11 



CAPTAIN CAPUA. 



two cylinders, differing In diameter. On the extre- 

 mity of the cylinder at D, the rope CED is fixed, 

 passing round the pulley K, which is attached to the 

 weight to be lifted by means of the hook F, the rope 

 being coiled round the larger cylinder, so tliat while 

 tiie bar B urges the barrel round, the rope untwines 

 itself- from the larger barrel, and passes round the 

 smaller one. To ascertain the power of the capstan, 

 let us suppose the diameter of the barrel C is 21 

 inches, those of' the under cylinder and pulley each 

 20 indies. Since the diameters of the two barrels 

 are to one another as 21 to 20, the circumferences 

 will be in round numbers as 63 to 60, therefore there 

 will be 63 60 = 3 indies of rope coiled more tlmn 

 was uncoiled, and the half of this, or l indies, will 

 be the space through which the weight has been 

 raised ; and, knowing the length of flie bar, it is 

 easy to determine through what space the power 

 moves ; and as this is greater than the space through 

 which the weight has moved, so will the power of 

 the capstan be. The great advantage of this form 

 of the madiine, whidi seems to be ofChinese origin, 

 is, that it has no recoil. 



CAPTAIN. This is one of those many words de- 

 rived from the Latin of the middle ages, and now to 

 be found in all the different idiomppfEurope. Cap- 

 tain comes from the Latin captfancus, from caput, 

 head, and signified, first, a governor of a province, 

 who, in the first half of the middle ages, was gene- 

 rally a military man. Tims the word captain soon 

 came to be used diiefly to denote a high, or rather 

 the highest, military officer. Opitz, an early Ger- 

 man poet, calls God, Lord, Master, Captain ; and, 

 in English, Christ is called the Captain of our salva- 

 tion. Like many other words, however, this has, in 

 the course of time, lost much of its dignity, and hi 

 military technology, now signifies the commander of 

 a small body, a company ; and in maritime language, 

 die master of a vessel. In Britain and America, the 

 master of the smallest craft, and even the chief man 

 on a raft is styled captain. In the latter part of the 

 middle ages, when armies were not yet so regularly 

 divided and subdivided as at the present time, cap- 

 tains were the commanders of those small bodies of 

 which the armies consisted. These were generally 

 collected by their commander, who entered, with his 

 company, into the service where most pay or most 

 booty could be obtained. The practice of carrying 

 on wars, by troops collected in this manner, prevailed 

 to the greatest extent in Italy, where the continual 

 quarrels of the numerous small states afforded ample 

 employment to the unsettled and the dissolute. 

 These companies play an important part in the his- 

 tory of the middle ages, particularly that of the two 

 centuries preceding the reformation, and had a very 

 important influence on the manners and morals of the 

 south of Europe. They are further interesting to the 

 student of history, because they are so unlike any 

 thing at present existing. We refer the reader, for 

 some further remarks on this subject, to an able ar- 

 ticle on Macchiavelli, in the Edinburgh Review, 

 March, 1827. 



Captain, in modern armies, is the commander of a 

 company of foot, or a troop of horse. In the British 

 army, he appoints the Serjeants, corporals, and lance- 

 crporals of his company a right which belongs, hi 

 other armies, to the commander of the regiment. In 

 the horse and foot-guards, the captains have the rank 

 of lieutenant-colonels in the army. In the French 

 army, besides the commanders of the companies of 

 the line, commanders of certain detached bodies of 

 guards, c. , are called captains, and have, sometimes, 

 a very high rank in the army. 



Captain-lieutenant is, in the British army, a lieu- 

 tenant, who, with the rank of captain, commands a 



troop or company in the name of some other per- 

 son. Thus, the colonel being usually captain of the 

 first company of his regiment, that company is com- 

 manded by his deputy as captain-lieutenant. 



Captain of a merchant ship ; he who lias the direc- 

 tion of the ship, her crew, lading, &c. In small ves- 

 sels he is more ordinarily called master. In the Me- 

 diterranean he is called patroon. 



Post-captain ; a British officer commanding :my 

 man-of-war, from a ship of the line down to a sliip 

 rigged sloop. Formerly a twenty-gun ship \\ as the 

 smallest tliat gave post-rank; but, oy a late, regula- 

 tion, the largest class of ship-sloops has been added 

 to the list of post-ships; and post-captains, under 

 three years' standing, are now appointed to them, mi 

 less they happen to lie selected as flag-captains to ad- 

 inirals' ships. After being three years posted, they 

 are appointed to frigates, which they may continue to 

 command till they are of ten years' standing, when 

 they are generally removed to fifty or sixty-four gun 

 ships, preparatory to their taking the command of 

 ships of the line. 



Captain-general signifies, in England, the first mi- 

 litary rank, power, and authority in the realm ; 

 therefore the king is, by the constitution, captain- 

 general, or generalissimo, of all the forces in the 

 United Kingdoms. In 1799 the king delegated this 

 rank, with the powers annexed to it, to the duke of 

 York. In France it is an ancient title, which con- 

 ferred an almost unlimited power on the person who 

 possessed it, hi the district where he commanded. 

 But it never corresponded to that of generalissimo 

 except in the case of the duke of Savoy, in 1635, in 

 the time of Louis XIII. The count de Tesse was 

 French captain-general in Italy in 1702. The title 

 is not in use at present, nor would it agree with the 

 existing organization of the administration. In Spain 

 the rank of a captain-general corresponds with that 

 of a marshal of France, who has the command of an 

 army. This title was also given to the head of a 

 province, in the Spanish colonies in South America, 

 which was divided into viceroyalties and captain-ge- 

 neralships (capitanias-generales) ; thus Chili was a 

 captain-generalship. The captain^fqnerals were not 

 placed under the viceroys, but accountable only to 

 the king, through, the council of -the I ml ^k The 

 captain-general of Venezuela, for instanc^fliad no 

 connexion with the viceroy of New Grenada. They 

 decided, in the last instance, on all legislative, judi- 

 cial, and military affairs, and presided ui\\ie:real an- 

 diencia. The time during which these governors re- 

 mained hi power was limited to a few years^ probably 

 in order to prevent them from becoming tog power- 

 ful. The consequence was, that the colonies were 

 oppressed the more to enrich the governors, for rich 

 every one was when he left his office. 



CAPTURE. See Prize. - 



CAPUA ; a fortified place in the Terra di Lavoro, 

 in the kingdom of Naples, on the Volturno ; the see 

 of an archbishop; contains a military school, and 

 7300 inhabitants ; one league distant from the an- 

 cient Capua, out of the ruins of which it was partly 

 built, in the 9th century; Ion. l^S'E.; lat. 41 6 1 

 N. ; fifteen miles north of Naples. There are, twelve 

 convents in this city. Jan. 11, 1797, it was taken by 

 the French, and, in 1820, it did not resist the Aus- 

 trians. The ancient Capua, one of the finest and 

 most agreeable cities of Italy, was so important, that 

 it was compared to Rome and Carthage. Hannibal 

 went into quarters here, after the battle of Cannae, 

 and promised to make the city the capital of Italy. 

 Capua therefore formed an alliance with him, but was 

 reconquered five years after. The Vandals laid it 

 waste. Narses restored it, but the Lombards de- 

 vastated it again. There are still many ruins here. 



