the Greek and Latin Churches; and in 1450, at the invitation of Pope Nicholas V., he went to Rome, where he was for some years employed by his patron in making Latin translations from Aristotle and other Greek authors. After the death of Nicholas (1455), being unable to make a living at Rome, Gaza removed to Naples, where he enjoyed the patronage of Alphonso the Magnanimous for two years (1456–1458). Shortly afterwards he was appointed by Cardinal Bessarion to a benefice in Calabria, where the later years of his life were spent, and where he died about 1475. Gaza stood high in the opinion of most of his learned contemporaries, but still higher in that of the scholars of the succeeding generation. His Greek grammar (in four books), written in Greek, first printed at Venice in 1495, and afterwards partially translated by Erasmus in 1521, although in many respects defective, especially in its syntax, was for a long time the leading text-book. His translations into Latin were very numerous, including the Problemata, De partibus animalium and De generatione animalium of Aristotle; the Historia plantarum of Theophrastus; the Problemata of Alexander Aphrodisias; the De instruendis aciebus of Aelian; the De compositione verborum of Dionysius of Halicarnassus; and some of the Homilies of John Chrysostom. He also turned into Greek Cicero’s De senectute and Somnium Scipionis—with much success, in the opinion of Erasmus; with more elegance than exactitude, according to the colder judgment of modern scholars. He was the author also of two small treatises entitled De mensibus and De origine Turcarum.
See G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen Altertums (1893), and article by C. F. Bähr in Ersch and Gruber’s Allgemeine Encyklopädie. For a complete list of his works, see Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca (ed. Harles), x.
GAZA (or ʽAzzah, mod. Ghuzzeh), the most southerly of the
five princely Philistine cities, situated near the sea, at the point
where the old trade routes from Egypt, Arabia and Petra to
Syria met. It was always a strong border fortress and a place
of commercial importance, in many respects the southern
counterpart of Damascus. The earliest notice of it is in the
Tell el-Amarna tablets, in a letter from the local governor, who
then held it for Egypt, with which country it always stood in
close connexion. It never passed for long into Israelite hands,
though subject for a while to Hezekiah of Judah; from him it
passed to Assyria. In Amos i. 6 the city is denounced for giving
up Hebrew slaves to Edom. To Herodotus (iii. 5) the place
seemed as important as Sardis. The city withstood Alexander
the Great for five months (332 B.C.), and in 96 B.C. was razed to
the ground by Alexander Jannaeus. It was rebuilt by Aulus
Gabinius, 57 B.C., but on a new site; the old site was remembered
and spoken of as “Old” or “Desert Gaza”: compare Acts
viii. 26. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries Gaza was a thriving
Greek city, with good schools and famous temples, especially
one to the local god Marna (i.e. “Lord” or “Our Lord”). A
statue of this god has been found near Gaza; it much resembles
the Greek representation of Zeus. The struggle with Christianity
here was long and intense. Egyptian monks gradually won over
the country folk, and in 402, under the influence of Theodosius
and Porphyry the local bishop, the Marneion was destroyed
and the cross made politically supreme. In the 5th and 6th
centuries Gaza was held in high repute as a place of learning.
But after it passed into Moslem hands (635) it gradually lost
all save commercial importance, and even the Crusaders did
little to revive its old military glory. It finally was captured
by the Moslems in 1244. Napoleon captured it in 1799.
The modern town (pop. 16,000) is divided into four quarters, one of which is built on a low hill. A magnificent grove of very ancient olives forms an avenue 4 m. long to the north. There are many lofty minarets in various parts of the town, and a fine mosque built of ancient materials. A 12th century church towards the south side of the hill has also been converted into a mosque. On the east is shown the tomb of Samson (an erroneous tradition dating back to the middle ages). The ancient walls are now covered up beneath green mounds of rubbish. The water-supply is from wells sunk through the sandy soil to the rock; of these there are more than twenty—an unusual number for a Syrian town. The land for the 3 m. between Gaza and the sea consists principally of sand dunes. There is no natural harbour, but traces of ruins near the shore mark the site of the old Maiuma Gazae or Port of Gaza, now called el Mineh, which in the 5th century was a separate town and episcopal see, under the title Constantia or Limena Gaza. Hāshem, an ancestor of Mahomet, lies buried in the town. On the east are remains of a race-course, the corners marked by granite shafts with Greek inscriptions on them. To the south is a remarkable hill, quite isolated and bare, with a small mosque and a graveyard. It is called el Muntār, “the watch tower,” and is supposed to be the mountain “before (or facing) Hebron,” to which Samson carried the gates of Gaza (Judg. xvi. 3). The bazaars of Gaza are considered good. An extensive pottery exists in the town, and black earthenware peculiar to the place is manufactured there. The climate is dry and comparatively healthy, but the summer temperature often exceeds 110° Fahr. The surrounding country is partly cornland, partly waste, and is inhabited by wandering Arabs. The prosperity of Ghuzzeh has partially revived through the growing trade in barley, of which the average annual export to Great Britain for 1897–1899 was over 30,000 tons. The dress of the people is Egyptian rather than Syrian. Gaza is an episcopal see both of the Greek and the Armenian church. The Church Missionary Society maintains a mission, with schools for both sexes, and a hospital.
GAZALAND, a district of Portuguese East Africa, extending
north from the Komati or Manhissa river, Delagoa Bay, to the
Pungwe river. It is a well-watered, fertile country. Gazaland
is one of the chief recruiting grounds for negro labour in the
Transvaal gold mines. The country derives its name from a
Swazi chief named Gaza, a contemporary of Chaka, the Zulu
king. Refugees from various clans oppressed by Dingaan
(Chaka’s successor) were welded into one tribe by Gaza’s son
Manikusa, who took the name of Sotshangana, his followers
being known generally as Matshangana. A section of them was
called Maviti or Landeens (i.e. couriers), a designation which
persists as a tribal name. Between 1833 and 1836 Manikusa
made himself master of the country as far north as the Zambezi
and captured the Portuguese posts at Delagoa Bay, Inhambane,
Sofala and Sena, killing nearly all the inhabitants. The Portuguese
reoccupied their posts, but held them with great difficulty,
while in the interior the Matshangana continued their ravages
unchecked, depopulating large regions. Manikusa died about
1860, and his son Umzila, receiving some help from the Portuguese
at Delagoa Bay in a struggle against a brother for the chieftainship,
ceded to them the territory south of the Manhissa river.
North of that stream as far as the Zambezi and inland to the
continental plateau Umzila established himself in independence,
a position he maintained till his death (c. 1884). His chief
rival was a Goanese named Gouveia, who came to Africa about
1850. Having obtained possession of a prazo in the Gorongoza
district, he ruled there as a feudal lord while acknowledging
himself a Portuguese subject. Gouveia recovered from the Matshangana
and other troublers of the peace much of the country
in the Zambezi valley, and was appointed by the Portuguese
captain-general of a large region. From 1868 onward the country
began to be better known. Probably the first European to
penetrate any distance inland from the Sofala coast since the
Portuguese gold-seekers of the 16th century was St Vincent W.
Erskine, who explored the region between the Limpopo and
Pungwe (1868–1875). Portugal’s hold on the coast had been
more firmly established at the time of Umzila’s death, and
Gungunyana, his successor, was claimed as a vassal, while efforts
were made to open up the interior. This led in 1890–1891 to
collisions on the borderland of the plateau with the newly
established British South Africa Company, and to the arrest
by the company’s agents of Gouveia, who was, however, set at
liberty and returned to Mozambique via Cape Town. An offer
made by Gungunyana (1891) to come under British protection
was not accepted. In 1892 Gouveia was killed in a war with a
native chief. Gungunyana maintained his independence until
