Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

30 o- CROTALUI. CRUX.
or cpo;CTrbs se. Xrc'/v), was a kind of gala dress, 43), represents one of these crotalistriae performchiefly worn by women on solemn occasilns, and ing.
in Greece especially, at the festival of the Dionysia.
(Aristoph. Ran. 46, with the Sciol. Lysistr.
44; Pollux, iv. 18. 117.) It was also worn by
the priest of Cybele (Apul. Met. 8 and 11;
Virg. Aen. ix. 614), and sometimes by men of
effeminate character. (Aristoph. Tklesmoph. 253 /;
Suidas, s. v.; Plaut. and Naevius, ap. Noniurm,
xiv. 8. and xvi. 4; Cic. Harusp. Resp. 21.) It
is evident from the passage of Virgil, that its \/
name was derived from crocus, one of the favourite
colours of the Greek ladies, as we still see in the
pictures discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii. _ _ -
The circumstance that dresses of this colour were. ////}.
in Latin commn uly called vestes crocatae or cro- f
ceae, has induced some writers on antiquities to
suppose that crocota was derived from mppoic
(woof or weft), or icpoclgs (a flake of wool or cotton The word CKpOTaXov is often applied, by an easy
on the surface of the cloth), so that it would be a metaphor, to a noisy talkative person. (Aristoph.
soft and woolly kind of dress. (Salinas. ad Ca- Neu. 448; Eurip. Cycl. 104.) [B. J.]
pitolin. Pertinac. 8. t. 1. p. 547, and ad Tertzll. De CRUSTA. [CAELATURA; CHRYSENDETA;
P(dl. p. 329.) But the passages above referred to EMBLEMATA.]
are sufficient to refute this opinion, and the name CRUX (a-ravpds, oc'cJNoo'), an instrument of
crocota was, like mainy others, adopted by the capital punishment, used by several ancient nations,
Rolnans from the Greeks. (Compare Becker's especially the Romans and Carthaginians. The
Cltarikles, vol. ii. p. 351, &c.) [L. S.] words o-ravp/o and owcoAhoriSC are also applied to
CRO'NIA (cpdovia), a festival celebrated at Persian and Egyptian punishments, but Casaubon
Athens in honour of Crones, whose worship was (Exer. Antibaron. xvi. 77) doubts whether they
said to have been introduced into Attica by describe the Roman method of crucifixion. From
Cecrops. He had a temple in common with Rhea. Seneca (Cons. ad 1CMarc. xx., Epist. xiv. 1) we
(Paus. i. 18. ~ 7; comp. vi. 20. ~, I.) The fes- learn the latter to have been of two kinds, the less
tival was held on the twelfth of the month of usual sort being rather impalement than what we
Hecatombaeon (Demosth. c. Tienocr. p. 708; Plut. should describe by the word crucifixion, as the crimiThes. 12; Etym. M. s. v.), which, at an early nal was transfixed by a pole, which passed through
period of the history of Attica, bore the name of the back and spine and came out at the mouth.
p,'uv Kpovawv. (Athen. xiii. p. 581.) The cross was of several kinds; one in the shape
The Rhodians also celebrated a festival in honour of an X, called cruat Andreana, because tradition
of Cronos —perhaps the Phoenician Moloch —to reports St. Andrew to have suffered upon it; anwhom human sacrifices, generally consisting of other was formed like a T, as we learn from Lucian
criminals, were offered. The festival was held on (Judic. Vocal. xii.), who makes it the subject of a
the sixteenth of Metageitnion. (Porphyr. De charge against the letter.
Abstinent. ii. 54.) The third, and most common sort, was made of
Greek writers, when speaking of the Roman two pieces of wood crossed, so as to make four right
Saturnalia, apply to them the name Kpdmva, which angles. It was on this, according to the unani.
in the early times seem to have really resembled mous testimony of the fathers who sought to conthem in their excessive merriment. (See Athen. firm it by Scripture itself (Lips. De CGruce, i. 9),
xiv. p. 639; Appian, Samen. 10. ~ 5; Buttmann, that our Saviour suffered. The punishment, as is
Mythol. vol. ii. p. 52, &c.) [L. S.] well known, was chiefly inflicted on slaves, and
CRO'TALUM (1cpreTaXov), a kind of cymbal, the worst kind of malefactors. (Juv. vi. 219; Her.
erroneously supposed by some writers to be the Sat. i. 3. 82.) The manner of it was as follows:
same with the sistrlmn. [SISTRUM.] The mistakes - The criminal, after sentence pronounced, carried
of learned men on this point are refuted at his cross to the place of execution; a custom menlength by Larmp (De Cymnb. Vet. i. 4, 5, 6). From tioned by Plutarch (De 7l1rd. Dei Vind.'ceao-ro
Suidas and the Scholiast on Aristophanes (Nubes, Twv KaKOVcp'you, &Kripe' Trbm a'Troi; 0Travpdv), and
260), it appears to have been a split reed or cane, Artemidorus (Oneir. ii. 61), as well as in the
which clattered when shaken with the hand. Ac- Gospels. From Livy (xxxiii. 36) and Valerius
cording to Eustathius (II. xi. 160), it was made of Maximus (i. 7), scourging appears to have formed
shell laid brass, as well as of wood. Clemens. a part of this, as of other capital punishments
Alexandrinus further says that it was an invention among the Romans. The scourging of our Saof the Sicilians. viour, however, is inot to be regarded in this light,
Women who played on the crotalum were fir, as Grotius and Hammond have observed, it
termed crotalistriae. Such was Virgil's Copa (2), was inflicted before sentence was pronounced.
(St. Luke, xxiii. 16; St. John, xix. 1. 6.) The
" Crispum sub crotalo docta movere latus." criminal was next stripped of his clothes and
nailed or bound to the cross. The latter was the
The line alludes to the dance with c'otala (similar more painful method, as the sufferer was left to die
to castanets), for which we have the additional of hurger. Instances are recorded of persons who
testimony of Macrobius (Sat. ii. 10). The annexed surv-ived nine days. It was usual to leave the
woodcut, taken from the drawing of all ancient body on the cross after'death. The breaking of
marble inl Spon's Miscellanea (sec. i. art. vi. fig. the legs of the thieves, mentioned in the Gospels.