where he took Carthage. He laid the foundation of the Vandal kingdom
in Africa, and in the course of his military expeditions invaded
Italy, and sacked Rome in July, 455.
=Gentius=, a king of Illyricum, who imprisoned the Roman ambassadors at
the request of Perseus king of Macedonia. This offence was highly
resented by the Romans, and Gentius was conquered by Anicius, and
led in triumph with his family, B.C. 169. _Livy_, bk. 43, ch. 19, &c.
=Genua=, now _Genoa_, a celebrated town of Liguria, which Annibal
destroyed. It was rebuilt by the Romans. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 32;
bk. 28, ch. 46; bk. 30, ch. 1.
=Genūcius=, a tribune of the people.――――A consul.
=Genŭsus=, now _Semno_, a river of Macedonia, falling into the Adriatic
above Apollonia. _Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 462.
=Genutia lex=, _de magistratibus_, by Lucius Genutius the tribune,
A.U.C. 411. It ordained that no person should exercise the same
magistracy within 10 years, or be invested with two offices in one
year.
=Georgĭca=, a poem of Virgil in four books. The first treats of
ploughing the ground; the second of sowing it; the third speaks of
the management of cattle, &c.; and in the fourth, the poet gives an
account of bees, and of the manner of keeping them among the Romans.
The word is derived from γεα _terra_, and ἐργον _opus_, because it
particularly treats or husbandry. The work is dedicated to Mæcenas,
the great patron of poetry in the age of Virgil. The author was
seven years in writing and polishing it, and in that composition he
showed how much he excelled all other writers. He imitated Hesiod,
who wrote a poem nearly on the same subject, called _Works and Days_.
=Georgius Pisida.= _See:_ Pisida.
=Gephȳra=, one of the cities of the Seleucidæ in Syria. _Strabo_,
bk. 9.
=Gephȳræi=, a people of Phœnicia, who passed with Cadmus into Bœotia,
and from thence into Attica. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 57.
=Geræstus=, a port of Eubœa. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 45.
=Gerānia=, a mountain between Megara and Corinth.
=Geranthræ=, a town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Geresticus=, a harbour of Teios in Ionia. _Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 27.
=Gergithum=, a town near Cumæ in Æolia _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 30.
=Gergōvia=, a town of Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 9.
=Gerion=, an ancient augur.
=Germānia=, an extensive country of Europe, at the east of Gaul. Its
inhabitants were warlike, fierce, and uncivilized, and always proved
a watchful enemy against the Romans. Cæsar first entered their
country, but he rather checked their fury than conquered them. His
example was followed by his imperial successors or their generals,
who sometimes entered the country to chastise the insolence of
the inhabitants. The ancient Germans were very superstitious, and,
in many instances, their religion was the same as that of their
neighbours the Gauls; whence some have concluded that these two
nations were of the same origin. They paid uncommon respect to their
women, who, as they believed, were endowed with something more than
human. They built no temples to their gods, and paid great attention
to the heroes and warriors whom the country had produced. Their rude
institutions gradually gave rise to the laws and manners which still
prevail in the countries of Europe, which their arms invaded or
conquered. Tacitus, in whose age even letters were unknown among
them, observed their customs with nicety, and has delineated them
with the genius of an historian and the reflection of a philosopher.
_Tacitus_, _Germania_.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 3; bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Germānĭcus Cæsar=, a son of Drusus and Antonia the niece of Augustus.
He was adopted by his uncle Tiberius, and raised to the most
important offices of the state. When his grandfather Augustus
died, he was employed in a war in Germany, and the affection
of the soldiers unanimously saluted him emperor. He refused the
unseasonable honour, and appeased the tumult which his indifference
occasioned. He continued his wars in Germany, and defeated the
celebrated Arminius, and was rewarded with a triumph at his return
to Rome. Tiberius declared him emperor of the east, and sent him
to appease the seditions of the Armenians. But the success of
Germanicus in the east was soon looked upon with an envious eye by
Tiberius, and his death was meditated. He was secretly poisoned at
Daphne near Antioch by Piso, A.D. 19, in the 34th year of his age.
The news of his death was received with the greatest grief and the
most bitter lamentations, and Tiberius seemed to be the only one
who rejoiced in the fall of Germanicus. He had married Agrippina,
by whom he had nine children, one of whom, Caligula, disgraced the
name of his illustrious father. Germanicus has been commended not
only for his military accomplishments, but also for his learning,
humanity, and extensive benevolence. In the midst of war, he devoted
some moments to study, and he favoured the world with two Greek
comedies, some epigrams, and a translation of Aratus in Latin verse.
_Suetonius._――――This name was common in the age of the emperors, not
only to those who had obtained victories over the Germans, but even
to those who had entered the borders of their country at the head of
an army. Domitian applied the name of _Germanicus_, which he himself
had vainly assumed, to the month of September, in honour of himself.
_Suetonius_, _Domitian_, ch. 13.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 2, li. 4.
=Germanii=, a people of Persia. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 125.
=Geronthræ=, a town of Laconia, where a yearly festival, called
_Geronthræa_, was observed in honour of Mars. The god had there
a temple with a grove, into which no woman was permitted to enter
during the time of the solemnity. _Pausanias_, _Laconia_.
♦=Gerrhæ=, a people of Scythia, in whose country the Borysthenes rises.
The kings of Scythia were generally buried in their territories.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 71.
♦ ‘Gerhæ’ replaced with ‘Gerrhæ’
=Gersus= and =Gerrhus=, a river of Scythia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 56.
=Gēryon= and =Gēryŏnes=, a celebrated monster, born from the union
of Chrysaor with Callirhoe, and represented by the poets as having
three bodies and three heads. He lived in the island of Gades, where
he kept numerous flocks, which were guarded by a two-headed dog,
called Orthos, and by Eurythion. Hercules, by order of Eurystheus,
went to Gades and destroyed Geryon, Orthos, and Eurythion, and
carried away all his flocks and herds to Tirynthus. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 187.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 661; bk. 8,
li. 202.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 277.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
――_Lucretius_, bk. 5, li. 28.
=Gessătæ=, a people of Gallia Togata. _Plutarch_, _Marcellus_.
=Gessoriăcum=, a town of Gaul, now _Boulogne_, in Picardy.
=Gessos=, a river of Ionia.
=Geta=, a man who raised seditions at Rome in Nero’s reign, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 72.――――Septimius, a son of the
emperor Severus, brother to Caracalla. In the eighth year of his age
he was moved with compassion at the fate of some of the partisans
of Niger and Albinus, who had been ordered to be executed; and his
father, struck with his humanity, retracted his sentence. After his
father’s death he reigned at Rome, conjointly with his brother; but
Caracalla, who envied his virtues, and was jealous of his popularity,
ordered him to be poisoned; and when this could not be effected, he
murdered him in the arms of his mother Julia, who, in the attempt
of defending the fatal blows from his body, received a wound in her
arm from the hand of her son, the 28th of March, A.D. 212. Geta had
not reached the 23rd year of his age, and the Romans had reason to
lament the death of so virtuous a prince, whilst they groaned under
the cruelties and oppression of Caracalla.
=Getæ= (singular, Getes), a people of European Scythia, near the
Daci. Ovid, who was banished in their country, describes them as a
savage and warlike nation. The word _Geticus_ is frequently used for
Thracian. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_; _Tristia_, poem 5, li. 111.――_Strabo_,
bk. 7.――_Statius_, bk. 2, _Sylvæ_, poem 2, li. 61; bk. 3, poem 1,
li. 17.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 54; bk. 3, li. 95.
=Getulia.= _See:_ Gætulia.
=Gĭgantes=, the sons of Cœlus and Terra, who, according to Hesiod,
sprang from the blood of the wound which Cœlus received from his
son Saturn; whilst Hyginus calls them sons of Tartarus and Terra.
They are represented as men of uncommon stature, and with strength
proportioned to their gigantic size. Some of them, as Cottus,
Briareus, and Gyges, had 50 heads and 100 arms, and serpents instead
of legs. They were of a terrible aspect; their hair hung loose about
their shoulders, and their beards were suffered to grow untouched.
Pallene and its neighbourhood was the place of their residence. The
defeat of the Titans, with whom they are often ignorantly confounded,
and to whom they were nearly related, incensed them against Jupiter,
and they all conspired to dethrone him. The god was alarmed, and
called all the deities to assist him against a powerful enemy
who made use of rocks, oaks, and burning woods for their weapons,
and who had already heaped mount Ossa upon Pelion, to scale with
more facility the walls of heaven. At the sight of such dreadful
adversaries, the gods fled with the greatest consternation into
Egypt, where they assumed the shape of different animals to screen
themselves from their pursuers. Jupiter, however, remembered
that they were not invincible, provided he called a mortal to his
assistance; and by the advice of Pallas, he armed his son Hercules
in his cause. With the aid of this celebrated hero, the giants were
soon put to flight and defeated. Some were crushed to pieces under
mountains, or buried in the sea, and others were flayed alive, or
beaten to death with clubs. _See:_ Enceladus, Aloides, Porphyrion,
Typhon, Otus, Titanes, &c. The existence of giants has been
supported by all the writers of antiquity, and received as an
undeniable truth. Homer tells us that Tityus, when extended on
the ground, covered nine acres; and that Polyphemus ate two of
the companions of Ulysses at once, and walked along the shores of
Sicily, leaning on a staff which might have served for the mast of
a ship. The Grecian heroes, during the Trojan war, and Turnus in
Italy, attacked their enemies by throwing stones, which four men of
the succeeding ages would have been unable to move. Plutarch also
mentions, in support of the gigantic stature, that Sertorius opened
the grave of Antæus in Africa, and found a skeleton which measured
six cubits in length. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Pausanias_, bk.
1, ch. 2, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 151.――_Plutarch_,
_Sertorius_.――_Hyginus_, fable 28, &c.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bks. 7 &
10.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 280; _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 580.
=Gigartum=, a town of Phœnicia.
=Gigis=, one of the female attendants of Parysatis, who was privy to
the poisoning of Statira. _Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.
=Gildo=, a governor of Africa in the reign of Arcadius. He died A.D.
398.
=Gillo=, an infamous adulterer in Juvenal’s age. _Juvenal_, satire 1,
li. 40.
=Gindanes=, a people of Libya, who fed on the leaves of the lotus.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 176.
=Gindes=, a river of Albania, flowing into the Cyrus.――――Another of
Mesopotamia. _Tibullus_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 141.
=Ginge.= _See:_ Gigis.
=Gingūnum=, a mountain of Umbria.
=Gippius=, a Roman who pretended to sleep, that his wife might indulge
her adulterous propensities, &c.
=Gisco=, son of Himilcon the Carthaginian general, was banished from
his country by the influence of his enemies. He was afterwards
recalled, and empowered by the Carthaginians to punish in what
manner he pleased those who had occasioned his banishment. He was
satisfied to see them prostrate on the ground and to place his foot
on their neck, showing that independence and forgiveness are two of
the most brilliant virtues of a great mind. He was made a general
soon after, in Sicily, against the Corinthians, about 309 years
before the christian era; and by his success and intrepidity he
obliged the enemies of his country to sue for peace.
=Glădiătōrii ludi=, combats originally exhibited on the grave of
deceased persons at Rome. They were first introduced at Rome by the
Bruti, upon the death of their father, A.U.C. 488. It was supposed
that the ghosts of the dead were rendered propitious by human blood;
therefore at funerals, it was usual to murder slaves in cool blood.
In succeeding ages, it was reckoned less cruel to oblige them to
kill one another like men, than to slaughter them like brutes,
therefore the barbarity was covered by the specious show of pleasure
and voluntary combat. Originally captives, criminals, or disobedient
slaves were trained up for combat; but when the diversion became
more frequent, and was exhibited on the smallest occasion, to
procure esteem and popularity, many of the Roman citizens enlisted
themselves among the gladiators, and Nero, at one show, exhibited
no less than 400 senators and 600 knights. The people were treated
with these combats not only by the great and opulent, but the very
priests had their _Ludi pontificales_, and _Ludi sacerdotales_. It
is supposed that there were no more than three pair of gladiators
exhibited by the Bruti. Their numbers, however, increased with
the luxury and power of the city; and the gladiators became so
formidable, that Spartacus, one of their body, had courage to take
up arms, and the success to defeat the Roman armies, only with a
train of his fellow-sufferers. The more prudent of the Romans were
sensible of the dangers which threatened the state by keeping such
a number of desperate men in arms, and therefore many salutary laws
were proposed to limit their number, as well as to settle the time
in which the show could be exhibited with safety and convenience.
Under the emperors, not only senators and knights, but even women
engaged among the gladiators, and seemed to forget the inferiority
of their sex. When there were to be any shows, hand-bills were
circulated to give notice to the people, and to mention the place,
number, time, and every circumstance requisite to be known. When
they were first brought upon the _arena_, they walked round the
place with great pomp and solemnity, and after that they were
matched in equal pairs with great nicety. They first had a skirmish
with wooden files, called _rudes_ or _arma lusoria_. After this
the effective weapons, such as swords, daggers, &c., called _arma
decretoria_, were given them, and the signal for the engagement was
given by the sound of a trumpet. As they had all previously sworn to
fight till death, or suffer death in the most excruciating torments,
the fight was bloody and obstinate, and when one signified his
submission by surrendering his arms, the victor was not permitted
to grant him his life without the leave and approbation of the
multitude. This was done by clenching the fingers of both hands
between each other, and holding the thumbs upright close together,
or by bending back their thumbs. The first of these was called
_pollicem premere_, and signified the wish of the people to spare
the life of the conquered. The other sign, called _pollicem vertere_,
signified their disapprobation, and ordered the victor to put his
antagonist to death. The victor was generally rewarded with a palm,
and other expressive marks of the people’s favour. He was most
commonly presented with a _pileus_ and _rudis_. When one of the
combatants received a remarkable wound, the people exclaimed _habet_,
and expressed their exultation by shouts. The combats of gladiators
were sometimes different either in weapons or dress, whence
they were generally distinguished into the following orders: The
_secutores_ were armed with a sword and buckler, to keep off the
net of their antagonists, the _retiarii_. These last endeavoured
to throw their net over the head of their antagonist, and in that
manner to entangle him, and prevent him from striking. If this did
not succeed, they betook themselves to flight. Their dress was a
short coat, with a hat tied under the chin with a broad ribbon.
They wore a trident in their left hand. The _Thraces_, originally
Thracians, were armed with a falchion, and small round shield. The
_myrmillones_, called also _Galli_, from their Gallic dress, ♦were
much the same as the _secutores_. They were, like them, armed with
a sword, and on the top of the head-piece they wore the figure of a
fish embossed, called μορμυρος, whence their name. The _Hoplomachi_
were completely armed from head to foot, as their name implies. The
_Samnites_, armed after the manner of the Samnites, wore a large
shield broad at the top, and growing more narrow at the bottom, more
conveniently to defend the upper parts of the body. The _Essedarii_
generally fought from the _essedum_, or chariot used by the ancient
Gauls and Britons. The _andabatæ_, ἀναβαται, fought on horseback,
with a helmet that covered and defended their faces and eyes. Hence
_andabatarum more pugnare_, is to fight blindfolded. The _meridiani_
engaged in the afternoon. The _postulatitii_ were men of great skill
and experience, and such as were generally produced by the emperors.
The _fiscales_ were maintained out of the emperor’s treasury,
_fiscus_. The _dimachæri_ fought with two swords in their hands,
whence their name. After these cruel exhibitions had been continued
for the amusement of the Roman populace, they were abolished by
Constantine the Great, near 600 years after their first institution.
They were, however, revived under the reign of Constantius and his
two successors, but Honorius for ever put an end to these cruel
barbarities.
♦ ‘where’ replaced with ‘were’
=Glanis=, a river of Cumæ,――――of Iberia,――――of Italy. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 454.
=Glanum=, a town of Gaul, now _St. Remi_, in Provence.
=Glaphy̆re= and =Glaphy̆ra=, a daughter of Archelaus the high priest
of Bellona in Cappadocia, celebrated for her beauty and intrigues.
She obtained the kingdom of Cappadocia for her two sons from Marcus
Antony, whom she corrupted by defiling the bed of her husband. This
amour of Antony with Glaphyra highly displeased his wife Fulvia,
who wished Augustus to avenge his infidelity by receiving from
her the same favours which Glaphyra received from Antony.――――Her
granddaughter bore the same name. She was a daughter of Archelaus
king of Cappadocia, and married Alexander, a son of Herod, by whom
she had two sons. After the death of Alexander, she married her
brother-in-law Archelaus.
=Glaphy̆rus=, an infamous adulterer. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 77.
=Glauce=, the wife of Actæus, daughter of Cychræus. _Apollodorus._
――――A daughter of Cretheus, mother of Telamon.――――One of the
Nereides.――――A daughter of Creon, who married Jason. _See:_ Creusa.
――――One of the Danaides. _Apollodorus._
=Glaucia=, a surname of the Servilian family. _Cicero_, _Orator_,
ch. 3.
=Glaucippe=, one of the Danaides. _Apollodorus._
=Glaucippus=, a Greek who wrote a treatise concerning the sacred rites
observed at Athens.
=Glaucon=, a writer of dialogues at Athens. _Diogenes Laërtius_,
_Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.
=Glauconŏme=, one of the Nereides.
=Glaucōpis=, a surname of Minerva, from the blueness of her eyes.
_Homer._――_Hesiod._