CINNA

cinna, gaius helvius, roman poet of the later ciceronian age. practically nothing is known of his life except that he was the friend of catullus, whom he accompanied to bithynia in the suite of the praetor memmius. the circumstances of his death have given rise to some discussion. suetonius, valerius maximus, appian and dio cassius all state that, at caesar's funeral, a certain helvius cinna was killed by mistake for cornelius cinna, the conspirator. the last three writers mentioned above add that he was a tribune of the people, while plutarch, referring to the affair, gives the further information that the cinna who was killed by the mob was a poet. this points to the identity of helvius cinna the tribune with helvius cinna the poet. the chief objection to this view is based upon two lines in the 9th eclogue of virgil, supposed to have been written 41 or 40 b.c. here reference is made to a certain cinna, a poet of such importance that virgil deprecates comparison with him; it is argued that the manner in which this cinna, who could hardly have been any one but helvius cinna, is spoken of implies that he was then alive; if so, he could not have been killed in 44. but such an interpretation of the virgilian passage is by no means absolutely necessary; the terms used do not preclude a reference to a contemporary no longer alive. it has been suggested that it was really cornelius, not helvius cinna, who was slain at caesar's funeral, but this is not borne out by the authorities. cinna's chief work was a mythological epic poem called _smyrna_, the subject of which was the incestuous love of smyrna (or myrrha) for her father cinyras, treated after the manner of the alexandrian poets. it is said to have taken nine years to finish. a _propempticon pollionis_, a send-off to [asinius] pollio, is also attributed to him. in both these poems, the language of which was so obscure that they required special commentaries, his model appears to have been parthenius of nicaea. see a. weichert, _poetarum latinorum vitae_ (1830); l. muller's edition of catullus (1870), where the remains of cinna's poems are printed; a. kiessling, "de c. helvio cinna poeta" in _commentationes philologicae in honorem t. mommsen_ (1878); o. ribbeck, _geschichte der romischen dichtung_, i. (1887); teuffel-schwabe, _hist. of roman lit._ (eng. tr. 213, 2-5); plessis, _poesie latine_ (1909). cinnabar (ger. _zinnober_), sometimes written cinnabarite, a name applied to red mercuric sulphide (hgs), or native vermilion, the common ore of mercury. the name comes from the greek [greek: kinnabari], used by theophrastus, and probably applied to several distinct substances. cinnabar is generally found in a massive, granular or earthy form, of bright red colour, but it occasionally occurs in crystals, with a metallic adamantine lustre. the crystals belong to the hexagonal system, and are generally of rhombohedral habit, sometimes twinned. cinnabar presents remarkable resemblance to quartz in its symmetry and optical characters. like quartz it exhibits circular polarization, and a. des cloizeaux showed that it possessed fifteen times the rotatory power of quartz (see polarization of light). cinnabar has higher refractive power than any other known mineral, its mean index for sodium light being 3.02, whilst the index for diamond--a substance of remarkable refraction--is only 2.42 (see refraction). the hardness of cinnabar is 3, and its specific gravity 8.998. cinnabar is found in all localities which yield quicksilver, notably almaden (spain), new almaden (california), idria (austria), landsberg, near ober-moschel in the palatinate, ripa, at the foot of the apuan alps (tuscany), the mountain avala (servia), huancavelica (peru), and the province of kweichow in china, whence very fine crystals have been obtained. cinnabar is in course of deposition at the present day from the hot waters of sulphur bank, in california, and steamboat springs, nevada. hepatic cinnabar is an impure variety from idria in carniola, in which the cinnabar is mixed with bituminous and earthy matter. metacinnabarite is a cubic form of mercuric sulphide, this compound being dimorphous. for a general description of cinnabar, see g.f. becker's _geology of the quicksilver deposits of the pacific slope_, u.s. geol. surv. monographs, no. xiii. (1888). (f. w. r.*)