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CENIS CENTIPED. 



1599, Beatrice Cenci and her si>ter were executed 

 with a sort of guillotine, called mannuia. Giacomo 

 was killed with a club; the younger brother was 

 pardoned on account of his youth ; but the estates of 

 l he family, to which belonged the villa Borghese, 

 bince so famed for its treasures of art, were confis- 

 cated, and presented by the reigning pope, Paul V., 

 of the house of Borghese, to his family. In the 

 palace of Colonna, at Rome, travellers are shown an 

 excellent painting, said to be by Guido Reni, as the 

 ]K>rtrait of the unfortunate parricide ; and this chann- 

 ing picture of the beautiful girl lias been the means 

 or spreading over all Europe the tale of horror con- 

 nected with it. Percy Bysshe Shelley lias made 

 the Cenci the subject of a drama. 



CENIS, MOUNT ; a mountain belonging to the 

 Alps, in the county of Maurienne, in Savoy. Its 

 height is stated to be 8670 feet above the level of 

 the sea. It is famous for the road which leads over 

 it from Savoy to Piedmont. (See Alps, Roads over). 

 On the mountain is a plain, called Madelemo, and a 

 lake, with an hospital, called La Ramasse. The 

 lake contains trout s of sixteen pounds' weight. This 

 plain is surrounded by liigher peaks covered with 

 snow (See Alps). Benvenuto Cellini's journey over 

 the Alps, in the sixteenth century, Evelyn's, in the 

 seventeenth, lady Mary Wortley's and Horace Wai- 

 pole's, in the eighteenth, are all interesting; but 

 the danger has been removed by Napoleon's road. 



CENOBITE. See Anchoret, and Monastery. 



CENOTAPH (from the Greek Kiar<ip,, called 

 also Kiif<i>) ; a monument erected in honour of a 

 deceased person, but not containing his body, as is 

 implied from the terms xt*s, empty, and ca^os, a 

 tomb. Some of these monuments were erected in 

 honour of persons buried elsewhere, others for per- 

 sons whose bodies were not interred. The ancients 

 believed that, when the body was not buried, the soul 

 could not be admitted into the abodes of the blessed. 

 When a body could not be found, it was supposed 

 that some rest was afforded to the sufferer by erect- 

 ing him a cenotaph, and calling out his name three 

 times with a loud voice. Such monuments were dis- 

 tinguished by a particular sign, usually a piece of a 

 shipwrecked vessel, to denote the death of the de- 

 ceased in a foreign land. The Pythagoreans erected 

 cenotaphs to those who had quitted their sect, as if 

 they were actually dead. 



CENSORS were magistrates at Rome, who kept 

 a register of the number of the people and of their 

 fortune, and (from 442 B. C.) regulated the taxes. 

 At the same time they watched over the manners of 

 the citizens. They were chosen every fifth year. 

 This institution, at the period of simple manners in 

 which it was founded, may have been beneficial, but 

 is wholly inconsistent with our ideas of individual li- 

 berty. In the different governments of Europe, cen- 

 sors are persons appointed by the government to ad- 

 minister the censorship of the press (q. v.). 



CENSORSHIP OF BOOKS. See Books, Cen- 

 sorship of. 



CENSUS ; with the Romans, one of the most im- 

 portant institutions of the state, and the foundation of 

 its future greatness. It was introduced by king Ser- 

 yius Tullius, B. C. 577. AH Roman citizens, both 

 in the city and in the country, were obliged to report 

 the amount of their property, the number of their 

 children, slaves, &c., under penalty of losing their 

 property and their liberty. According to the state- 

 ment thus given in, Servius Tullius divided the citi- 

 zens into six classes, and those again into centuries 

 (q. v.). The first class consisted of those whose for- 

 tunes ampunted respectively to at least 100,000 asses 

 or pounds of copper. The property of the second 

 was at least 75,OOO ; that of the third, 50,000; Uiat 



of the fourth, 25,000 ; that of the fifth, 1 1,000 ataes; 

 all the rest belonged to Hie sixth class. (See At). 

 Each class had a particular kind of arms a particular 

 post in the army, &c. Tliis division produced the 

 most important consequences for Rome. At an ear- 

 lier period, the poor citizens were obliged to pay the 

 same taxes, and render the same services in war, as 

 the rich; and the most important la-inches of the 

 public administration were in the hands of the igno- 

 rant and passionate mob. The heaviest burdens in 

 war and in peace were, by this institution, transferred 

 to the rich, and the chief direction of public affairs 

 was placed in the hands of the first class, which run 

 taincd, according to the rule of division established 

 by Servius Tullius, as many centuries as all the rot. 

 The citizens of the lowest class, who liad no proper- 

 ty, or very little, were liardly counted as a class, so 

 that the ancient authors often mention only five 

 classes. In the course of t ; me, the original divi- 

 sions suffered some alterations, but the institution re- 

 mained essentially the same. This census was re- 

 peated every fifth year, at first by the kings, after- 

 wards by the consuls, and, finally, by the censors. 

 At a later period, however, it was not always taken 

 at a fixed time, and was often entirely omitted. Af- 

 ter the termination of the census, an expiatory sacri- 

 fice was offered, called suovetaurilia. 



CENTAURS; an ancient barbarous people in 

 Thessaly, on mount Pelion. According to the fable, 

 they were the children of Centaurus, a son of Apollo, 

 and the mares of Magnesia, or of Ixion and the (-loud 

 (See Ixiori). They are said to have been lialf horse 

 and half man, and the fable is explained in this man- 

 ner: The Centaurs first practised the art of mount- 

 ing and managing horses. In the time of the Thes- 

 salian king Ixion, a herd of wild bulls on mount Pe- 

 lion committed great devastations in the adjacent 

 country. Ixion offered a great reward to whoever 

 should destroy them : in consequence of which, the 

 Centaurs trained horses to bear them on their backs, 

 and slew the bulls. Mythology relates the combats 

 of the Centaurs with Hercules, Theseus, and Pirith- 

 ous. The latter, at the head of the Lapitlia?, another 

 Thessalian nation, their hereditary enemies, entirely 

 defeated them, killed many, and drove them from 

 Pelion. The Centaurs Nessus, Chiron, and others, 

 are famous in ancient fable. The latter is often 

 mentioned under the name Centaurus. 



CENTAURY. There exist two plants of this 

 name, used in medicine : small centaury (chironia 

 centaurium of Lamarck), indigenous in Europe, grow- 

 ing abundantly everywhere ; and American centaury 

 (chironia angularis of Willdenow), extensively distri- 

 buted throughout the United States. Both are an- 

 nual plants, and esteemed as tonics and febrifuges ; 

 the latter, however, is preferred by the American 

 physicians. It is also much used in domestic practice 

 as a prophylactic against autumnal fevers, in strong 

 infusions, in large and repeated doses. 



CENTIARE; a French measure, the hundredth 

 part of an are (q. v.) ; thus, also, according to th 

 new French division of measures and weights, we 

 have centigramme, centilitre, centime, centimetre, the 

 hundredth part of a gramme, litre, franc, metre. See 

 French Decimal System. 



CENTIGRADE. See Thermometer. 



CENTIMANI. See Briareus. 



CENTIPED (scolopendra, L.) ; a genus of insects 

 belonging to the order myriapoda, C. They are dis- 

 tinguished by having antennae of fourteen joints and 

 upwards, a mouth composed of two mandibles, a qu i- 

 drifid lip, two palm, or small feet, united at their 

 base, and a second lip, formed by a second pair of 

 dilated feet, joined at their origin, and terminated by 

 a strong hook, having an opening beneath its point. 



