Chapter Cathulla to Caxtonia of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Cathulla to Caxtonia

Cathulla, king of Inistore (the Orkneys) and brother of Comala (q.v.). Fingal, on coming in sight of the palace, observed a beacon-flame on its top as signal of distress, for Frothal king of Sora had besieged it. Fingal attacked Frothal, engaged him in single combat, defeated him, and made him prisoner.—Ossian: Carrick- Thura.

Catiline, a Roman patrician, who headed a conspiracy to overthrow the Government, and obtain for himself and his followers all places of power and trust. The conspiracy was discovered by Cicero. Catiline escaped and put himself at the head of his army, but fell in battle after fighting with desperate daring (B.C. 62). Voltaire, in his Rome Sauvée, has introduced the conspiracy and death of Catiline (1752).

Cicero has four orations In Catilinum.

Catilines and Cethegi (The), a synonym for conspirators who hope to mend their fortunes by rebellion.

The intrigues of a few impoverished Catilines and Cethegi.—Motley: The Dutch Republic.

Catiline’s Conspiracy, a long tedious tragedy by Ben Jonson (1611). Full of wearisome speeches.

Gosson wrote a tragedy with the same title in the sixteenth century. Croly, in 1822, wrote a tragedy called Catiline.

Catius, in Pope’s Moral Essays (Epistle I), is meant for Charles Dartineuf, called by Warburton “a glutton.” Hence the lines—

He prefers, no doubt,
A rogue with venison to a rogue without.
   —Pope.

Cato, the her o and title of a tragedy by J. Addison (1713). Disgusted with Cæsar, Cato retired to Utica (in Africa), where he had a small republic and mimic senate; but Cæsar resolved to reduce Utica as he had done the rest of Africa; and Cato, finding resistance hopeless, fell on his own sword.

Tho’ stern and awful to the foes of Rome,
He is all goodness, Lucia, always mild,
Compassionate, and gentle to his friends;
Filled with domestic tenderness.
   —Act V. I.

When Barton Booth [1713] first appeared as “Cato,’ Bolingbroke called him into his box and gave him fifty guineas for defending the cause of liberty so well against a perpetual dictator.—Life of Addison.

In his De Senectute, Cicero introduces Cato as the thief speaker.

He is a Cato, a man of simple habits, severe morals, strict justice, and blunt speech,—but of undoubted integrity and patriotism; like the Roman censor of that name, grandfather of the Cato of Utica, who resembled him in character and manners.

Cato and Hortensius. Cato of Utica’s second wife was Martia daughter of Philip. He allowed her to live with his friend Hortensius, and after the death of Hortensius took her back again.

[Sultans] don’t agree at all with the wise Roman,
Heroic, stoic Cato, the sententious,
Who lent his lady to his friend Hortensius.
   —Byron: Don Juan, vi. 7 (1821).

Catullus. Lord Byron calls Thomas Moore the “British Catullus,” referring to a volume of amatory poems published in 1808, under the pseudonym of “Thomas Little.”

’Tis Little! young Catullus of his day,
As sweet but as immoral as his lay.
   —Byron: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809).