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On this page: Celaeno – Celeus – Cella – Celsus – Cena – Cenaculum – Centaphium – Censores

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CELjENO—— CENSORES.

him Cecrdpia. He divided the rude in­habitants into twelve communities, founded the stronghold of Athens, which was called Cecropia after him, and introduced the ele-

* CECKOI'S. (Vase painting at Palermo.)

ments of civilization, the laws of marriage and property, the earliest political arrange­ments, and the earliest religious services, notably those of Zeus and Athene.

When Poseidon and Athene were con­ tending for the possession of the land, Poseidon struck the rock of the acropolis • with his trident, and water (or, according to another story, the horse) sprang forth ; but Athene planted the first olive tree. Cecrops, on being called in to decide be- j tween them, gave judgment in favour of the goddess, as having conferred on the land the more serviceable gift. !

Cecrops had four children by his wife AgraulSs: a son Erysichthon, who died childless, and three daughters, Agraulos, Herse, and PandrSsos. The names of the last two show them to be the deities of the fertilizing dew ; and indeed the three were regarded as in the service of Athene, and as giving fruitfulness to the fields. Pan-drosos was Athene's first priestess. She had a shrine of her own (PandrosSum) in the temple of Erechtheus on the acropolis, and was invoked in times of drought with the two Attic Horce, Thallo and Carpo (sec erechtheum). In her temple stood the sacred olive which Athene had created.

Celseno (Gr. KelainO). (1) Sec harpies. (2) See pleiades.

Wleus (Gr. KelgSs). A king of Eleusis, in

whose home Demeter, while seeking for her daughter, received an affectionate welcome and comfort while tending her newly-born son DemfiphSon. (See demeter and de-mophoon.)

Cella. See temple.

Celsus (A. Cornelius). A Roman savant, eminent in several branches of knowledge, who flourished in the age of Tiberius, a.d. 14-37. He was the author of a great ency­clopaedic work called (it would seem) Artes, designed after the manner of Varro's Disci­plines. The work of Celsus included more than 20 books, treating of agriculture, medicine, philosophy, rhetoric, and the art of war. Of these all that remain are books 7-13, De MSdlclna. This is the earliest and the most considerable work of the sort in the extant Roman literature. The material which the author has collected, partly from Greek sources, partly from his own expe­rience, is treated in systematic order, and with a purity of style which won for Celsus the name of the Cicero of physicians.

Cena. See meals.

Cenaculum. See house.

CSn&taphlnm (Gr. KSnOMplMn). See burial.

Censores (Roman). The officials whose duty it was (after 444 b.c.) to take the place of the consuls in superintending the five-yearly census. The office was one of the higher magistracies, and could only be held once by the same person. It was at first confined to the Patricians; in 351 B.C. it was thrown open to the Plebeians, and after 339 one of the censors was obliged by law to be a plebeian. On occasion of a census, the censors were elected soon after the ac­cession to office of the new consuls, who presided over the assembly. They were usually chosen from the number of consu-Idrls, or persons who had been consuls. Accordingly the censorship was regarded, if not as the highest office of state, at least as the highest step in the ladder of promotion. The newly elected censors entered imme­diately, after due summons, upon their office. Its duration was fixed in 433 b.c. to eighteen months, but it could be extended for certain purposes. For the object of carrying out their proper duties, the census and the solemn purifications (lustrum1) that con­cluded it, they had the power of summon­ing the people to the Campus Martius, where, since 434 B.C., they had an official residence in the Villa Publlca. The tri­bunes had no right of veto as against their proceedings in taking the census j indeed,