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CARACOLE—CARALES

committed against his own country by sacrificing his inalienable character as the representative of the king of Great Britain to his secondary and artificial character as delegate of the king of Naples. The only explanation of Nelson’s conduct is to be found in his infatuation for Lady Hamilton, whose low ambition made her use her influence over him in the interest of Queen Mary Caroline’s malignant spite.

Authorities.—Besides the general works on Nelson and Naples, such as P. Colletta’s Storia del Reame di Napoli (Florence, 1848), there is a large amount of special literature on the subject. Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins (Navy Records Society, 1903), contains all the documents on the episode, including those incorrectly transcribed by A. Dumas in his Borboni di Napoli (Naples, 1862–1863), with an introduction defending Nelson by H. C. Gutteridge; the work contains a bibliography. The case against Nelson is set forth by Professor P. Villari in his article “Nelson, Caracciolo, e la Repubblica Napolitana” (Nuova Antologia, 16th February 1899); Captain A. T. Mahan has replied in “The Neapolitan Republic and Nelson’s Accusers” (English Historical Review, July 1899), “Nelson at Naples” (ibid., October 1900), and “Nelson at Naples” (Athenaeum, 8th July 1899); see also F. Lemmi, Nelson e Caracciolo (Florence, 1898); C. Giglioli, Naples in 1799 (London, 1903); Freiherr von Helfert, Fabrizio Ruffo (Vienna, 1882); H. Hüffer, Die neapolitanische Republik des Jahres 1799 (Leipzig, 1884).  (L. V.*) 


CARACOLE (a Fr. word, the origin of which is doubtful, meaning the wheeling about of a horse; in Spanish and Portuguese caracol means a snail with a spiral shell), a turn or wheeling in horsemanship to the left or right, or to both alternately, so that the movements of the horse describe a zig-zag course. The term has been used loosely and erroneously to describe any display of fancy riding. It is also used for a spiral staircase in a tower.


CARACTACUS, strictly Caratācus, the Latin form of a Celtic name, which survives in Caradoc and other proper names. The most famous bearer of the name was the British chieftain who led the native resistance to the Roman invaders in A.D. 48–51, and was finally captured and sent to Rome (Tac. Ann. xii. 33, Dio. lx.). Two old camps on the Welsh border are now called Caer Caradoc, but the names seem to be the invention of antiquaries and not genuinely ancient memorials of the Celtic hero.


CARADOC SERIES, in geology, the name introduced by R. I. Murchison in 1839 for the sandstone series of Caer Caradoc in Shropshire, England. The limits of Murchison’s Caradoc series have since been somewhat modified, and through the labours of C. Lapworth the several members of the series have been precisely defined by means of graptolitic zones. These zones are identical with those found in the rocks of the same age in North Wales, the Bala series (q.v.), and the terms Bala or Caradoc series are used indifferently by geologists when referring to the uppermost substage of the Ordovician System. The Ordovician rocks of the Caradoc district have been subdivided into the following beds, in descending order: the Trinucleus shales, Acton Scott beds, Longville flags, Chatwell and Soudley sandstones, Harnage shales and Hoar Edge grits and limestone. In the Corndon district in the same county the Caradoc series is represented by the Harrington group of ashes and shales and the Spy Wood group beneath them; these two groups of strata are sometimes spoken of as the Chirbury series. In the Breidden district are the barren Criggeon shales with ashes and flows of andesite.

In the Lake district the Coniston limestone series represents the Upper Caradocian, the lower portion being taken up by part of the great Borrowdale volcanic series of rocks. The Coniston limestone series contains the following subdivisions:—

Ashgill group (Ashgill shales and Staurocephalus limestone).

Kiesley limestone.

Sleddale group (Applethwaite beds = Upper Coniston limestone conglomerate; Yarlside rhyolite; stye end beds = Lower Coniston limestone).

Roman Fell group (Corona beds).

The Dufton shales and Drygill shales are equivalents of the Sleddale group.

Rocks of Caradoc age are well developed in southern Scotland; in the Girvan district they have been described as the Ardmillan series with the Drummock group and Barren Flagstone group in the upper portion, and the Whitehouse, Ardwell and Balclatchie groups in the lower part. Similarly, two divisions, known as the Upper and Lower Hartfell series, are recognized in the southern and central area, in Peeblesshire, Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire.

In Ireland the Caradoc or Bala series is represented by the limestones of Portraine near Dublin and of the Chair of Kildare; by the Ballymoney series of Wexford and Carnalea shales of Co. Down. In the Lough Mask district beds of this age are found, as in Wales, interstratified with volcanic lavas and tuffs. Other localities are known in counties Tyrone, Meath and Louth, also in Lambay Island.

See Ordovician System; also C. Lapworth, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 5th series, vol. vi., 1880; Geol. Mag., 1889; C. Lapworth and W. W. Watts, Proc. Geol. Assoc., xiii., 1894; J. E. Marr, Geol. Mag., 1892; J. E. Marr and T. Roberts, Q.J.G.S., 1885; B. N. Peach and J. Home, “Silurian Rocks of Great Britain,” vol. I., 1899 (Mem. Geol. Survey).  (J. A. H.) 


CARALES (Gr. Κάραλις, mod. Cagliari, q.v.), the most important ancient city of Sardinia, situated on the south coast of the island. Its foundation is generally attributed to the Carthaginians, and Punic tombs exist in considerable numbers near the present cemetery on the east and still more on the rocky plateau to the north-west of the town. It first appears in Roman history in the Second Punic War, and probably obtained full Roman civic rights from Julius Caesar. In imperial times it was the most important town in the island, mainly owing to its fine sheltered harbour, where a detachment of the classis Misenas was stationed. In the 4th and 5th centuries it was probably the seat of the praeses Sardiniae. It is mentioned as an important harbour in the Gothic and Gildonic wars. It was also the chief point of the road system of Sardinia. Roads ran hence to Olbia by the east coast, and through the centre of the island, to Othoca (Oristano) direct, and thence to Olbia (probably the most frequented route), through the mining district to Sulci and along the south and west coasts to Othoca. The hill occupied by the Pisan fortifications and the medieval town within them must have been the acropolis of the Carthaginian settlement; it is impossible to suppose that a citadel presenting such natural advantages was not occupied. The Romans, too, probably made use of it, though the lower quarters were mainly occupied in imperial times. A. Taramelli (Notizie degli Scavi, 1905, 41 seq.) rightly points out that the nucleus of the Roman municipium is probably represented by the present quarter of the Marina, in which the streets intersect at right angles and Roman remains are frequently found in the subsoil. An inscription found some way to the north towards the amphitheatre speaks of paving in the squares and streets, and of drains constructed under Domitian in A.D. 83 (F. Vivanet in Notizie degli Scavi, 1897, 279). The amphitheatre occupies a natural depression in the rock just below the acropolis, and open towards the sea with a fine view. Its axes are 951/2 and 79 yds., and it is in the main cut in the rock, though some parts of it are built with concrete. Below it, to the south, are considerable remains of ancient reservoirs for rain-water, upon which the city entirely depended. This nucleus extended both to the east and to the west; in the former direction it ran some way inland, on the east of the castle hill. Here were the ambulationes or public promenades constructed by the pro-consul Q. Caecilius Metellus before A.D. 6 (Corp. Inscrip. Lat. x., Berlin, 1883, No. 7581). Here also, not far from the shore, the remains of Roman baths, with a fine coloured mosaic pavement, representing deities riding on marine monsters, were found in 1907. To the east was the necropolis of Bonaria, where both Punic and Roman tombs exist, and where, on the site of the present cemetery, Christian catacombs have been discovered (F. Vivanet in Notizie degli Scavi, 1892, 183 seq.; G. Pinza in Nuovo Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana, 1901, 61 seq.). But the western quarter seems to have been far more important; it extended along the lagoon of S. Gilla (which lies to the north-west of the town, and which until the middle ages was an open bay) and on the lower slopes of the hill which rises above it. The chief discoveries which have been made are noted by Taramelli (loc. cit.) and include some important buildings, of which a large Roman house (or group of houses) is the only one now visible (G. Spano in Notizie degli Scavi, 1876, 148, 173; 1877, 285; 1880, 105, 405). Beyond this quarter begins an extensive Roman necropolis extending along the edge of the hill north-east of the high road leading to the north-west; the most