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

CAMBYSES.
however, that a single battle, in which the Persians
were victorious, decided the fate of Egypt; and,
though some of the conquered held out for a while
in Memphis, they were finally obliged to capitulate, and the whole nation submitted to Cambyses.
He received also the voluntary submission of the
Greek cities, Cyrene and Barca [see p. 477, b.],
and of the neighbouring Libyan tribes, and projected fresh expeditions against the Aethiopians,
who were called the "long-lived," and also against
Carthage and the Ammonians. Having set out on
his march to Aethiopia, he was compelled by want
of provisions to return; the army which he sent
against the Ammonians perished in the sands; and
the attack on Carthage fell to the ground in consequence of the refusal of the Phoenicians to act
against their colony. Yet their very refusal serves
to shew what is indeed of itself sufficiently obvious,
how important the expedition would have been in
a commercial point of view, while that against the
Ammonians, had it succeeded, would probably
have opened to the Persians the caravan-trade of
the desert. (Herod. ii. 1, iii. 1-26; Ctes. Pers. 9;
Just. i. 9; comp. Heeren's African Nations, vol. i.
ch. 6.)
Cambyses appears to have ruled Egypt with a
stern and strong hand; and to him perhaps we
may best refer the prediction of Isaiah: "The
Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel
lord" (Is. xix. 4; see Vitringa, ad loc.); and it is
possible that his tyranny to the conquered, together
with the insults offered by him to their national
religion, may have caused some exaggeration in
the accounts of his madness, which, in fact, the
Egyptians ascribed to his impiety. But, allowing
for some over-statement, it does appear that he had
been subject from his birth to epileptic fits (Herod.
iii. 33); and, in addition to the physical tendency
to insanity thus created, the habits of despotism
would seem to have fostered in him a capricious
self-will and a violence of temper bordering upon
frenzy. He had long set the laws of Persia at
defiance by marrying his sisters, one of whom he
is said to have murdered in a fit of passion because
she lamented her brother Smerdis, whom he had
caused to be slain. Of the death of this prince,
and of the events that followed upon it, different
accounts are given by Herodotus and Ctesias. The
former relates that Cambyses, alarmed by a dream
which seemed to portend his brother's greatness,
sent a confidential minister named Prexaspes to
Susa with orders to put him to death. Afterwards,
a Magian, who bore the same name as the deceased
prince and greatly resembled him in appearance,
took advantage of these circumstances to personate
him and set up a claim to the throne [SMERDIS],
and Cambyses, while marching through Syria
against this pretender, died at a place named Ecbatana of an accidental wound in the thigh, B. c. 521.
According to Ctesias, the name of the king's murdered brother was Tanyoxarces, and a Magian
named Sphendadates accused him to the king of an
intention to revolt. After his death by poison,
Cambyses, to conceal it from his mother Amytis,
made Sphendadates personate him. The fraud
succeeded at first, from the wonderful likeness between the Magian and the murdered prince; at
length, however, Amytis discovered it, and died of
poison, which she had voluntarily taken, imprecating curses on Cambyses. The king died at Babylon
of an accidental wound in the thigh, and Sphenda

CAMENIATA. 589
dates continued to support the character of Tanyoxarces, and maintained himself for some time on
the throne. (Herod. iii. 27-38, 61-66; Ctes. Pers.
10-12; Diod. Exc. de Virt. et Vit. p. 556, ed.
Wess.; Strab. x. p. 473, xvii. pp. 805, 816; Just.
i. 9.) Herodotus says (iii. 89), that the Persians
always spoke of Cambyses by the name of aso7rdrs'T,
in remembrance of his tyranny. [E. E.]
CAMEIRUS (Kdi1.eipos), a son of Cercaphus
and Cydippe, and a grandson of Helios. The town
of Cameiros, in Rhodes, is said to have derived its
name from him. (Diod. v. 57; Pind. 01. vii. 135,
with the Schol.; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 315.) [L. S.]
CAME'LIUS, one of the physicians of Augustus, who appears to have lived after Artorius, and
to have been succeeded by Antonius Musa. Pliny
in rather an obscure passage (H. N. xix. 38), tells
us, that he would not allow the emperor to eat
lettuce in one of his illnesses, from the use of which
plant afterwards, at the recommendation of Antonius Musa, he derived much benefit. [W. A. G.]
CAME'NAE, not Camoenae, were Roman divinities whose name is connected with carmen (an
oracle or prophecy), whence we also find the forms
Casmenae, Carmenae, and Carmentis. The Camenae were accordingly prophetic nymphs, and they
belonged to the religion of ancient Italy, although
later traditions represent them as having been introduced into Italy from Arcadia. Two of the
Camenae were Antevorta and Postvorta. [ANTEVOrTA.] The third was Carmenta or Carmentis,
a prophetic and healing divinity, who had a temple
at the foot of the Capitoline hill, and altars near
the porta Carmentalis. Respecting the festival
celebrated in her honour, see Dict. of Ant. s. v.
Carmentalia. The traditions which assigned a
Greek origin to her worship at Rome, state that
her original name was Nicostrate, and that she
was called Carmentis from her prophetic powers.
(Serv. ad Aen. viii. 51, 336; Dionys. i. 15, 32.)
According to these traditions she was the mother
of Evander, the Arcadian, by Hermes, and after
having endeavoured to persuade her son to kill
Hermes, she fled with him to Italy, where she
gave oracles to the people and to Heracles. She
was put to death by her son at the age of 110
years, and then obtained divine honours. (Dionys.
i. 31, &c.) Hyginus (Fab. 277) further relates,
that she changed the fifteen characters of the Greek
alphabet, which Evander introduced into Latium,
into Roman ones. The fourth and most celebrated
Camena was Aegeria or Egeria. [AEGERIA.] It
must be remarked here, that the Roman poets,
even as early as the time of Livius Andronicus,
apply the name of Camenae to the Muses. (Hartung,
Die Relic;. d. Romi. ii. p. 198, &c.) [L. S.]
CAMENIA'TA, JOANNES ('IWdvVw Kasevidra), cubuclesius, or bearer of the crosier, to the
archbishop of Thessalonica, was an eye-witness of
the capture of that town by the Arabs in A. D. 904
A. H. 189. Leo, a Syrian renegade, who held a
command under the Arabs, made a descent in that
year near Thessalonica, with a fleet of fifty-four
ships chiefly manned with negro slaves, surprised,
took, and plundered the town, then the second in the
Greek empire, and sailed off with a great number
of captives. Among these were Cameniata and
several of his family, who would have been put to
death by the Arabs, had not Cameniata saved his
and their lives by shewing the victors a spot where
the inhabitants hlad buried part of their riches.