lled _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. Mueller'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 roemischen 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 a