The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 127

CIMON, an Athenian general, son of Miltiades; distinguished himself in the struggle of Athens against Persia in 466 B.C.; gained two victories over the Persians in one day, one by land and another by sea, was banished by the democratic party, and after four years recalled to continue his victories over his old foes, and died at Cyprus (510-449 B.C.).

CINCINNATI (326), the metropolis of Ohio, stands on the Ohio River, opposite Covington and Newport, by rail 270 m. SE. of Chicago; the city stands on hilly ground, and is broken and irregular; there are many fine buildings, among them a Roman Catholic cathedral, and large parks; there is a university, the Lane Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), schools of medicine, law, music, and art, an observatory, zoological garden, and large libraries; it is a centre of culture in the arts; manufactures include clothing, tobacco, leather, moulding and machine shops; there is some boat-building and printing; but the most noted trade is in pork and grain; is the greatest pork market in the world; a third of the population is of German origin.

CINCINNATUS, LUCIUS QUINCTIUS, an old hero of the Roman republic, distinguished for the simplicity and austerity of his manners; was consul in 460 B.C., and on the defeat of a Roman army by the aequi, called to the dictators.h.i.+p from the plough, to which he returned on the defeat of the aequi; he was summoned to fill the same post a second time, when he was 80, on the occasion of the conspiracy of Maelius, with the like success.

CINCINNATUS, THE ORDER OF, an American order founded by officers of the revolutionary army at its dissolution in 1753; was denounced by Franklin as anti-republican in its spirit and tendency; it still survives in a feeble way; the order is hereditary.

CINCINNATUS OF THE AMERICANS, George Was.h.i.+ngton.

CINDERELLA (the little cinder-girl), the youngest member of a family who must drudge at home while her elder sisters go to b.a.l.l.s, till one day a fairy befriends her and conveys her to a ball, where she s.h.i.+nes as the centre of attraction, and wins the regard of a prince. On quitting the hall she leaves a slipper behind her, by means of which she is identified by the prince, who finds that hers is the only foot that the slipper will fit, and marries her. The story in one version or another is a very ancient and wide-spread one.

CINEAS, the minister of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus; was the ablest orator of his time, and his master was in the habit of saying of him, that his eloquence had gained him more cities than his own arms; sent on a mission to Rome, the senate refused to hear him, lest his eloquence should prove too fascinating.

CINGALESE, a native of Ceylon.

CINNA, LUCIUS CORNELIUS, a Roman patrician, a friend and supporter of Marius; drove Sulla from Rome and recalled Marius from exile; partic.i.p.ated in the murders which followed his recall, and after the death of Marius was a.s.sa.s.sinated when organising an expedition against Sulla, 84 B.C.

CINNABAR, a sulphide of mercury from which the mercury of commerce is obtained.

CINQ-MARS, HENRI, MARQUIS DE, a French courtier, a favourite of Louis XIII.; a man of handsome figure and fascinating manners; died on the scaffold for conspiring with his friend De Thou against Richelieu (1620-1642).

CINQUe CENTO (lit. five hundred), the Renaissance in literature and art in the 16th century, the expression 5 hundred standing for 15 hundred.

CINQUE PORTS, the five ports of Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich, to which were added Winchelsea and Rye, which possessed certain privileges in return for supplying the royal power with a navy; the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is only an honorary dignity.

CINTRA, a Portuguese town, 17 m. NW. of Lisbon, where a much reprobated convention between the French under Marshal Junot and the English under Sir Hew Dalrymple was signed in 1808, whereby the former were let off with all their arms and baggage on condition of evacuating Portugal.

c.i.p.aNGO, an island on the Eastern Ocean, described by Marco Polo as a sort of El Dorado, an object of search to subsequent navigators, and an attraction among the number to Columbus, it is said.

CIPRIANI, an Italian painter and etcher, born in Florence; settled in London; was an original member of the Royal Academy, and designed the diploma (1727-1785).

CIRCARS, THE, a territory in India along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, from 18 to 100 m. wide; ceded first to the French and in 1766 to the East India Company, now of course under the Crown, and forming part of the Madras Presidency.

CIRCa.s.sIA, a territory on the Western Caucasus, now subject to Russia; celebrated for the st.u.r.dy spirit of the men and the beauty of the women; the n.o.bles professing Mohammedanism and the lower cla.s.ses a certain impure form of Christianity; they are of the Semite race, and resemble the Arabs in their manners.

CIRCE, a sorceress who figures in the "Odyssey." Ulysses having landed on her isle, she administered a potion to him and his companions, which turned them into swine, while the effect of it on himself was counteracted by the use of the herb moly, provided for him by Hermes against sorcery; she detained him with her for years, and disenchanted his companions on his departure.

CIRCEAN POISON, a draught of any kind that is magically and fatally infatuating, such as the effect often of popular applause.

CIRCUITS, districts outside of London into which England is divided for judicial purposes, for the trial of civil as well as criminal cases connected with them; are seven in number--the Midland, the Oxford, the North-Eastern, the South-Eastern, the Northern, the Western, and North Wales and South Wales; the courts are presided over by a judge sent from London, or by two, and are held twice a year, or oftener if the number of cases require it.

CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD, the course of the blood from the heart through the arteries to the minute vessels of the body, and from these last through the veins back to the heart again.

CIRc.u.mCISION, the practice of cutting away the foreskin, chiefly of males, as observed by the Jews and the Mohammedans, as well as other nations of remote antiquity; regarded by some as a mark of belonging to the tribe, and by others as a sacrifice in propitiation by blood.

CIRc.u.mLOCUTION OFFICE, a name employed by d.i.c.kens in "Little Dorrit"

to designate the wearisome routine of public business.

CISALPINE GAUL, territory occupied by Gauls on the Italian or south side of the Alps.

CISALPINE REPUBLIC, a republic so called on both sides of the Po, formed out of his conquests by Napoleon, 1797; became the Italian Republic in 1802, with Milan for capital, and ceased to exist after the fall of Napoleon.

CISLEITHANIA, Austria proper as distinguished from Hungary, which is called Transleithania, on account of the boundary between them being formed by the river Leitha.

CISTERCIANS, a monastic order founded by Abbot Robert in 1098 at Citeaux, near Dijon; they followed the rule of St. Benedict, who reformed the Order after it had lapsed; became an ecclesiastical republic, and were exempt from ecclesiastical control; contributed considerably to the progress of the arts, if little to the sciences.

CITHaeRON, a wood-covered mountain on the borders of Boeotia and Attica; famous in Greek legend.

CITIES OF REFUGE, among the Jews; three on the E. and three on the W. of the Jordan, in which the manslayer might find refuge from the avenger of blood.

CITIES OF THE PLAIN, Sodom and Gomorrah, with adjoining cities under the like doom.

CITIZEN KING, Louis Philippe of France, so called as elected by the citizens of Paris.

CITY OF BELLS, Strasburg.