Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/416

CATULLUS. 354 CAUCASIAN. tied in Rome in early life, and was on terms of familiarity with the leading men of the day — C-Tsar and Cicero among them — though he was himself in rather moderate circimistances, at least from the point of view of a bon vivant who required wealth to gratify his ne<'ds. In Rome he formed a passionate attachment for a woman whom he eelehrates in his verse under the name of -Lcsbia.' There is little doubt that she was Clodia, the amorous and licentious sister of Cicero's enemy, P. Clodius I'ulehcr. This was the consuming passion of his life, and the theme of many of his finest lyrics, in which we have tnc throbbing life of an' emotional yet not quite mature genius. In them we read the story of his earlier hopes and joys, then his jealousy, his quarrels and reconciliations, and at last his awak- ening to the bitter truth, and his despair when he fully came to recognize the shamelcssnoss and open infidelity of the woman whom he loved. Catullus is intensely personal in his poetry and utterly without reserve; and many of his shorter poems breathe the deepest affection for his friends, with the most stinging invective for his ene- mies. The spirit of his love poetrj' is that of the modern decadent Italian; so that in style, in temperament, and in imaginative eroti- cism, Catullus is the literary prototype of Ga- briele d'Annunzio. His longer poems are largely based on Alexandrian Greek models. The most notable are the two epilhalamia, or marriage songsr— one entitled the Nuptials of Pelmis and Thetis — and the weird, imaginative poem Attis, in strange Gallianibic verse. This composition has no parallel in Roman literature and its spirit shows a subtle Oriental influence. Catul- lus was a master of poetic diction, and the most original of the Roman poets if we except Lucre- titis. His shorter verse, however, is often marred hj' gross senstiality and even frank obscenity. lie died at an early age. about B.C. 54. We possess one hundred and si.xtecn of his poems. The best editions of Catullus are those by Biih- rens (Leipzig, 188.5) and R. Ellis (0.xford, 1878; with standard commentary, 1889) ; there is a very good pocket edition by Postgate (London, 1889). He has been oft<?n translated into Eng- lish— by Lamb (1821), Martin (1801), Cran- stoun (1867), Ellis (1871), Hart Davies (1879), and Grant Allen (the Attis only, 1892). Consult Sellar. Rowan I'oets of the Republic (Edinburgh, 1803; 2d ed. 1881). CAT'ULUS. The name of several distin- guished Romans. (1) G.iu8 Lutatiu.s Catu- Lus, the admiral whose fleet defeated the Car- thaginians near the .'Egates Insulic, off the Sicilian coast, in B.C. 241, thus closing the First Punic War. (2) QuiN"Ti.".s Lutatius Catulus, consul with Marius in n.c. 102, when he was un- successful in repressing the advance of the Cim- Iiri to the Po. In the following year, with -larius, he fought them in a great battle on the Kaudian Fields, where the whole tribe was annihilated (.Tuly, B.C. 101). (See Ci.mbri.) In the proscription of Sulla (B.C. 87) his name was included; but he preferred suicide, and suffocated himself with charcoal fumes. (3) QinxTUS LuTATii's C.Tunis, son of the preced- ing, consul in B.C. 78 and censor in 6.5. He quelled the revolutionary uprising of Lcpidus. his colleague in the consulship, and assisted Cicero in the prosecution of Catiline. CAUCA, kou'ka. A river of Colombia. South America, the chief tributary of the Magdalena (Map: Colombia. B 2). It ri^es in the soillu'rn Iiorti<m of the Central Conlillera, and Hows in a northerly direction between the Western and the Central Cordilleras, furniing numerous water- falls, but becoming navigable at -Vntioquia. It joins the ilagdalena north of ilompos, about 150 miles from the .sea, after a course of nearly 700 miles. CAUCA. The largest department of Cohmi- Ida, embracing the west coast of the Republic, the three chains of the Andes, and the valley of the Rio Cauca, as well as a large part of the interior (Map: Colombia, B 3). Its area, in- cluding the disputed portion, is about 257.462 square miles, or about one-half of the area of the entire Republic. It is divided by the Andes into two parts, of which the western is alone developed. The territory of Caquetfi. which occu|iies by far the larger pcjrtion of the de- ])arlment, belongs to the basiti of the .Amazon, and is almost uninhabited. The formation of the surface and the climatic conditions of Cauca present an extraordinary variety, ranging from the lofty, snow-clad peaks of the Andes to the fertile valleys along the rivers. The centre of population and cultivation is along the (lauca Valley, where corn, sugar-eane, cacao, tobacco, etc., are grown with success. The mineral wealth, especially gold and silver, is extensive. The forests which cover a large section of the de- partment yield large quantities of rubber and cinchima. The population (mostly mixed) is estimated at 700.000, including the aborigines. The ca]iital is Popayfln. CAUCASIA, kn-ka'shl-a. See Caucasus. CAUCASIAN, ka-ka'shan, or CAUCASIC, ka-ka'sik, RACE, The. The name applied by Blunienbach (1795) to the white division of mankind, as distinguished from the yellow, the brown, and the black. Whether these divisions be called species, subspecies, varieties, or races, they exist and have separate names. The ob- jection is made to the word that it is not suffi- ciently connotive, because the peoples of the Caucasus do not fairly represent the grandest division of humanity. But the term is fixed in literature, and will doubtless remain. An- other controversy is waged over the original area of development and dispersion of the Ca>i- casian race. Within a quarter of a century oi)inions have shifted from southern Asia to northern Africa. Keane says that the Caucasic progenitor originated in Africa, north of the Sudan, and quotes Scrgi as saying that Africa is the cradle hmd whence this Caucasic family spread northward to Europe, where it still per- sists, and eastward to western Asia. The whole of northern Africa, connected by land with Euroi)e in the Quaternary epoch, formed part of the geographical area of the ancient white race. The last word has not been said on this point. The cradle land of the human species may have been in southeastern .sia. In that event, new dilTiculties with reference to the formation of the great subspecies arise. Various classifications of the members of the Caticasic race have been nuule. Huxley ( 1870) made two separate? races of whites — the Xan- thochroid of northern Europe, and the Melano-