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Part 38

The earliest mention of Cassel is in 913, when it is referred to as Cassala. The town passed from the landgraves of Thuringia to the landgraves of Hesse in the 13th century, becoming one of the principal residences of the latter house in the 15th century. The burghers accepted the reformed doctrines in 1527. The fortifications of the town were restored by the landgrave Philip the Magnanimous and his son William IV. during the 16th century, and it was greatly improved by the landgrave Charles (1654-1730), who welcomed many Huguenots who founded the upper new town. In 1762 Cassel was captured by the Germans from the French; after this the fortifications were dismantled and New Cassel was laid out by the landgrave Frederick II. In 1807 it became the capital of the kingdom of Westphalia; in 1813 it was bombarded and captured by the Russian general Chernichev; in 1830, 1831 and 1848 it was the scene of violent commotions; from 1850 to 1851 it was occupied by the Prussians, the Bavarians and the Austrians; in 1866 it was occupied by the Prussians, and in 1867 was made the capital of the newly formed Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau.

See Piderit, _Geschichte der Haupt- und Residenzstadt Kassel_ (Kassel, 1882); Fr. Muller, _Kassel seit 70 Jahren_ (2 vols., 2nd ed., Kassel, 1893); and Hessler, _Die Residenzstadt Kassel und ihre Umgebung_ (Kassel, 1902).

CASSELL, JOHN (1817-1865), British publisher, was born in Manchester on the 23rd of January 1817. His father was the landlord of a public-house, and John was apprenticed to a joiner. He was self-educated, gaining by his own efforts a considerable acquaintance with English literature and a knowledge of French. He came to London in 1836 to work at his trade, but his energies at this time were chiefly centred in the cause of temperance, for which he was an active worker. In 1847 he established himself as a tea and coffee merchant, and soon after started a publishing business with the aim of supplying good literature to the working classes. From the offices of the firm, which became in 1859 Messrs. Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., were issued the _Popular Educator_ (1852-1855), the _Technical Educator_ (1870-1872), the _Magazine of Art_ (1878-1903), _Cassell's Magazine_ (from 1852), and numerous editions of standard works. A special feature of Cassell's popular books was the illustration. At the time of the Crimean War he procured from Paris the cuts used in _L'Illustration_, and by printing them in his _Family Paper_ (begun in 1853) secured a large circulation for it. The firm was converted in 1883 into a limited liability company, under the name of Cassell & Company, Limited. John Cassell died in London on the 2nd of April 1865.

CASSIA (Lat. _cassia_, Gr. [Greek: kasia]), the aromatic bark derived from _Cinnamomum cassia_. The greater part of the supply coming from China, it is sometimes termed Chinese cinnamon. The bark is much thicker than that of true cinnamon; the taste is more pungent and the flavour less delicate, though somewhat similar to that of cinnamon. The properties of cassia bark depend on the presence of a volatile oil--the oil of cassia, which is imported in a fairly pure state as an article of commerce from Canton. Cassia bark is in much more extensive demand on the continent of Europe than in Great Britain, being preferred to cinnamon by southern nations. The chief use of both the oil and bark is for flavouring liqueurs and chocolate, and in cooking generally. When ground as a spice it is difficult to distinguish cassia from cinnamon (q.v.), and it is a common practice to substitute the cheap common spice for the more valuable article. _Cassia Buds_, which have a pleasing cinnamon flavour, are believed to be the immature fruits of the tree which yields Chinese cinnamon. They are brought in considerable quantities from Canton, and used as a spice and in confectionery. _Cassia pulp_, used as a laxative, is obtained from the pods of _Cassia fistula_, or pudding pipe tree, a native of Africa which is cultivated in both the East and West Indies. Some confusion occasionally arises from the fact that _Cassia_ is the generic name of an extensive genus of leguminous plants, which, in addition to various other medicinal products, is the source of the senna leaves which form an important article of materia medica.

CASSIA, VIA, an ancient high-road of Italy, leading from Rome through Etruria to Florentia (Florence); at the 11th mile the Via Clodia (see CLODIA, VIA) diverged north-north-west, while the Via Cassia ran to the east of the Lacus Sabatinus and then through the place now called Sette Vene, where a road, probably the Via Annia, branched off to Falerii, through Sutrium (where the Via Ciminia, running along the east edge of the Lacus Ciminius, diverged from it, to rejoin it at Aquae Passeris, north of the modern Viterbo[1]), Forum Cassii, Volsinii, Clusium and Arretium, its line being closely followed by the modern highroad from Rome to Florence. The date of its construction is uncertain: it cannot have been earlier than 187 B.C.,[2] when the consul C. Flaminius constructed a road from Bononia to Arretium (which must have coincided with the portion of the later Via Cassia). It is not, it is true, mentioned by any ancient authorities before the time of Cicero, who in 45 B.C. speaks of the existence of three roads from Rome to Mutina, the Flaminia, the Aurelia and the Cassia. A milestone of A.D. 124 mentions repairs to the road made by Hadrian from the boundary of the territory of Clusium to Florence, a distance of 86 m.

See Ch. Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_, iii. 1669. (T. As.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Via Traiana Nova, or the (_viae_) tres Traianae, mentioned in inscriptions with the Cassia and Clodia as under the same _curator_, are not certainly identifiable.

[2] Having regard to the military importance of Arretium during the Punic wars, it is difficult to believe that no direct road existed to this point before 187 B.C.

CASSIANUS, JOANNES EREMITA, or JOANNES MASSILIENSIS (?360-?435), a celebrated recluse, one of the first founders of monastic institutions in western Europe, was probably born in Provence about 360, but he spent the early part of his life in the monastery of Bethlehem with his friend Germanus, and his affinities were always Eastern rather than Western. In company with Germanus he visited Egypt, and dwelt for several years among the ascetics of the desert near the banks of the Nile. In 403 he repaired to Constantinople, where he received ordination as deacon at the hands of Chrysostom. At Marseilles (after 410) he founded two religious societies--a convent for nuns, and the abbey of St Victor, which during his time is said to have contained 5000 inmates. In later times his regulations enjoyed a high reputation, and were adopted by the monks and nuns of Port Royal. He was eventually canonized; and a festival in his honour long continued to be celebrated at Marseilles on the 25th of July. Cassianus was one of the first and most prominent of the Semi-Pelagians, maintaining that while man is by nature sinful, he yet has some good remaining in him, and that, while the immediate gift of God's grace is necessary to salvation, conversion may also be begun by the exercise of man's will. He further asserted that God is always willing to bestow his grace on all who seek it, though, at the same time, it is true that he sometimes bestows it without its being sought. These views have been held by a very large part of the church from his time, and embrace much of the essence of Arminianism. The style of Cassianus is slovenly, and shows no literary polish, but its direct simplicity is far superior to the rhetorical affectations which disfigure most of the writings of that age. At the request of Castor, bishop of Apt, he wrote two monumental and influential treatises on the monastic life. The _De Institutione Coenobiorum_ (twelve books) describes the dress, the food, the devotional exercises, the discipline and the special spiritual dangers of monastic life in the East (gluttony, unchastity, avarice, anger, gloom, apathy, vanity and pride). The _Collationes Patrum_, a series of dialogues with the pious fathers of Egypt, deal with the way in which these dangers (and others, e.g. demons) may be avoided or overcome. At the desire of Leo (then archdeacon of Rome) he wrote against Nestorius his _De Incarnatione Domini_ in seven books.

EDITIONS.--Douay (1616) by Alardus Gazaus, with excellent notes; Migne's _Patrol. Lat._ vols. xlix. and l.; M. Petschenig in the Vienna _Corpus Script. Eccles. Lat._ (2 vols., 1886-1888). See A. Harnack, _History of Dogma_, v. 246 ff., 253 ff.; A. Hoch, _Die Lehre d. Joh. Cassian von Natur und Gnade_ (Freiburg, 1895); W. Moeller, _History of the Chr. Church_, i. 368-370.

CASSINI, the name of an Italian family of astronomers, four generations of whom succeeded each other in official charge of the observatory at Paris.

GIOVANNI DOMENICO CASSINI (1625-1712), the first of these, was born at Perinaldo near Nice on the 8th of June 1625. Educated by the Jesuits at Genoa, he was nominated in 1650 professor of astronomy in the university of Bologna; he observed and wrote a treatise on the comet of 1652; was employed by the senate of Bologna as hydraulic engineer; and appointed by Pope Alexander VII. inspector of fortifications in 1657, and subsequently director of waterways in the papal states. His determinations of the rotation-periods of Jupiter, Mars and Venus in 1665-1667 enhanced his fame; and Louis XIV. applied for his services in 1669 at the stately observatory then in course of erection at Paris. The pope (Clement IX.) reluctantly assented, on the understanding that the appointment was to be temporary; but it proved to be irrevocable. Cassini was naturalized as a French subject in 1673, having begun work at the observatory in September 1671. Between 1671 and 1684 he discovered four Saturnian satellites, and in 1675 the division in Saturn's ring (see SATURN); made the earliest sustained observations of the zodiacal light, and published, in _Les Elements de l'astronomie verifies_ (1684), an account of Jean Richer's (1630-1696) geodetical operations in Cayenne. Certain oval curves which he proposed to substitute for Kepler's ellipses as the paths of the planets were named after him "Cassinians." He died at the Paris observatory on the 11th of September 1712.

A partial autobiography left by Giovanni Domenico Cassini was published by his great-grandson, Count Cassini, in his _Memoires pour servir a l'histoire des sciences_ (1810). See also C. Wolf, _Histoire de l'observatoire de Paris_ (1902); Max. Marie, _Histoire des sciences_, t. iv. p. 234; R. Wolf, _Geschichte der Astronomie_, p. 450, &c.

JACQUES CASSINI (1677-1756), son of Domenico Cassini, was born at the Paris observatory on the 8th of February 1677. Admitted at the age of seventeen to membership of the French Academy of Sciences, he was elected in 1696 a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and became _maitre des comptes_ in 1706. Having succeeded to his father's position at the observatory in 1712, he measured in 1713 the arc of the meridian from Dunkirk to Perpignan, and published the results in a volume entitled _De la grandeur et de la figure de la terre_ (1720) (see GEODESY). He wrote besides _Elemens d'astronomie_ (1740), and died on the 18th of April 1756 at Thury, near Clermont. The first tables of the satellites of Saturn were supplied by him in 1716.

See C. Wolf, _Histoire de l'observatoire de Paris_; Max. Marie, _Histoire des sciences_, vii. 214; R. Wolf, _Geschichte der Astronomie_, p. 451; J.C. Houzeau, _Bibl. astronomique_; J. Delambre, _Histoire de l'astronomie au XVIII'e siecle_, pp. 250-275 (unfairly depreciatory); J.F. Montucla, _Hist. des mathematiques_, iv. 145, 248.

CESAR FRANCOIS CASSINI, or CASSINI DE THURY (1714-1784), son of Jacques Cassini, was born at the observatory of Paris on the 17th of June 1714. He succeeded to his father's official employments, continued the hereditary surveying operations, and began in 1744 the construction of a great topographical map of France. The post of director of the Paris observatory was created for his benefit in 1771, when the establishment ceased to be a dependency of the Academy of Sciences. Cassini de Thury died at Thury on the 4th of September 1784. His chief works are:--_Meridienne de l'observatoire de Paris_ (1744), _Description geometrique de la terre_ (1775), and _Description geometrique de la France_ (1784).

See C. Wolf, _Histoire de l'observatoire de Paris_, p. 287; Max. Marie, _Histoire des sciences_, viii. 158; J. Delambre, _Histoire de I'astronomie au XVIII'e siecle_, pp. 275-309; R. Wolf, _Geschichte der Astronomie_, p. 451; J.J. de Lalande, _Bibliographic astronomique_.

JACQUES DOMINIQUE CASSINI, Count (1748-1845), son of Cesar Francois Cassini, was born at the observatory of Paris on the 30th of June 1748. He succeeded in 1784 to the directorate of the observatory; but his plans for its restoration and re-equipment were wrecked in 1793 by the animosity of the National Assembly. His position having become intolerable, he resigned on the 6th of September, and was thrown into prison in 1794, but released after seven months. He then withdrew to Thury, where he died, aged ninety-seven, on the 18th of October 1845. He published in 1770 an account of a voyage to America in 1768, undertaken as the commissary of the Academy of Sciences with a view to testing Pierre Leroy's watches at sea. A memoir in which he described the operations superintended by him in 1787 for connecting the observatories of Paris and Greenwich by longitude-determinations appeared in 1791. He visited England for the purposes of the work, and saw William Herschel at Slough. He completed his father's map of France, which was published by the Academy of Sciences in 1793. It served as the basis for the _Atlas National_ (1791), showing France in departments. Count Cassini's _Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de l'observatoire de Paris_ (1810) embodied portions of an extensive work, the prospectus of which he had submitted to the Academy of Sciences in 1774. The volume included his _Eloges_ of several academicians, and the autobiography of his great-grandfather, the first Cassini.

See J.F.S. Devic, _Histoire de la vie et des travaux de J.D. Cassini_ (1851); J. Delambre, _Histoire de l'astronomie au XVIII'e siecle_, pp. 309-313; _Phil. Mag._ 3rd series, vol. xxviii. p. 412; C. Wolf, _Histoire de l'observatoire de Paris_ (1902), p. 234 et passim. (A. M. C.)

CASSIODORUS (not _Cassiodorius_), the name of a Syrian family settled at Scyllacium (Squillace) in Bruttii, where it held an influential position in the 5th century A.D. Its most important member was FLAVIUS MAGNUS AURELIUS CASSIODORUS SENATOR (c. 490-585), historian, statesman, and monk. "Senator" (not a title) is the name used by himself in his official correspondence. His father held the offices of _comes privatarum_ and _sacrarum largitionum_ (controller of the emperor's private revenue and the public exchequer) under Odoacer, and subsequently attached himself to Theodoric, by whom he was appointed _corrector_ (governor) of Bruttii and Lucania, and _praefectus praetorio_. The son at an early age became _consiliarius_ (legal assessor) to his father, and (probably in 507) _quaestor_, an official whose chief duty at that time consisted in acting as the mouthpiece of the ruler, and drafting his despatches. In 514 he was ordinary consul, and at a later date possibly _corrector_ of his native province. At the death of Theodoric (526) he held the office of _magister officiorum_ (chief of the civil service). Under Athalaric he was _praefectus praetorio_, a post which he retained till about 540, after the triumphal entry of Belisarius into Ravenna, when he retired from public life. With the object of providing for the transmission of divine and human knowledge to later ages, and of securing it against the tide of barbarism which threatened to sweep it away, he founded two monasteries--Vivarium and Castellum--in his ancestral domains at Squillace (others identify the two monasteries). The special duty which he enjoined upon the inmates was the acquisition of knowledge, both sacred and profane, the latter, however, being subordinated to the former. He also collected and emended valuable MSS., which his monks were instructed to copy, and superintended the translation of various Greek works into Latin. He further amused himself with making scientific toys, such as sun-dials and water-clocks. As he is stated to have written one of his treatises at the age of ninety-three, he must have lived till after 580. Whether he belonged to the Benedictine order is uncertain.

The writings of Cassiodorus evince great erudition, ingenuity and labour, but are disfigured by incorrectness and an affected artificiality, and his Latin partakes much of the corruptions of the age. His works are (1) historical and political, (2) theological and grammatical.

1. (a) _Variae_, the most important of all his writings, in twelve books, published in 537. They contain the decrees of Theodoric and his successors Amalasuntha, Theodahad and Witigis; the regulations of the chief offices of state; the edicts published by Cassiodorus himself when _praefectus praetorio_. It is the best source of our knowledge of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy (ed. T. Mommsen in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Auctores Antiquissimi_, xii., 1894; condensed English translation by T. Hodgkin, 1886).

(b) _Chronica_, written at the request of Theodoric's son-in-law Eutharic, during whose consulship (519) it was published. It is a dry and inaccurate compilation from various sources, unduly partial to the Goths (ed. T. Mommsen in _Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. Ant._ xi. pt. i., 1893).

2. (a) _De Anima_, a discussion on the nature of the soul, at the conclusion of which the author deplores the quarrel between two such great peoples as the Goths and Romans. It seems to have been published with the last part of the _Variae_.

(b) _Institutiones divinarun et humanarunt litterarum_, an encyclopaedia of sacred and profane literature for the monks, and a sketch of the seven liberal arts. It further contains instructions for using the library, and precepts for daily life.

(d) _De Orthographia_, a compilation made by the author in his ninety-third year from the works of twelve grammarians, ending with his contemporary Priscian (ed. H. Keil, _Grammatici Latini_, vii.).

The Latin translations of the _Antiquities_ of Josephus and of the ecclesiastical histories of Theodoret, Sozomen and Socrates, under the title of _Historia Tripartita_ (embracing the years 306-439), were carried out under his supervision.

Of his lost works the most important was the _Historia Gothorum_, written with the object of glorifying the Gothic royal house and proving that the Goths and Romans had long been connected by ties of friendship. It was published during the reign of Athalaric, and appears to have brought the history down to the death of Theodoric. His chief authority for Gothic history and legend was Ablavius (Ablabius). The work is only known to us in the meagre abridgment of Jordanes (ed. T. Mommsen, 1882).

COMPLETE WORKS.--_Editio princeps_, by G. Fornerius (Paris, 1579); J. Garet (Rouen, 1679; Venice, 1729), reprinted in J.P. Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, lxix., lxx. On Cassiodorus generally, see _Anecdoton Holderi_, excerpts from a treatise of Cassiodorus, edited by H. Usener (Bonn, 1877), which throws light on questions connected with his biography; T. Mommsen, preface to his edition of the _Variae_; monographs by A. Thorbecke (Heidelberg, 1867) and A. Franz (Breslau, 1872); T. Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_, iii. p. 280, iv. p. 348; A. Ebert, _Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters_ i.; Teuffel-Schwabe, _Hist. of Roman Literature_ (Eng trans.), S 483; G.A. Simcox, _Hist. of Latin Literature_ (1884); W. Ramsay in Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography_ J.B. Bury's edition of Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, iv. 180, 522; R.W. Church in the _Church Quarterly Review_, x. (1880); J.E. Sandys in _Hist. of Classical Scholarship_ (2nd ed., 1906); A. Olleris, _Cassiodore, conservateur des livres de l'antiquite latine_ (Paris, 1891); G. Minasi, _M.A. Cassiodoro ... ricerche storico-critiche_ (Naples, 1895); and C. Cipolla in _Memorie della r. Accademia delle scienze di Torino_ (2nd ser. xliii. pt. 2, 1893); L.M. Hartmann in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_, iii. pt. 2 (1899), with note on the musical section of Cassiodorus' _Institutions_ by C. von Jan.

CASSIOPEIA, in Greek mythology, the wife of Cepheus, and mother of Andromeda; in astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.). Ptolemy catalogued 13 stars in this constellation, Tycho Brahe 46, and Hevelius 37. Its most interesting stars are:--_Nova Cassiopeiae_, a "new" star, which burst out with extraordinary brilliancy in 1572, when it was observed by Tycho Brahe, but gradually diminished in brightness, ultimately vanishing in about eighteen months; _[alpha]-Cassiopeiae_ and _R-Cassiopeiae_ are variable stars, the former irregular, the latter having a long period; _[eta]-Cassiopeiae_, a binary star, having components of magnitudes 3-1/2 and 7-1/2; _[sigma]-Cassiopeiae_, a double star, one being white and of magnitude 5, the other blue and of magnitude 7-1/2.

CASSITERIDES (from the Gr. [Greek: kassiteros], tin, i.e. "Tin-islands"), in ancient geography the name of islands regarded as being situated somewhere near the west coasts of Europe. Herodotus (430 B.C.) had dimly heard of them. Later writers, Posidonius, Diodorus, Strabo and others, call them smallish islands off (Strabo says, some way off) the north-west coast of Spain, which contained tin mines, or, as Strabo says, tin and lead mines--though a passage in Diodorus derives the name rather from their nearness to the tin districts of north-west Spain. While geographical knowledge of the west was still scanty and the secrets of the tin-trade were still successfully guarded by the seamen of Gades and others who dealt in the metal, the Greeks knew only that tin came to them by sea from the far west, and the idea of tin-producing islands easily arose. Later, when the west was better explored, it was found that tin actually came from two regions, north-west Spain and Cornwall. Neither of these could be called "small islands" or described as off the north-west coast of Spain, and so the Cassiterides were not identified with either by the Greek and Roman geographers. Instead, they became a third, ill-understood source of tin, conceived of as distinct from Spain or Britain. Modern writers have perpetuated the error that the Cassiterides were definite spots, and have made many attempts to identify them. Small islands off the coast of north-west Spain, the headlands of that same coast, the Scillies, Cornwall, the British Isles as a whole, have all in turn been suggested. But none suits the conditions. Neither the Spanish islands nor the Scillies contain tin, at least in serious quantities. Neither Britain nor Spain can be called "small islands off the north-west of Spain." It seems most probable, therefore, that the name Cassiterides represents the first vague knowledge of the Greeks that tin was found overseas somewhere in or off western Europe.

AUTHORITIES.--Herodotus iii. 115; Diodorus v. 21, 22, 38; Strabo ii. 5, iii. 2, 5, v. 11; Pliny, _Nat. Hist_, iv. 119, vii. 197, xxxiv. 156-158, are the chief references in ancient literature. T.R. Holmes, _Ancient Britain_ (1907), appendix, identifies the Cassiterides with the British Isles. (F. J. H.)