xv. 11). He died from excitement caused by his passionate speech against the consul L. Marcius Philippus, who had insulted the Senate. Crassus is one of the chief speakers in the De oratore of Cicero, who has also preserved a few fragments of his speeches.
3. Publius Licinius Crassus, called Dives, father of the triumvir. Little is known of him before he became consul in 97, except that he proposed a law regulating the expenses of the table, which met with general approval. During his consulship the practice of magic arts was condemned by a decree of the senate, and human sacrifice was abolished. He was subsequently governor of Spain for some years, during which he gained several successes over the Lusitanians, and on his return in 93 was honoured with a triumph. After the Social War, as censor with L. Julius Caesar, he had the task of enrolling in new tribes certain of the Latins and Italians as a reward for their loyalty to the Romans, but the proceedings seem to have been interrupted by certain irregularities. They also forbade the introduction of foreign wines and unguents. Crassus committed suicide in 87, to avoid falling into the hands of the Marian party.
Plutarch, Crassus, 4; Aulus Gellius ii. 24; Macrobius, Saturnalia, ii. 13; Livy, Epit. 80; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxx. 3; Appian, Bell. Civ. i. 72; Festus, under Referri.
4. Marcus Licinius Crassus (c. 115–53 B.C.), the Triumvir, surnamed Dives (rich) on account of his great wealth. His wealth was acquired by traffic in slaves, the working of silver mines, and judicious purchases of lands and houses, especially those of proscribed citizens. The proscription of Cinna obliged him to flee to Spain; but after Cinna’s death he passed into Africa, and thence to Italy, where he ingratiated himself with Sulla. Having been sent against Spartacus, he gained a decisive victory, and was honoured with a minor triumph. Soon afterwards he was elected consul with Pompey, and (70) displayed his wealth by entertaining the populace at 10,000 tables, and distributing sufficient corn to last each family three months. In 65 he was censor, and in 60 he joined Pompey and Caesar in the coalition known as the first triumvirate. In 55 he was again consul with Pompey, and a law was passed, assigning the provinces of the two Spains and Syria to the two consuls for five years. Crassus was satisfied with Syria, which promised to be an inexhaustible source of wealth. Having crossed the Euphrates he hastened to make himself master of Parthia; but he was defeated at Carrhae (53 B.C.) and taken prisoner by Surenas, the Parthian general, who put him to death by pouring molten gold down his throat. His head was cut off and sent to Orodes, the Parthian king. Crassus was a man of only moderate abilities, and owed his importance to his great wealth.
See Plutarch’s Life; also Caesar, Gaius Julius; Pompey; Rome: History, II. “The Republic.”
CRATER, the cavity at the mouth of a volcanic duct, usually
funnel-shaped or presenting the form of a bowl, whence the name,
from the Gr. κρατήρ, a bowl. A volcanic hill may have a single
crater at, or near, its summit, or it may have several minor craters
on its flanks: the latter are sometimes called “adventitious
craters” or “craterlets.” Much of the loose ejected material,
falling in the neighbourhood of the vent, rolls down the inner
wall of the crater, and thus produces a stratification with an
inward dip. The crater in an active volcano is kept open by
intermittent explosions, but in a volcano which has become
dormant or extinct the vent may become plugged, and the bowl-shaped
cavity may subsequently be filled with water, forming a
crater-lake, or as it is called in the Eifel a Maar. In some
basaltic cones, like those of the Sandwich Islands, the crater may
be a broad shallow pit, having almost perpendicular walls, with
horizontal stratification. Such hollows are consequently called
pit-craters. The name caldera (Sp. for cauldron) was suggested
for such pits by Capt. C. E. Dutton, who regarded them as
having been formed by subsidence of the walls. The term
caldera is often applied to bowl-shaped craters in Spanish-speaking
countries. (See Volcano.)
CRATES, Athenian actor and author of comedies, flourished about 470 B.C. He was regarded as the founder of Greek comedy proper, since he abandoned political lampoons on individuals, and introduced more general subjects and a well-developed plot (Aristotle, Poëtica, 5). He is stated to have been the first to represent the drunkard on the stage (Aristophanes, Knights, 37 ff.).
Fragments in Meineke, Poëtarum Comicorum Graecorum fragmenta, i.
CRATES, the name of two Greek philosophers.
1. Crates, of Athens, successor of Polemo as leader of the Old Academy.
2. Crates, of Thebes, a Cynic philosopher of the latter half of the 4th century. He was the famous pupil of Diogenes, and the last great representative of Cynicism. It is said that he lost his ample fortune owing to the Macedonian invasion, but a more probable story is that he sacrificed it in accordance with his principles, directing the banker, to whom he entrusted it, to give it to his sons if they should prove fools, but to the poor if his sons should prove philosophers. He gave up his life to the attainment of virtue and the propagation of ascetic self-control. His habit of entering houses for this purpose, uninvited, earned him the nickname Θυρεπανοίκτης (“Door-opener”). His marriage with Hipparchia, daughter of a wealthy Thracian family, was in curious contrast to the prosaic character of his life. Attracted by the nobility of his character and undeterred by his poverty and ugliness, she insisted on becoming his wife in defiance of her father’s commands. The date of his death is unknown, though he seems to have lived into the 3rd century. His writings were few. According to Diogenes Laërtius, he was the author of a number of letters on philosophical subjects; but those extant under the name of Crates (R. Hercher, Epistolographi Graeci, 1873) are, spurious, the work of later rhetoricians. Diogenes Laërtius credits him with a short poem, Παίγνια, and several philosophic tragedies. Plutarch’s life of Crates is lost. The great importance of Crates’ work is that he formed the link between Cynicism and the Stoics, Zeno of Citium being his pupil.
See N. Postumus, De Cratete Cynico (1823); F. Mullach, Frag. Philosophorum Graecorum, ii. (1867); E. Wellmann in Ersch and Gruber’s Allgemeine Encyklopädie; Diog. Laërt. vi. 85-93, 96-98.
CRATES, of Mallus in Cilicia, a Greek grammarian and Stoic philosopher of the 2nd century B.C., leader of the literary school and head of the library of Pergamum. His principles were opposed to those of Aristarchus, the leader of the Alexandrian school. He was the chief representative of the allegorical theory of exegesis, and maintained that Homer intended to express scientific or philosophical truths in the form of poetry. About 170 B.C. he visited Rome as ambassador of Attalus II., king of Pergamum; and having broken his leg and been compelled to stay there for some time, he delivered lectures which gave the first impulse to the study of grammar and criticism among the Romans (Suetonius, De grammaticis, 2). His chief work was a critical and exegetical commentary on Homer.
See C. Wachsmuth, De Cratete Mallota (1860), containing an account of the life, pupils and writings of Crates; J. E. Sandys, Hist. of Class. Schol. i. 156 (ed. 2, 1906).
CRATINUS (c. 520–423 B.C.), Athenian comic poet, chief representative of the old, and founder of political, comedy. Hardly anything is known of his life, and only fragments of his works have been preserved. But a good idea of their character can be gained from the opinions of his contemporaries, especially Aristophanes. His comedies were chiefly distinguished by their direct and vigorous political satire, a marked exception being the burlesque Ὀδυσσεῖς, dealing with the story of Odysseus in the cave of Polyphemus, probably written while a law was in force forbidding all political references on the stage. They were also remarkable for the absence of the parabasis and chorus. Persius calls the author “the bold,” and even Pericles at the height of his power did not escape his vehement attacks, as in the Nemesis and Archilochi, the last-named a lament for the loss of the recently deceased Cimon, with whose conservative sentiments Cratinus was in sympathy. The Panoptae was a satire on the sophists and omniscient speculative philosophers of the day. Of his last comedy the plot has come down to us. It was occasioned by the sneers of Aristophanes and others, who declared that he was no better than a doting drunkard. Roused by the taunt, Cratinus put forth all his strength, and in 423 B.C. produced the Πυτίνη,
