the middle ages, and extensively employed as a manual for the purposes of education. Hence it was copied and re-copied by the monks, and being of course in many places quite unintelligible to them, cor- iniptions crept in, and the text soon became in- volved in inextricable confusion. The oldest MSS. are those in the Bodleian library, in the British Museum, in the public librarj- of the University of Cambridge, and in the library of Corpus Christi College in the same university. A MS>. exposi- tion of Capella, written by Jo. Scotus, who died in 075, is mentioned by L'Abbe (BiU. Nov. iMSS. p. 45) ; another, the work of Alexander Neckam, who belongs to the thirteenth century, is described by Leland (Commentar. de Script. Drit. p. 214); and Perizonius possessed a commentary drawn up by Remigius Antissiodorensis about the year 888. In modem times, Ugolctus had the merit of first bringing CapeUa to light ; and the editio princeps was printed at Vicenza by Henricus de S. Urso, in fol. 1499, under the care of Franciscus Bodianus, who in a prefatory letter boasts of having corrected 2000 errors. This was followed by the editions of Mutina, 1500, fol. ; of Vienna, with the notes of Dubravius, 1516, fol.; of Basle, 1532, fol.; of Lyons, 1539, 8vo.; of Basle, with the scholia, &c., of Vulcanius, 1577, fol. in a vol. containing also the Origines of Isidorus. But all these were thrown into the shade by that of Leyden, 8vo. 1599, with the remarks of Hugo Grotius, who wrote his commentary when a boy of fourteen, with the assistance probably of Joseph Scaliger, by whom he was advised to undertake the task. This edition was with justice considered the best, until the appearance of that by U. F. Kopp, 4to. Francf. 1836, which is immeasurably superior, in a critical point of view, to all preceding ones, and contains also a copious collection of the best notes. The last book was included by Meibomius in his "Auc- tores Vet. Musicae," Amst. 4to. 1652; the first two were published separately by Walthard, Bern, 1763, 8vo., and by J. A. Goetz at Nuremberg, 8vo. 1794, with critical and explanatory remarks. The poetical passages are inserted in the Collectio Pi- saurensis, vol. vi. p. Qd. The popularity of Capella in the middle ages is attested by Gregorius Turonensis, Joannes Saris- CAPITO. buriensis, Nicolaus Clemangius, and others. A number of clever emendations will be found in the notes of Heinsius upon Ovid ; and !Munker, in his commentary on Hyginus, has given several impor- tant readings from a Leyden MS. There is an interesting analysis of the work by F. Jacobs in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopadie. [W. R.] CAPELLA, STATI'LIUS, a Roman eques, who at one time kept Flavia Domitilla, afterwards the wife of Vespasian. (Suet. Vesp. 3.) [L. S.] CAPER (KoTrpos), of Elis, the son of one Pytha- goras, who acquired great renown from obtaining the victory in wrestling and the pancratium on the same day, in the Olympic games. (01. 142, b. c. 212.) He is said to have been the first after Hemcles, according to Pausanias, or the second, •according to Africanus, who conquered in these two contests on the same day. (Pans. v. 21. § 5, vi. 15. §§ 3, 6; Euseb. 'EA. oK. p. 42, ed. Scali- ger; Krause, Olympia.^ p. 306.) CAPER, FLA'V^IUS, a Roman grammarian of uncertain date, whose works "de Latinitate," &c., are quoted repeatedly with the greatest respect by Charisius, Rufinus, Servius, and others, but especi- ally by Priscian. "We possess two very short tracts entitled " Flavii Capri grammatici vetustissimi de Orthographia libellus," and " Caper de Verbis me- diis." Barthius {Advers. xxi. 1, xxxv. 9) has con- jectured, with much plausibility, that these are not the original works of Caper, but meagre abridge- ments by a later hand. Servius {ad Virg. Aeti. x. 344) cites "Caper in libris enucleati sermonis," and (ad Aen. x. 377) "Caper in libris dubii gene- ris." St. Jerome (Adv. Riifin. ii.) speaks of his grammatical " commentarii " as a book in common use ; and Agroetus, who wrote a supplement to the " Libellus de Orthographia et Proprietate ac Diffe- rentia Sermonum," refers to his annotations on Cicero as the most celebrated of his numerous pro- ductions. He is also frequently ranked among the scholiasts upon Terence, but apparently on no good grounds. (Schopfen, de Terentio^ &c., 15onn, 1821.) Caper was first published among a collection of Latin grammarians printed at Venice about 1476, and reprinted in 1480, 1491, and often afterwards. The best edition is that contained in the " Gram- mat. Latin. Auct. Antiqu." by Putschius (pp. 2239—2248), Hanov. 1605. [W. R.] CA'PETUS SI'LVIUS. [Silvius.] CAPHA. [Theodosia.] CAPHO. [Cafo.] CA'PITO, the father of Betilienus Bassus, or Cassius Betillinus as Dion Cassius calls him, was compelled to be present at the execution of his sou by order of Caligula, and was then put to death himself. (Dion Cass. lix. 25.) [Bassus, p.471,b.] CA'PITO (KaTTiTwj/). 1. Of Alexandria, is called by Athenaeus (x. p. 425) an epic poet, and the author of a work 'EpwriKoi, which consisted of at least two books. In another passage (viii. p. 350) he mentions a work of his entitled irpds *jAo- Tramrov d.irofjLvt)fxovcvixaTa^ from which he quotes a statement. It is not improbable that the Capito of whom there is an epigram in the Greek Antho- logy (v. 67, ed. Tauchn.) may be the same person as the epic poet. 2. A native of Lycia, is called by Suidas (s. v. KairiTuv) and Eudocia (p. 267) an historian, and the author of a work on Isauria ('IcravpiKa.), which consisted, according to Suidas, of eight books, and is frequently referred to by Stephanus of Byzan-