CAT
CAT-filver, a name given to certain foffil fubflances, ufually called alfo glimmer, and In Latin, mica?. They are various fpecies of the bra&eria, or foliaceous talcs, in finall fpangles. See Mica.
CATABASION, K«r«|Wt«, in the Greek church, a place un- der the altar, wherein the relicks are kept. The word is formed from Kara^euta, I defcend ; by reafon they Went down into it. Du Gauge ■, GlofT. G'r. T. I. p. 606, Schoetg. Cur. Ant. Lex. p. 283.
CATABATHMOS, K^jS^c;, hi antiquity, a fte'ep valley, dividing JEgypt from Africa, Sa!Iu/t. Bell. Jugurth. c. 20 and 21. Bibl. Choif. T. zi. p. 367, fcq. Fab. Thef. p. 487. Hder. Scliul. Lex. p. 72 r , fcq.
The word is formed from the Greek, xara]:ai«i« ( to defcend, en account of the haflinefs and precipitation of its defcent.
CATABULENSES, in the middle age, a fort of minifters or fervants of the empire, appointed to conduct the public car- riage from one cdtabulum, or irage, to another. The catabulcnfes appear alfo to have had the charge of conveying the public corn to and from the mills ; whence in the Theo- doiian codethey are joined with bakers. Cujac. Obferv. 1. j6. c. 5- Du Gauge, Gloil*. Lat. T. 1. p. 878. Scboet. Ant. Lex.
p. 283-
CATABULUM, in the middle age, a kind of ftable or build- ing, wherein bcaftsi efpccially of burthen and carriage, were kept for the public fervice. SccCatapuLrnses. The antient chriftians were fomctimes condemned to fervc in the catabula^ that is, to work at the cleaning of them, attending the beafts,&c. Du Cange,G\oiT. Lat. T. r. p. 878. Schoet. Lex. Ant. p. 283, feq. Spe/m. GlofT. Lat. p. 129.
CAT AC, in botany, a name by which fome authors call agri- mony. Get 1 . Emac. Ind. 9.
CATACAUSTIC See cauftjc by Reflexion'.
CAT ACLASIS, &«■«**»•«, in medicine, denotes a diforderof the eye, wherein the eye-lid is inverted by a convulfion of the mufcles that clofe it ; called alfo campylon. Cajt. Lex. Med. p. 142. Item. p. 128. voc. campylon.
CATACLEIS, KxTXKXvcy m anatomy, a cartilaginous bone, or rather a cartilage in the juncture of the omoplata, or fhoulder- Wade. Ca/i. Lex. p. 142.
C AT ACO M B ( Cyd. ) — The catacombs of Rome have made the greateft noifc in the world ; but there are fuch belonging to many other cities : Bifhop Burnet 3 defcribes thofe of Naples, which he fays are without the city, and much more noble and fpacious than thofe of Rome. The like are alfo faid to be in the neighbourhood of all the great towns in that part of Italy : and others have been difcovered at Syracufe and Catanea in Sicily, and in the ifland of Malta b . The Roman catacombs take particular names from the churches in their neighbour- hood, and feem to divide the circumference of the city with- out the walls, between them, extending their galleries every where under, and a vaft way from it ; fo that all the ground under Rome, and for many miles about, fome fay for 20 miles, ishollow c . The largeft, and thofe commonly fhewn Grangers, are the catacombs of San Sebaftiano, thofe of Saint Agnefc, and the others in the fields a little off Saint Agnefe ; For the catacombs in the church-yards of the Vatican, women are only allowed to go into them one day in the year, viz on Whitfun Monday, on pain of excommunication d . — [ a Bum. Trav. Lett. 4. p. 20 1. b Bingb. orig. Ecclef. 1. 23. c, 1. §. 3. Ouvr. des Sav. 1688. Maij. p. 38. ' Phil. Tranf. N Q 265. p. 644 and 650. d Cyprian, de Ecclef. Subterr.
§■ *3-3
There are men kept conftantly at work in the catacombs. As Toon as thefe labourers difcover a grave, with any of the fup- pofed marks of a faint about it, intimation is given to the cardinal Camerlingo, who immediately fends men of reputa- tion to the place, where finding the palm, the.. monogram, the coloured glafs, &c. the remains of the body are taken up with great refpeel:, and tranflated to Rome. After the la- bourers have examined a gallery, they ftop up the entry that leads into it ; fo that moft of them remain thus clofed j there being only a few left open, to keep up the trade of fhewing them to Grangers. This they fay is done to prevent poeple's lofing "themfelves in thefe fubterraneous labyrinths, which has often happened : but more probably to deprive the public of the means of knowing whither and how far the caiacofnbs are carried. Monro^ in Phil. Tranf. N° 265. p. 644. The opinion, that the catacombs were Heathen burying places, is confirmed from hence, that the antient Romans are known to have had fuch burying places, under the name
- f putkuli ; and even in the very places where now the cata-
combs are found % that there are divers indications of Heathen- ifm about the tombs in the catacombs ; fuch are the names of the perfons interred, the formula, diis manibus, at the head of the inscriptions ; the figures of Orpheus, Cupid, and other Heathen deities, which Chriftians would never have engraved on their dormitories. For the monogram Si, it proves no- thing, fjnee this way was in ufe among the Heathens before the time of Chriftianity, as has been fhewn by Menckenius, in a dhlertation exprefs, publifhed In 1696. Add, that the figures of doves and palms were alio frequently ufed on the tombs of the Heathens ; that 'tis impoffible the Chriftians could have had the inftrurocnts of torture from the Heathens, fmce the
CAT
forme* durlt fcarce appear at executions. How much left would they have been able to bring away phials <.f blood from the execution of their martyrs ? Above all, that 'tis no-ways probable the Chriftians under, the Heathen emperors mould have been able to dig fuch vaft works, without being perceived by ^he Heathens. The very earth they dug out mull have made mountains, which itfclf muft have difcovered them <• — [» Vid. Kirehmtm. deFuner. Rom. I. 2. c. z+. » Vid. Bafaee. Ouvr. des fciv. .688. Mai, p. 3 8. Aorn. Diff de Catacombis leuUyptisbepulchralibus SS. Martyrurn. Lipf. 170?. Scheie Lex. Ant. p. 285* feq.] < J *
All this may be allowed juir, except what relates to the iden- tity of the catacombs with the putkuli; which Mr Monro thinks carries lefs probability with it than the common opinion ot the Romamfts.
Would Feftus have called fuch immenfe works as the cata- combs, by the diminutive name putkuli ? Would he have con- fined them to a fingle place, viz. without the Efquiline gate, when the catacombs are found every where about Rome ? How could holes, wherein bodies were thrown, together in heaps to rot, be confounded with repofitories, cut regularly in the face of a long gallery, one over another, fomctimes to the number of feven, in each of which a fingle body is laid, and hand- (omely done up again, fo that nothins could offend the fight ot thofe who went in ; efpccially with the little rooms inter- fperfed m the tathion of chapels, which have all the appear- ances of being the fepulchresof people of diffindion? Mcnrc, ubi fupra, p. 646.
Monro therefore takes a medium between the two contrary extremes : he fuppofes the catacombs to have been originally the common fepulchres of the firft Romans, before the prac- tice of burning was introduced.
CATADIOPTRICAL telejcope, the fame with reflecting tele- Jcope. bee lEiEscoPE.
CATADROMUS, fCmrff,,.©., in antiquity, aftretchedflopinir rope in the theatres, down Which the funambuli walked, to (hew their (kill. SeeFliNAMBi'i.us, C\cl. Some have taken the word to lignify the hippodrorfie, or decurforium, wherein the Roman knights ufed to exercife them- felves in running and fighting on horfeback. But the moft natural meaning is that of a rope, fattened at one end to the top of the theatre, and at the other to the bot- tom, to walk or run down, which was the higheft glory of the antient fchaenobar.es, or funambuli. Elephants were alfo taught to run down the catairomus ». Suetonius fpeaks of the ex- ploit of a Roman knight, who run down the catadromus mounted on an elephant's back b . — [' Xiphil. 1. 61. p. 6o» b Suet, in Ner. c. 11. p. 5. Vid. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T i' b. 378. Fab. Thef. p. 488.J
CATADUPA (Cycl.) — The appellation catai-ipa feems to have been peculiarly given to a place in j&hidpia joining on Egypt, where the Nile, which here firft affumes that name, ruined down a (teep rock into the fubjacent plain, with a noife fo im- petuous, that the inhabitants are faid to have loft all fenfe of hearing. Cic. de Sbmn. Scipion. Vid. Edam Settee. Nat. Quid. 1. 4. c. 2. Ammian. Marcellirt. I. 22. c. 34, &c. 36. Plin. Hift. Nat. 1. 5.. c. 9. Vitruv. de Archit. 1. 8. c. 2. Fab Thef. p. 488.
CATAGOGION, K«<, w ,„, a Heathen feftival at Ephefiis, celebrated on the Z2d of January, in which the devotees run about the ftreets drciTed in divers antic and unfeemiy manners, with huge cudgels in their hands, and carrying with them the images of their gods; in which guife theyravifhed the women they met with, and ahufed, and often killed the men, and committed many other diforders, to which the religion of the day gave a (andion. Vid. Du Cange, Gloff. Grace. T. t. p. 607.
Meurfius and Caftellanus, Who wrote de Fejlis Grxcorum, have taken no notice of this. Schoetg. Lex. Ant. p. 287.
CATAGRAPHA, K*™-/{<»p«, in antiquity, denote oblique figures, or views of mens faces ; anfwering to what the mo- derns call profiles. See Profile, Cycl. and Stippl. Catagrapba are faid to be the invention Of Simon Cleonaeus who firft taught painters to vary the looks of their figures, and fometimes direft them upwards, fometimes downwards, arid fometimes fidewards or backwards. Vid. Plin. Hift. Nat. 1. 35. c. 8. Haribu. Not, ad eund. ib. Jot. Paint. ofAnc. 1. 3. c. 4. p. 2qo.
CATALEPS1S (Cycl.) is the farrie with What is othcrwife de- nominated catache, or catochus, and gclaiio or congelatio. Call* Lex. Med. p. 359, voc. gelatio. See Catoche, &c. Some alfo make it the fame with coma vigil* ; others will have it different h ; tho' wherein the diftiiictiori lies is not eafv to aflign c . — [ a Vid. Lang. Epift. Medic. 1. I. Ep. 25. b Dieter Jater. n. 863. « Call. Lex. Med. p. 143. Sham, New Prifl' Phyf. p. 8.] See Coma, Oycl.
CATALEPSY (Cycl.) -In thehiftoryof tile royal academy of fciences at Paris, we have an account of a woman who had a furprifing catalepfy, her members keeping all the poftures they were put into; as if ihe had becrt made of wax An 1738.
CATALOGUE (Cycl.) — Catalogues of botiks arc dijeftcd in different manners, fome according to the order of the times when' the books were printed, as fiat of Mattaire ; others ac- cording
