Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/617

Rh CAPITO. tiurn. The latter writer (s. v. ^l/xa^a quotes the fifteenth book of it ; but the reading in that pas- sage seems to be incorrect, and one MS. has € in- stead of ircvrtKatSfKciTev. This Caplto also made a Greek translation of the sketch of Roman history which Eutropius had drawn up from Livy. The translation, which is mentioned by Suidas (/. c.) and Lydus (De Mcu/istr. Prooem.), is lost, and his work or works on Lycia and Pamphylia have like- wise perished. (Comp. Tschucke's preface to his edition of Eutropius, p. Ixvi. &c.) [L. S.] CA'PITO (KaTrj'Tcuf), a physician, who probably lived in the first or second century after Christ, and who appears to have given particular attention to diseases of the eyes. His prescriptions are quoted by Galen {De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. iv. 7. vol. xii. p. 731) and Aetius (ii. 3. 77, p. 332). He may perhaps be the same person as Artemidorus Capito [Artemidorus], but this is quite un- certain. [W. A. G.] CAPITO, C. ATEIUS, was tribune of the peo- ple in B. c. 55, and with his colleague, Aquillius Gallus, opposed Pompey and Crassus, who were consuls that year. Capito in particular opposed a bill, which the tribune Trebonius brought forward, concerning the distribution of the provinces, but in vain. Capito and Gallus afterwards endeavoured to stop the levy of the troops and to render the campaigns, which the consuls wished to undertake, impossible ; and when Crassus, nevertheless, con- tinued to make preparations for an expedition against the Parthians, Capito announced awful prodigies which were disregarded by Crassus. Appius, the censor, afterwards punished Capito with a nota censoria, as he was charged with hav- ing fabricated the prodigies by which he had attempted to deter Crassus from his undertaking. Dion Cassius (xxxix. 34) says, that Capito, as tri- bune, also counteracted the measures adopted by the consuls in favour of Caesar ; but some time afterwards Cicero (ad Famil. xiii. 29), who speaks of him as his friend, says that he favoured the party of Caesar, though it may be inferred from the whole tone of the letter of Cicero just referred to, that Capito had made no public declaration in favour of Caesar, as Cicero is at so much pains to induce Plancus to interfere with Caesar on behalf of Capito. It is not improbable that our Capito, whom Tacitus (Ann. iii. 45) calls a praetorian, is the same as the one whom Appian (B. C. V. 33, 50) mentions as a legate of Antony. (Comp. Dion Cass. xxxi. 42, xxxix. 33 — 39 ; Appian, B.C. ii. 18; I'lut. Crass. 19; Cic. de Divmat.i.]6.) [L. S.] CA'PITO, C. ATE'IUS, an eminent Roman jurist, was the son of the preceding. He be- came a disciple of the jurist Ofilius, who is said by Pomponius to have been more learned than Trebatius. Labeo, too, his elder contemporary and subsequent rival, had studied under Ofilius, but had received his elementary education from Trebatius, and had listened to all the other eminent jurists of the day. Labeo and Ca- pito became the highest legal authorities at Rome, and were reckoned the ornaments of their profession. Differing in opinion on many impor- tant points, they were the founders of two legal schools, analogous to the sects of philosophers. They were men of very opposite dispositions and political principles — Labeo, a sturdy and heredi- tary republican ; Capito, a time-serving adherent CAPITO. 599 to the new order of things. The complaisance of Capito found favour with Augustus, who accele- rated his promotion to the consulship, in order, says Tacitus (Ann. iii. 75), that he might obtain precedence over Labeo. It may be that Capito was made consul before the proper age, that is, be- fore his 43rd year. He was consul suffectus with C. Vibius Postumus in a. d. 5. Several writers erroneously confound the jurist with C. Fonteius Ca- pito, who was consul with Germanicus in A. D. 12. Pomponius says (as we interpret his words), that Labeo refused the offer of Augustus to make him the colleague of Capito. " Ex his Ateius consul fuit : Labeo noluit, quum offerretur ei ab Augusto consulatus, ei honorem suscipere." (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2. § 47.) We cannot agree with the commenta- tors who attempt to reconcile the statement of Pomponius with the inference that would naturally be drawn from the antithesis of Tacitus : " Illi [Labeoni], quod praeturam intra stetit, commen- datio ex injuria, huic [CapitoniJ quod consulatum adeptus est, odium ex invidia oriebatur." In A. D. 13, Capito was appointed to succeed Messalla in the important office of " curator aqua- rum publicarum," and this office he held to the time of his death. (Frontinus, de Aquaed. 102, ed Diederich.) Capito continued in favour under Tiberius. In A. D. 15, after a formidable and mischievous inun- dation of the Tiber, he and Arruntius were in- trusted with the task of keeping the river within its banks. They submitted to the senate whether it would not be expedient to divert the course of the tributary streams and lakes. Deputies from the coloniae and municipal towns, whose interests would have been affected by the change, were heard against the plan. Piso led the opposition, and the measure was rejected. (Tac. ^??k. i. 7t), 79.) The graramaiian, Ateius Philologus, who was a freedman, was probably (if we may conjecture from his name and from some other circumstances) the freedman of Capito. [Ateius, p. 392, b.J The few recorded incidents of Capito 's life tend to justify the imputation of servility which has been attached to his name ; while Labeo, as if for the sake of contrast, appears to have fallen into the opposite extreme of superfluous incivility. Ti- berius, in an edict relating to new years' gifts (jpid. of Ant. s. V. Stre7ia) had employed a word, which recurred to his memory at night, and struck him as of doubtful Latinity, In the morning he summoned a meeting of the most celebrated verbal critics and grammarians in Rome, among whom Capito was included, to decide upon the credit of the word. It was condemned by M. Pomponius Marcellus, a rigid purist, but Capito pronounced that " it was good Latin, or if not, that it would become so." " Capito does not speak the truth," rejoined the inflexible Marcellus, " You have the power, Caesar, to confer a citizenship on men but not on words." (Suet, de III. Gram. 22 ; Dion. Cass. Ivii. 17.) We agree with Van Eck in holding that in Capito 's conduct on this occasion there is nothing that deserves blame. There was a faint condemnation lurking in his prophecy as to the future, and, peradventure he spoke the truth, for the authority of an emperor so fastidious in his diction as Tiberius, might fairly be expected to confer on a word, if not full citizenship, at least a limited ^'ms Latii. In the story of the (unknown) word, we dia-