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

598 CAPELLA.
and frivolous, we can occasionally extract curious
and valuable information, derived without doubt
from treatises which have long since perished.
Thus, for example, in one remarkable passage (viii.
~ 857) we detect a hint of the true constitution of
the solar system. It is here so distinctly maintained that the planets Mercury and Venus revolve
round the sun, and not round the earth, and their
position with regard to these bodies and to each
other is so correctly described, that the historians
of science have considered it not improbable that
Copernicus, who quotes Martianus, may have derived the first germ of his theory from this source.
The style is in the worst possible taste, and looks
like a caricature of Apuleius and Tertullian. It is
overloaded with far-fetched metaphors, and has all
the sustained grandiloquence, the pompous pretension, and the striving after false sublimity, so characteristic of the African school, while the diction
abounds in strange words, and is in the highest
degree harsh, obscure, and barbarous. Some allowance must be made, however, for the circumstances under which the book has been transmitted
to us. It was highly esteemed during the middle
ages, and extensively employed as a manual for
the purposes of education. Hence it was copied
and re-copied by the monks, and being of course
in many places quite unintelligible to them, corruptions crept in, and the text soon became involved in inextricable confusion. The oldest MSS.
are those in the Bodleian library, in the British
Museum, in the public library of the University of
Cambridge, and in the library of Corpus Christi
College in the same university. A MS. exposition of Capella, written by Jo. Scotus, who died in
875, is mentioned by L'Abbe (Bibl. Nov. MSS.
p. 45); another, the work of Alexander Neckam,
who belongs to the thirteenth century, is described
by Leland (Commentar. de Script. Brit. p. 214);
and Perizonius possessed a commentary drawn up
by Remigius Antissiodorensis about the year 888.
In modern times, Ugoletus had the merit of first
bringing Capella to light; and the editio princeps
was printed at Vicenza by Henricus de S. Urso, in
fol. 1499, under the care of Franciscus Bodianus,
who in a prefatory letter boasts of having corrected
2000 errors. This was followed by the editions of
Mutina, 1500, fol.; of Vienna, with the notes of
Dubravius, 1516, fol.; of Basle, 1532, fol.; of
Lyons, 1539, 8vo.; of Basle, with the scholia, &c.,
of Vulcanius, 1577, fol. in a vol. containing also
the Origines of Isidorus. But all these were
thrown into the shade by that of Leyden, 8vo.
1599, with the remarks of Hugo Grotius, who
wrote his commentary when a boy of fourteen,
with the assistance probably of Joseph Scaliger, by
whom he was advised to undertake the task. This
edition was with justice considered the best, until
the appearance of that by U. F. Kopp, 4to. Francf.
1836, which is immeasurably superior, in a critical
point of view, to all preceding ones, and contains
also a copious collection of the best notes. The
last book was included by Meibomius in his "Auctores Vet. Musicae," Amst. 4to. 1652; the first
two were published separately by Walthard, Bern,
1763, 8vo., and by J. A. Goetz at Nuremberg, 8vo.
1794, with critical and explanatory remarks. The
poetical passages are inserted in the Collectio Pisaurensis, vol. vi. p. 69.
The popularity of Capella in the middle ages is
attested by Gregorius Turonensis, Joannes Saris

CAPITO.
buriensis, Nicolaus Clemangius, and others. A
number of clever emendations will be found in the
notes of Heinsius upon Ovid; and Munker, in his
commentary on Hyginus, has given several important readings from a Leyden MS. There is an
interesting analysis of the work by F. Jacobs in
Ersch and Gruher's Encycloplidie. [W. R.]
CAPELLA, STATI'LIUS, a Roman eques,
who at one time kept Flavia Domitilla, afterwards
the wife of Vespasian. (Suet. Vesp. 3.) [L. S.]
CAPER (Ka7rpos), of Elis, the son of one Pythagoras, who acquired great renown from obtaining
the victory in wrestling and the pancratium on the
same day, in the Olympic games. (01. 142, B. c.
212.) IHe is said to have been the first after
Heracles, according to Pausanias, or the second,
according to Africanus, who conquered in these
two contests on the same day. (Paus. v. 21. ~ 5,
vi. 15. ~~ 3, 6; Euseb. 'EAA. dA. p. 42, ed. Scaliger; Krause, Olympia, p. 306.)
CAPER, FLAVIUS, a Roman grammarian of
uncertain date, whose works "de Latinitate," &c.,
are quoted repeatedly with the greatest respect by
Charisius, Rufinus, Servius, and others, but especially by Priscian. We possess two very short tracts
entitled " Flavii Capri grammatici vetustissimi de
Orthographia libellus," and "Caper de Verbis mediis." Barthius (Advers. xxi. 1, xxxv. 9) has conjectured, with much plausibility, that these are not
the original works of Caper, but meagre abridgements by a later hand. Servius (ad Virg. Aen. x.
344) cites "Caper in libris enucleati sermonis,"
and (ad Aen. x. 377) " Caper in libris dubii generis." St. Jerome (Adv. Rufin. ii.) speaks of his
grammatical " commentarii" as a book in common
use; and Agroetus, who wrote a supplement to the
" Libellus de Orthographia et Proprietate ac Differentia Sermonum," refers to his annotations on
Cicero as the most celebrated of his numerous productions. He is also frequently ranked among the
scholiasts upon Terence, but apparently on no good
grounds. (Schopfen, de Terentio, &c., Bonn, 1821.)
Caper was first published among a collection of
Latin grammarians printed at Venice about 1476,
and reprinted in 1480, 1491, and often afterwards.
The best edition is that contained in the " Grammat. Latin. Auct. Antiqu." by Putschius (pp.
2239-2248), Hanov. 1605. [W. R.]
CA'PETUS SI'LVIUS. [SILVIUS.]
CAPHA. [THEODOSIA.]
CAPHO. [CAFO.]
CA'PITO, the father of Betilienus Bassus, or
Cassius Betillinus as Dion Cassius calls him, was
compelled to be present at the execution of his son
by order of Caligula, and was then put to death
himself. (Dion Cass. lix. 25.) [BAssUs, p.471, b.]
CA'PITO (Ka7r-rwv,). 1. Of Alexandria, is
called by Athenaeus (x. p. 425) an epic poet, and
the author of a work 'EpwTlucd, which consisted of
at least two books. In another passage (viii. p.
350) he mentions a work of his entitled rrpos (lAo'7raTrrov aroeuvlt.ov,EAara, from which he quotes a
statement. It is not improbable that the Capito
of whom there is an epigram in the Greek Anthology (v. 67, ed. Tauchn.) may be the same person
as the epic poet.
2. A native of Lycia, is called by Suidas (s. v.
Kari'rwv) and Eudocia (p. 267) an historian, and
the author of a work on Isauria ('Ioauvpcac), which
consisted, according to Suidas, of eight books, and
is frequently referred to by Stephanus of Byzan