810 



CALIGULA CALIPH. 



nals, and even innocent persons, to be stretched on 

 the rack and beheaded: the most respectable persons 

 were daily executed. In the madness of his arro- 

 gance, he even considered himself a pod, and caused 

 tin- honoutB to be paid to him which were paid to 

 Apollo, to Mnrs, and even to Jupiter. He also 

 showed himselF in public with the attributes of Venus 

 and of other goddesses. He built a temple to his 

 own divinity. At one time, he wished that the 

 whole Roman people had but one iiead, that he 

 might be able to cut it off at one blow. He fre- 

 quently repeated the words of an old poet, Oderint 

 dum tnetuant. One of his greatest follies was the 

 building of a bridge between Bate and Puteoli (Puz- 

 nioli). He himself consecrated this strange structure 

 with great splendour ; and, after he had passed the 

 night following in a revel with his friends, in order to 

 do something extraordinary before his departure, he 

 caused a crowd of persons, without distinction of age, 

 rank, and character, to be seized, and thrown into the 

 sea. On his return, he entered Rome in triumph, 

 because, as he said, he had conquered nature herself. 

 After this, he made preparations for an expedition 

 against the Germans, passed, with more than 200,000 

 men, over the Rhine, but returned after he had tra- 

 velled a few miles, and that without having seen an 

 enemy. Such was his terror, that, when he came to 

 the river, and found the bridge obstructed by the 

 crowd upon it, he caused himself to be passed over the 

 heads of the soldiers. He then went to Gaul, which 

 he plundered with unexampled rapacity. Not con- 

 tent with the considerable booty thus obtained, he 

 sold all the property of both his sisters, Agrippina and 

 Livilla, whom he banished. He also sold the furni- 

 ture of the old court, the clothes of Marcus Antoni- 

 nus, of Augustus, Agrippina, &c. Before he left 

 Gaul, he declared his intention of going to Britain. 

 He collected his army on the coast, embarked in a 

 magnificent galley, but returned when he had hardly 

 left, the land, drew up his forces, ordered the signal 

 for battle to be sounded, and commanded the soldiers 

 to fill their pockets and helmets with shells, while he 

 cried out, " This booty, ravished from the sea, is fit 

 for my palace and the capitol !" When he returned 

 to Rome, he was desirous of a triumph on account of 

 his achievements, but contented himself with an ova- 

 tion. Discontented with the senate, he resolved to 

 destroy the greater part of the members, and the 

 most distinguished men of Rome. This is proved by 

 two books, which were found after his death, wherein 

 the names of the proscribed were noted down, and of 

 which one was entitled Gladius (Sword), and the other 

 Ptigillus (Dagger). He became reconciled to the 

 senate again when he found it worthy of him. He 

 supported public brothels and gaming houses, and 

 received himself the entrance money of the visitors. 

 His horse, named Incitatu*, was his favourite. This 

 animal had a house and a servant, and was fed from 

 marble and gold. C. had caused him to be admitted 

 into the college of his priests, and was desirous of 

 making him a consul also. He even had the inten- 

 tion of destroying the poems of Homer, and was on 

 the point of removing the works and images of Vir- 

 gil and Livy from all libraries : those of the former, 

 because he was destitute of genius and learning; 

 those of the latter, because he was not to be depended 

 upon as a historian. C.'s morals were, from his youth 

 upward, corrupt ; he had committed incest with all 

 his sisters. After he had married and repudiated se- 

 veral wives, Cassonia retained a permanent hold on 

 his affections. A number of conspirators, at the head 

 of whom were Chrea and Cornelius Sabinus, both 

 tribunes of the pretorian cohorts, murdered him in the 

 twenty-ninth year of his age, and the fourth of his 

 tyrannical reign (from A. D. 37 to 41). 



CALIPH (i. e., vicegerent) is the name assumed by 

 the successors of Molianuued, in the government of 

 the faithful and in the high priesthood. Caliphate is, 

 therefore, the name given, by historians, to the em- 

 pire of these princes which the Arabs founded in 

 Asia, and, impelled by religions enthusiasm, enlarged, 

 within a few centuries, to a dominion fur superior in 

 extent to the Roman empire. The title is borne by 

 the grand signior in Turkey, and the sophi of Persia. 

 Mohammed (q. v. ), in the character of the prophet of 

 God, made himself the spiritual and temporal ruler oi 

 his people. After the death of the prophet, the eli < 

 tion of a successor occasioned considerable excitement. 



Abdallah Ebn Abu Koafas, called Abubeker, i. e., 

 father of the virgin (because his daughter Ayesha was 

 the only one of the wives of Mohammed, whom he 

 had married when a virgin), obtained the victory over 

 Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed, and 

 became the first caliph, A. D. 632 (year of the Ilegini 

 11). Victorious over all enemies, by the aid of his 

 general, the brave Caled, he began, as the Koran 

 directs, to spread the doctrines of Mohammed by arms 

 among the neighbouring nations. With the watch- 

 word conversion or tribute, a numerous army, consist- 

 ing entirely of volunteers, inspired with zeal for the 

 holy war, penetrated first into Syria. Conquerors in 

 the first battle, they were subsequently several times 

 defeated by the Greeks ; but, having once acquired a 

 strong footing in the country by the treacherous sur- 

 render of Bosra; they undertook, under Caled, the 

 siege of Damascus, and, having repulsed two hirge 

 armies, sent by the emperor Heraclius to the relief of 

 the city, they obtained possession of it by capitulation 

 (A.D. 633, of the Hegira 12), the terms of which 

 were perfidiously broken, Caled pursuing and slaugh- 

 tering the retreating Christians. Abubeker died 

 after he had filled the place of the prophet two years 

 and four months. 



By his will, Omar, another father-in-law of the pro- 

 phet, became second caliph. He intrusted the com- 

 mand of the army of the faithful to the humane 

 Obeidah, instead of Caled, and completed, by his 

 means, though not without a brave resistance on the 

 part of the Greeks, the subjugation of Syria (A. D. 

 638, of the Hegira 17). Jerusalem having been com- 

 pelled to surrender (A. D. 636, Hegira 15), Omar 

 proceeded thither in person to fix the terms of capi- 

 tulation, which have subsequently served as a model in 

 settling the relations of the Moslems to the subject 

 Christians. These terms were carefully observed by 

 the conscientious caliph. Equally successful was an- 

 other general, Amrou, in Egypt, which was subjected 

 to the caliphate in two years (640>. Omar was the 

 first who bore the appellation of emir al moumenin 

 (prince of the faithful) a title inherited by all suc- 

 ceeding caliphs, and perverted into miramolin by the 

 ignorant Europeans. 



After the murder of Omar by a revengeful slave 

 (A. D. 643, Heg. 23), a council, appointed by him on 

 his death-bed, chose Osman, or Othman, son-in-law 

 of the prophet, passing over Ali. Under him, the 

 empire of the Arabs soon attained a wonderful mag- 

 nitude. In the East, their arms spread the doctrines 

 of the Koran through Persia. At the same time, 

 they advanced along the northern coast of Africa, as 

 far as Ceuta. Cyprus, too (A.D. 647), and Rhodes 

 (A. D. 654) were conquered ; but the former was 

 lost again two years after. Thus Alexandria and all 

 Egypt were a second time, though not without diffi- 

 culty, torn from the Greeks, who had regained their 

 power there by the aid of the natives. These re- 

 verses were caused by the measures of Othman, who, 

 far inferior to Omar in wisdom, intrusted the pro- 

 vinces, not to the most capable, but to his favourites. 

 The dissatisfaction thus excised occasioned a general 



