A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CARANUS.

CARAUSIUS.

and there took a position which was as favourable
to himself as it appeared detrimental to the Romans. When Caractacus, in addition to this, had
also fortified himself with artificial means, he exhorted his men either to die or to conquer in the
approaching battle. The Roman propraetor, P.
Ostorius, who saw the disadvantages under which
the Romans were labouring, would not have ventured upon an engagement, had not the courage of
his soldiers and officers demanded it. The superior
military skill of the Roman legions overcame all
the difficulties, and a splendid victory was gained:
the wife and daughters of Caractacus fell into the
hands of the Romans, and his brothers surrendered.
Caractacus himself sought the protection of Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes; but she betrayed
him, and he was delivered up to the Romans, and
carried to Rome, A. D. 51, after the war in Britain
had lasted for nine years, as Tacitus says. The
emperor Claudius wished to exhibit to the people
this old and formidable foe in his humiliation, and
ordered Caractacus and the members of his family,
with their clients and ornaments, to be led in a
sort of triumph before an assembly of the people
and an array of soldiers. The emperor himself was
present. The relatives of Caractacus walked by
his side cast down with grief, and entreated the
mercy of the Romans; Caractacus alone did neither of these things, and when he approached the
seat of the emperor, he stopped and addressed him
in so noble a manner, that Claudius pardoned him
and his friends. They appear, however, not to
have returned to Britain, but to have spent the
remainder of their life in Italy. (Tac. Ann. xii.
33-38 Hist. iii. 45; Dion Cass. Ix. 20.) [L. S.]
CARA'NUS (K'ipavos or Kapavos). 1. A Heracleid of the family of the Temenidae, and according to some accounts, the founder of the Argive
dynasty in Macedonia, about the middle probably
of the eighth century B. c., since he was brother to
Pheidon, the Argive tyrant. The legend tells,
that he led into Macedonia a large force of Greeks,
and, following a flock of goats, entered the town of
Edessa in the midst of a heavy storm of rain and
a thick mist, unobserved by the inhabitants. Remembering the oracle which had desired him " to
seek an empire by the guidance of goats," he fixed
here the seat of government, and named the place
Aegae in commemoration of the miracle. Herodotus gives a different tradition of the origin of the
dynasty, and his account seems to have been adopted by Thucydides, who speaks of Archelaus I. as
the ninth king, and therefore does not reckon Caranus and the other two who come before Perdiccas I.
in the lists of Dexippus and Eusebius. MUller
thinks that the two traditions are substantially the
same, the one in Herodotus being the rude native
legend, while the other, of which Caranus is the
hero, was the Argive story; and lie further suggests that Kipavos is perhaps only another form of
Koipavos. (Diod. Fraym. ix. p. 637, ed. Wess.;
Piut. A lex. 2; Just. vii. 1, xxxiii. 2; Clinton, Fast.
ii. p. 221; Miller, Dor. i. 7. ~ 15, App. i. ~ 15,'
and the authorities there referred to; Herod. viii.
137-139; Thuc. ii. 100.) Pausanias, in mentioning that the Macedonians never erected trophies
when victorious, records the national tradition by
which they accounted for it, and which related,
that a trophy set up by Caranus, in accordance
with Argive custom, for a victory over his neighbour Cisseus, was thrown down and destroyed by

a lion from Olympus; whereby, it was said, the
king learnt that its erection had been of evil counsel, as deepening the enmity of the conquered.
(Paus. ix. 40.)
2. Mentioned by Justin (xi. 2) as a son of Philip and a half-brother of Alexander the Great. The
latter suspected him of aiming at the throne, and
put him to death soon after his accession, B. c. 336.
3. A Macedonian of the body called eraipn or
guards (comp. Polyb. v. 53, xxxi. 3), was one of
the generals sent by Alexander against Satibarzanes
when lie had a second time excited Aria to revolt.
Caranus and his colleagues were successful, and
Satibarzanes was defeated and slain, in the winter
of B. c. 330. (Arrian, Anab. iii. 25, 28; Curt. vi. 6.
~ 20, &c., vii. 3. ~ 2, Freinsheim, ad loc., vii. 4.
~ 32, &c.; comp. Diod. xvii. 81.) In B. c. 329,
Caranus was appointed, together with Andromachus and Menedemus, under the command of the
Lycian Pharnuches, to act against Spitamenes, the
revolted satrap of Sogdiana. Their approach compelled him to raise the siege of Maracanda; but,
in a battle which ensued, he defeated them with
the help of a body of Scythian cavalry, and forced
them to fall back on the river Polytimetus, the
wooded banks of which promised shelter. The
rashness however or cowardice of Caranus led him
to attempt the passage of the river with the cavalry
under his command, and the rest of the troops
plunging in after him in haste and disorder, they
were all destroyed by the enemy. (Arr. Anab. iv.
3, 5; comp. Curt. vii. 6. ~ 24, 7. ~ 31, &c.) [E. E.]
CARAU'SIUS, M. AURE'LIUS VALE'RIUS. Maximianus Herculius having equipped
a naval force at Boulogne for the purpose of repressing the outrages of the Franks, who cruising
from place to place in their light sloops were devastating the coasts of Holland, Gaul, and Spain,
gave the command of the armament to a certain
Carausius, a man of humble extraction, born in Menapia, a district between the Scheldt and Meuse,
who had been bred a pilot and had distinguished
himself as a soldier in the war against the Bagaudae.
Carausius was by no means deficient in zeal and
energy, but after a time his peculiar tactics and
rapidly increasing wealth gave rise to a suspicion,
probably not ill founded, that he permitted tlhe
pirates to commit their ravages unmolested, and
then watching for their return, seized the ships
laden with plunder and appropriated to his own
use the greater portion of the spoils thus captured.
Herculius accordingly gave orders for his death,
but the execution of this mandate was anticipated
by the vigilance of the intended victim, who having
crossed the channel with the fleet, which was devoted to his interests, and having succeeded in
gaining over the troops quartered in Britain, established himself in that island and assumed the title
of Augustus. His subsequent measures were
characterised by the greatest vigour and prudence.
A number of new galleys was constructed with all
speed, alliances were formed with various barbarous
tribes, who were carefully disciplined as sailors, and
the usurper soon became master of all the western
seas. After several ineffectual attempts to break
his power, Diocletian and Maximianus found it
necessary to acknowledge him as their colleague in
the empire, an event commemorated by a medal
bearing as a device three busts with appropriate
emblems and the legend CARAVSIVS. ET,. FRATRES.
svi., while on the reverse we read the words PAXr
2a