CASE. — The term *c.* is applied to those rare events which, although unforeseen and unforeseeable, nonetheless display a certain teleological value in their outcome. It is the "coincidence," the meeting or concurrence (objective element), curious because it is "interesting" (subjective element): the peasant who, while hoeing, discovers a hidden treasure; the traveler who is killed by bandits lying in ambush near a spring, etc.
In classical mechanism (Anaxagoras, the atomists, Empedocles, the Stoics, Epicureans, Strato of Lampsacus) the *c.* is a mere name invoked to conceal ignorance.