Although there is nothing original in Calpurnius, he is “a skilful literary craftsman.” Of his models the chief is Virgil, of whom (under the name of Tityrus) he speaks with great enthusiasm; he is also indebted to Ovid and Theocritus. Calpurnius is “a fair scholar, and an apt courtier, and not devoid of real poetical feeling. The bastard style of pastoral cultivated by him, in which the description of nature is made the writer’s pretext, while ingenious flattery is his real purpose, nevertheless excludes genuine pleasure, and consequently genuine poetical achievement. He may be fairly compared to the minor poets of the reign of Anne” (Garnett).
Calpurnius was first printed in 1471, together with Silius Italicus and has been frequently republished, generally with Gratius Faliscus and Nemesianus. The separate authorship of the eclogues of Calpurnius and Nemesianus was established by M. Haupt’s De Carminibus bucolicis Calpurnii et Nemesiani (1854). Editions by H. Schenkl (1885), with full introduction and index verborum, and by C. H. Keene (1887), with introduction, commentary and appendix. English verse translation by E. J. L. Scott (1891); see H. E. Butler, Post-Augustan Poetry (Oxford, 1909), pp. 150 foll., and F. Skutsch in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie, iii. 1 (1897). (J. H. F.)
CALTAGIRONE, a city and episcopal see of the province of
Catania, Sicily, situated 1999 ft. above sea-level, 36 m. S.W.
of Catania direct (55 m. by rail). Pop. (1881) 25,978; (1901)
town 35,116; commune 45,956. It is well built, and is said to be
the most civilized provincial town in Sicily. Extensive Sicel
cemeteries have been explored to the north of the town (Not. Scavi, 1904, 65), and a Greek necropolis of the 6th and 5th
centuries B.C. has been found to the south-east (ibid. 132).
Remains of buildings of Roman date have also been discovered;
but the name of the ancient city which stood here is unknown.
The present name is a corruption of the Saracen Kalat-al-Girche
(the castle of Girche, the chieftain who fortified it).
CALTANISETTA, a town and episcopal see of Sicily, the
capital of a province of the same name, 60 m. S.E. of Palermo
direct and 83 m. by rail, situated 1930 ft. above sea-level.
Pop. (1901) 43,303. The town is of Saracenic origin, as its name
Kalat-al-Nisa, the “Ladies’ Castle,” indicates, and some ruins
of the old castle (called Pietrarossa) still exist. Otherwise the
town contains no buildings of artistic or historical interest, but it commands striking views. It is the centre of the Sicilian sulphur industry and the seat of a royal school of mines. Two miles east is the interesting Norman abbey of S. Spirito.
CALTROP (from the Mid. Eng. calketrappe, probably derived
from the Lat. calx, a heel, and trappa, Late Lat. for a snare), an
iron ball, used as an obstacle against cavalry, with four spikes so arranged, that however placed in or on the ground, one spike
always points upwards. It is also the botanical name for several
species of thistles.
CALUIRE-ET-CUIRE, a town of eastern France, in the
department of Rhone, 212 m. N. by E. of Lyons by rail. Pop.
(1906) 9255. It has manufactures of coarse earthenware and
hard-ware, copper and bronze foundries and nursery-gardens.
CALUMET (Norm. Fr. form of chalumet, from Lat. calamus, a
reed), the name given by the French in Canada to the “peace-pipe”
of the American Indians. This pipe occupied among the
tribes a position of peculiar symbolic significance, and was the
object of profound veneration. It was smoked on all ceremonial
occasions, even on declarations of war, but its special use was at
the making of treaties of peace. It was usually about 212 ft. long,
and in the west the bowl was made of red pipestone (catlinite), a
fine-grained, easily-worked stone of a rich red colour found
chiefly in the Côteau des Prairies west of Big Stone Lake, Dakota.
The quarries were formerly neutral ground among the warring
Indian tribes, many sacred traditions being associated with the
locality and its product (Longfellow, Hiawatha, i.). The pipe
stem was of reed decorated with eagles’ quills or women’s hair.
Native tobacco mixed with willow-bark or sumac leaves was
smoked. The pipe was offered as a supreme proof of hospitality
to distinguished strangers, and its refusal was regarded as a
grievous affront. In the east and south-east, the bowl was of
white stone, sometimes pierced with several stem holes so that
many persons might smoke at once.
See Joseph D. Macguire (exhaustive report, 640 pages), “Pipes and Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines” in Smithsonian Report (American Bureau of Ethnology) for 1897, vol. i.; and authorities quoted in Handbook of American Indians (Washington, 1907).
CALUMPIT, a town of the province of Bulacán, Luzon,
Philippine Islands, at the junction of the Quiñgua river with the
Rio Grande de la Pampanga, about 25 m. N.W. of Manila.
Pop. (1903) 13,897. It is served by the Manila & Dagupan
railway, and the bridge across the Rio Grande is one of the
longest in the Philippines. The surrounding country is a fertile
plain, producing large quantities of rice, as well as sugar, Indian corn and a variety of fruits. Calumpit has a large rice-mill and one of the largest markets in the Philippines. The bridge,
convent and church of the town were fired and completely
destroyed by insurgent troops in 1899. The language is Tagalog.
CALVADOS, a department of north-western France, formed
in 1790 out of Bessin, Cinglais, Hiémois, Bocage, the Campagne
de Caen, Auge and the western part of Lieuvin. Pop. (1906)
403,431. Area, 2197 sq. m. It received its name from a ledge
of rocks, stretching along the coast for a distance of about 15 m. between the mouths of the rivers Orne and Vire. It is bounded N. by the English Channel, E. by the department of Eure, S. by that of Orne, W. by that of Manche. The Bocage, or south-western
part of the department, is elevated, being crossed from south-east
to north-west by the hills of Normandy, the highest of which is
1197 ft.; the rest of the surface is gently undulating, and consists of extensive valleys watered by numerous streams which fall into the English Channel. The coast, formed by cliffs, sandy beaches or reefs, is generally inaccessible, except at the mouths of the principal rivers, such as the Touques, the Dives, the Orne and the Vire, which are navigable at high tide for several miles inland. Trouville is the chief of the numerous coast resorts. The climate, though humid and variable, is healthy. The raising of cattle,
sheep and horses is the mainstay of the agriculture of the department.
Pasture is good and abundant in the east and north-west,
and there is a large export trade in the butter, eggs and
cheese (Camembert, Livarot, Pont l’Evêque) of these districts,
carried on by Honfleur, Isigny and other ports. The plain of
Caen is a great centre for horse breeding. Wheat, oats, barley,
colza and potatoes are the chief crops. The orchards of Auge
and Bessin produce a superior kind of cider, of which upwards of
40,000,000 gallons are made in the department; a large quantity
of cider brandy (eau-de-vie de Calvados) is distilled. Poultry
to a considerable amount is sent to the Paris markets, and there
is a large output of honey and wax. The spinning and weaving
of wool and cotton are the chief industries. Besides these,
paper-mills, oil-mills, tanneries, saw-mills, shipbuilding yards,
rope-works, dye-works, distilleries and bleach-fields, scattered
throughout the department, give employment to a number of
hands. There are productive iron-mines and building-stone,
slate and lime are plentiful. Fisheries, chiefly of lobster, oyster (Courseulles), herring and mackerel, are prosecuted. Coal, timber, grain, salt-fish and cement are among the imports; exports
include iron, dairy products and sand. Caen and Honfleur are
the most important commercial ports. There is a canal 9 m. in
length from Caen to Ouistreham on the coast. The department
is served by the Ouest-État railway. It is divided into the six
arrondissements (38 cantons, 763 communes) of Caen, Falaise,
Bayeux, Vire, Lisieux and Pont l’Evêque. Caen, the capital, is the
seat of a court of appeal and the centre of an académie (educational division). The department forms the diocese of Bayeux,
in the ecclesiastical province of Rouen, and belongs to the region
of the III. army-corps. The other principal towns are Falaise,
Lisieux, Condé-sur-Noireau, Vire, Honfleur and Trouville (q.v.).
Amongst the great number of medieval churches which the department possesses, the fine Gothic church of St. Pierre-sur-Dives is second in importance only to those of Lisieux and Bayeux; that of Norrey, a good example of the Norman-Gothic style, and that of Tour-en-Bessin, in which Romanesque and Gothic architecture are mingled, are of great interest. Fontaine-Henri has a fine château of the 15th and 16th centuries.
CALVART, DENIS (1540–1619), Flemish painter, was born at Antwerp. After studying landscape-painting for some time in
