Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/895

CAE whom personal hatred of Cæsar had united in a conspiracy against his life. C. Cassius was the soul and leader of this plot. Besides M. Brutus, there was not one among them whose motives were not selfish and personal. They kept their secret well, though about sixty shared it. The blow was struck on the ever memorable Ides of March (15th March, . 44). In the senate-house of Pompey, at the foot of the statue of his conquered rival, Cæsar fell, pierced by twenty-three wounds. His death plunged Rome again into the vortex of civil war, from which she emerged the hopeless slave of a man in every respect inferior to the great founder of the Empire.

Cæsar was only in his fifty-sixth year at the time of his death. Though he did not live to accomplish his great work, the stamp which his commanding genius left upon it never was obliterated as long as Roman Cæsars wore the imperial purple; and even now a breath of his spirit pervades the world, and a faint echo of his name. Rome in him produced her greatest man. Intellect and will were justly balanced in his great soul. No illusion, no enthusiasm, no ideals clouded his perception or perverted his judgment. A cool, calm, reflecting, prosaic Roman, he saw things as they were, not as he wished them to be. He accepted the facts of his position, and shaped his course of action accordingly. He judged men and institutions for what they were worth, and by the irresistible force of his will, pressed them into his service. He never wavered or hesitated in his whole life, and never lost sight of his final aim. What he had undertaken he carried out—not with the obstinacy of a narrow and stubborn mind, but without passion, with caution and courage combined. In war he was bold and daring, relying more upon rapidity of movement than upon numbers, and trusting much also to that good fortune which always favours the brave. He relied not upon rules and established usage, but upon the intuition of genius. He had no system, and no school; but, as if by inspiration, he always adopted the means which led to success. His starting-point in his career was not the field of battle, but the political arena. He was forty years old before he knew that he could command an army; and though the greatest of Roman generals, he was not so much a soldier as a statesman. But the universality of his genius fitted him for any career. He possessed that kind of natural, plain, and persuasive eloquence which disdains ponderous periods and pointed phrases. He was a perfect master of all the polite learning of his time. Every intellectual occupation had a charm for him, from the study of astronomy to that of the grammatical inflexions of his mother tongue. He fully enjoyed the pleasures of life, physical as well as intellectual. He drained the cup of pleasure to the dregs, but he never became a slave to his passions. He never had to deplore, like Alexander, a single rash act committed under the influence of low excitement. An admirer of the fair sex, he paid great attention to his personal appearance, which was handsome and imposing. His health, though naturally feeble, was strengthened by exercise and exposure. He was a master in every manly feat, and could set his soldiers an example in every military virtue. Such was the great Cæsar, by nature fitted to accomplish a work which, in the development of human affairs, had become imperative. He perceived his duty, he undertook and accomplished it; and if anything is wanted to engage our sympathies, not less than our admiration, for the greatest son of Rome, it is that he died a victim on her altar.—W. I.  CÆSAR,, an Italian architect, born at Milan about 1451. The work in connection with which his name is remembered, is a translation into Italian of the great work of Vitruvius, De Architectura, to which he added an extensive commentary.  CÆSAR,, a learned English lawyer, master of the Rolls from 1614-1636, born near Tottenham in Middlesex in 1557. He held some important appointments under Queen Elizabeth, and was knighted on James' accession. He was also appointed chancellor and under-treasurer of the exchequer, and in 1607 sworn into the privy council.  CÆSARIUS, an eminent French prelate, born at Châlons-sur-Saone in 470, succeeded Pomerius in 499 as abbot of the monastery of Arles. Two years later he became bishop of the diocese, and in the discharge of the duties of his office did much to restore discipline among the clergy. His strictness procured him enemies, and he was twice subjected to temporary banishment on fictitious charges of wishing to betray his country into the hands of the Burgundians. With the consent of the pope, Cæsarius convoked and presided over several councils for settling points of discipline and doctrine. The most noteworthy of them was that of Orange in 529, at which Pelagianism was condemned. Cæsarius seems to have been a zealous disciple of St. Augustine. Several of his numerous homilies are to be found among the sermons of that father. Many of them are also preserved in Baluze's Bibliotheca Patrum. Cæsarius died in 544.—J. B.  CAFFARELLI,, a French general, honoured on various state occasions with the friendship and confidence of Napoleon, born at Falga in 1766; died in 1849. He entered the army as a private soldier in a regiment of dragoons, and attained successively by merit in the field, particularly at Austerlitz, the grades of colonel, general of brigade, and general of division. In 1831 he was made a peer.  CAFFARELLI DU FALGA, , a French general, and man of science, born at the Chateau-du-Falga in Upper Languedoc in 1756. He assisted, under the orders of Kleber, at the passage of the Rhine, near Dusseldorf, in September, 1795. He was subsequently attached, with the rank of general of brigade and chief of the engineers, to the expedition of Bonaparte into Egypt, where to the great grief both of his superior and the soldiery, he died, April, 1799, in consequence of a wound received at the siege of St. Jean d'Acre.  CAFFARO, the earliest historian of Genoa, born in 1080; died in 1166. In 1100 he joined the crusades, and fought at the siege of Cæsarea. Having returned to Genoa, he wrought at his history, which, though written in very bad Latin, is of great value as a source of authentic information. It is preserved in Muratori.  CAGLIARI,. This painter was the brother of Paolo Veronese, and was born at Verona in 1538. He succeeded most in architectural compositions, with which he aided the works of Paolo. He painted also in the style of his brother, and his works in Venice are highly accounted. He died in 1598.—W. T. <section end="895H" /> <section begin="895I" />CAGLIARI,, the elder son of Paolo Veronese, and also his pupil. Carefully educated by his father, at the age of eighteen he had painted some pictures of remarkable promise, and acquired a considerable reputation. On the death of Paolo, Carletto was left with his brother to finish the many works left incomplete by their illustrious father. It has not been easy to distinguish the labours of the father and the sons and several works pass current as Veronese's in which there is little doubt he had no hand whatever. Carletto was born at Venice in 1570. He died at the early age of twenty-six.—W. T. <section end="895I" /> <section begin="895J" />CAGLIARI,, was the younger son of Paolo Veronese. He painted at first with promise; but ultimately put out by the superior lights of his father, brother, and uncle, he abandoned art for commerce. He was born in 1568, and died in 1631.—W. T. <section end="895J" /> <section begin="895K" />CAGLIARI,. See. <section end="895K" /> <section begin="895Zcontin" />CAGLIOSTRO,, commonly called Count de, a famous adventurer, born of respectable parentage at Palermo in 1745; died in 1795. He commenced his public career in a characteristic manner, by cheating a goldsmith of a large sum of money, and ended it, as could hardly have been prophesied, under the ban of the inquisition in the castle of St. Leo. On escaping from Palermo, the proceeds of his crime, or rather series of crimes (for the affair with the goldsmith was not the first of his felonies), enabled him to undertake a course of travel in the East, which he prosecuted under various aliases, but with uniform success; securing everywhere the protection of pashas and muftis, and pocketing what it was afterwards his splendid business to confer—immense riches. Returning to Europe, he married at Rome or Naples a beautiful woman of the name of Lorenza Feliciani, who played the part of countess de Cagliostro to admiration, and added the wages of prostitution to the gains of sorcery. At Strasbourg, where the adventurous pair settled about 1780, Cagliostro evoked the gratitude of the populace by benevolent attentions to the sick, at the same time that he filled his coffers by his trade in necromancy. Here he made the acquaintance of cardinal du Rohan, under whose protection he removed to Paris in 1785. In the capital of France, with a prince of the church for his protector, his success could not but be decided, for he brought with him the secret of Egyptian freemasonry, and by means of that the Parisians could have the pleasure at any time of seeing the ghosts of their departed relatives. He communicated <section end="895Zcontin" />