6 u ■ Cl R 
the beft circumflantiated imaginable, are for the lucceffion 
of Hanover. Swift. 
CIRCUMSTAN'TIBUS, or By-standers, a term in 
law, fignifying the fupplying of making up the number 
Of jurors, if any impannelled appear not, or appearing are 
challenged by either party, by adding to them fo many 
of thofe, that are prefent, or ftanding-by (tales de circutn- 
Jlantibus) that are qualified, as will'ferve the turn. Stat. 
35 Hen. VIII. c. 6. 5 Eliz. c. 25; 
To CIRCUMVAL'LATE, v. a. \_circumvallo, Lit.] To 
inclofe round with trenches or fortifications. 
CIRCUMVALLA'TION, f The art or a< 5 t of calling 
up fortifications round the place. See the article For¬ 
tification.— When the czar firft acquainted liimleif 
with mathematical learning, he- praftifed all the rules of 
cnxumvdilation and contravallation at the fiege of a town 
in Livonia. Watts. —The fortification or trench thrown up 
round a place befieged.— This gave refpite to finifii thofe 
ftupendous circumvallations and barricadoes, reared up by 
lea and land. Hovuell. 
CIRCUMyEC'TION, f. {circumveaio, Lat.] The aa 
of carrying round. The ftate of being carried round. 
To CIRCUMVE'NT, v. a. \circumvenio, Lat.] To de¬ 
ceive ; to cheat; to impofe upon; to delude.—He, fear¬ 
ing to be betrayed or circumvented by his cruel brother, 
fled to Barbarofla. Knolles. 
CIRCUMVEN'TION,/ Fraud ; impoflure; cheat; de- 
lufion.—If he is in the city, lie mult avoid haranguing 
againlt circumvention in commerce. Collier. —Prevention; 
pre-occupation. This fenfe is novj out of life: 
Whatever hath been thought on in this Hate, 
That could be brought to bodily aft, ere Rome 
Had circumvention. Shakcfpeare. 
To CIRCUMVE'ST, v. a. [circumveflio, Lat.] To co- 
■ ver round with a garment : 
Who on this bafe the earth did’ft firmly found, 
. And mad’ft the deep to circumvejl it round. Watton. 
CIRCUMVOLA / TION, f. [ circumvolo,'Ld.\..~\ The aft 
of flying round. 
To CIRCUMVOL'VE, v. a. [ circumvolvo , Lat.] To 
roll round; to put into a circular motion.—Could folid 
orbs be accommodated to phenomena, yet to afcribe each 
fphere an intelligence to circumvolve it, were unphilolo- 
phical. Glanville. 
CIRCUMVOLU'TION, /. [, circumvolutus, Lat.] The 
aft of rolling round. The ftate of being rolled round.— 
The twilling of the guts, is really either a circumvolution, 
or infertion of one part of the gut within the other. Ar- 
buthnot. —The thing rolled round’another.—Confider the 
obliquity or clofenefs of thefe circumvolutions ; the nearer 
they are, the higher may be the inftrument. Wilkins. 
CIR'CUS, or Cirque,/, [from aas carka, to furround, 
Chald.] An open fpac'e.or area for fports, with feats round 
for the fpedlators.—A pleafant valley, like one of thofe 
circufes , which in great cities foinewliere doth give a 
pleafant fpe£tacle of running horfes. Sidney. 
See the cirque falls ! tli’ unpillar’d temple nods 
Streets pav’d with heroes, Tyber choak’d with gods. Pope. 
The Roman circus was a large oblong edifice, arched 
at one end 5 encompafled with porticos, and furnilhed 
with rows of feats, placed afcending o\ er each other. In 
the middle was a kind of foot-bank, or eminence, with 
obelilks, Itatues, and polls, at each end. This ferved them 
for the courfes of their biga and fuadrigce. There were 
no lefsithan ten circufes at Rome; the largelt was built 
by the elder Tarquin, called Circus Maximus, between 
the 1 Aventine and Palatine mounts. . It was fo called, 
either becaufe of its vaft circumference, or becaufe the 
great games were celebrated in it, or becaufe it was con- 
lecrated to the great gods, viz. to Vertumnus, Neptune; 
Jupiter, Juno, Minerva,, and the Dii Penates of Rome. 
Dionyfius Halicarnaflenfis fays, that it was three ftadia 
and a half in length, and four jugera broad ; and thele 
meafures, according to Pliny, allowing to the Roman lta= 
C I R 
dia 615 Roman feet, each of which is twelve inches, wi!5 
give for the length 2187 Roman feet, or fomewhat more 
than three Englifh furlongs ; and as to the breadth, al¬ 
lowing for each of the jugera 240 Roman feet, it will be 
960 Roman feet. It was beautified and enlarged by the 
Roman emperors, fo as to feat 250,000 fpedtators. The 
molt magnificent circufes were thofe of Augultus and 
Nero. There are Hill fome remains of the circufes at 
Rome, at Nifmes, ..and other places. 
The games of the Circus, which fome call Circenfart 
games^ere combats celebrated in the circus, in honour 
of Confus the god of councils; and thence alfo called' 
QonfuaHa. They were alio called Roman games, Ludi Ro¬ 
mani, either on account of their antiquity, as being coeval 
with the.Roman people, or becaufe eltablirtved by the Ro¬ 
mans : and the games held there, the great Janies, ludi 
magni, becaufe celebrated with more expence and mag¬ 
nificence than others ; and becaufe held in honoW of the 
great god Neptune, who was their Confus. Thofe who 
fay'they were inftituted in honour of the fun, confound 
the pompa circenfis, or proceftion of the circus, with the 
games. The games of the circus were inltiluted by 
Evander, and re-eftablilhed by Romulus, in. imitation of 
the Olympian games among the Greeks. The. pomp, or 
procefiion, was only a part of the games, making the pre¬ 
lude, and coniifting of a limple cavalcade of chariots. Till 
the time of the elder Tarquin, they were held in an ifland 
of the Tiber, and were colled Roman games ; after that prince 
had built the- circus, they took their name from it. There 
W'ere fix kinds of exerciles in the circus : the firft was 
wreftling, and. fighting with fwords, ftaves, and pikes; 
the fecond was racing; the third, dancing; the fourth, 
throwing quoits, arrows, and ceftus, all of which were 011 
foot; the fifth was horie-raeing; the fixth, chariot-racing, 
whether with two horfes or with four. In this laft exer- 
cife, the competitors were at firft divided into two fqua- 
drons or quadrils ; then into four, each bearing the names- 
of the colours they wore; faftio alba, rujj'ea, Sec. At firft 
there was only white and red, then green was added, and. 
blue. Domitian added two more colours, but they did 
not continue. , It was Oenomaus who firft invented this 
method of diftinguilhing the quadrils by colours. The 
green was for thofe who reprefented the earth ; the blue. 
for the fea,. See. 
CIRE', a tow’ii of France,, in the department of the 
Lower Charente, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
tri< 5 t of Rocheford : two leagues and a half north of 
Rocheford. 
CIREL'LA, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of Na¬ 
ples, and; province of Calabria Citra, near which were 
formerly mines of gold, ftlver, and lead, veftiges of which 
are now vilible : eight miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Scalea. 
CI'RENCESTER, a large and populous borough town 
in Gloucefterfliire, fituate near the borders of Wiltfhire. 
At this place three of the ancient military roads of the 
Romans met, i.e. the Fofs-way, the Irmin-ftreet, and 
the Icknild-ftreet. The chief- trade of the town is 
woolltapling, and tile manufafture of heavy edge-tools,, 
which are generally much efteemed. From the junftion 
of the Thames with the Severn, a canal has been made to 
, Cirencefter, by which means it has the advantage of wa¬ 
ter-carriage to moft parts of the kingdom. This town is 
by fome reckoned the largeft, as well as the oldeft, in the 
county. It is faid to have been built by Ciffa, one of the 
Saxon viceroys. It was of great note, both, under the 
Romans and Saxons, of whom it is laid the latter built 
the abbey here, of which two old gate-houfes ftill remain, 
as does the abbey-barn. Its abbot was mitred. King 
Canute, theiDane, held a general council here, anno 1020. 
It was formerly two miles round, but fullered much by 
the,Danes, the barons’wars, the civil-war, See. that not 
above one-fourth of that compais is now inhabited. The 
air here is remarkably healthy. Coining into the town 
from Gloucelter, a great part of the ftreet is a hollow¬ 
way, where apportion of the.river Churn runs, which emp¬ 
ties itfelf into one' of the arms of that river at the fecond 
bridge. 
