there existed from their early years a keen rivalry and antipathy. On the death of their father in 211 they were proclaimed joint emperors; and after the failure of a proposed arrangement for the division of the empire, Caracalla pretended a desire for reconciliation. He arranged a meeting with his brother in his mother’s apartments, and had him murdered in her arms by some centurions.
Dio Cassius lxxvii. 2; Spartianus, Caracalla, 2; Herodian iv. 1.
GETAE, an ancient people of Thracian origin, closely akin to
the Daci (see Dacia). Their original home seems to have been
the district on the right bank of the Danube between the rivers
Oescus (Iskr) and Iatrus (Yantra). The view that the Getae
were identical with the Goths has found distinguished supporters,
but it is not generally accepted. Their name first occurs in connexion
with the expedition of Darius Hystaspis (515 B.C.) against
the Scythians, in the course of which they were brought under
his sway, but they regained their freedom on his return to the
East. During the 5th century, they appear as furnishing a
contingent of cavalry to Sitalces, king of the Odrysae, in his
attack on Perdiccas II., king of Macedon, but the decay of the
Odrysian kingdom again left them independent. When Philip
II. of Macedon in 342 reduced the Odrysae to the condition of
tributaries, the Getae, fearing that their turn would come next,
made overtures to the conqueror. Their king Cothelas undertook
to supply Philip with soldiers, and his daughter became the wife
of the Macedonian. About this time, perhaps being hard pressed
by the Triballi and other tribes, the Getae crossed the Danube.
Alexander the Great, before transporting his forces into Asia,
decided to make his power felt by the Macedonian dependencies.
His operations against the Triballi not having met with complete
success, he resolved to cross the Danube and attack the Getae.
The latter, unable to withstand the phalanx, abandoned their
chief town, and fled to the steppes (Γετία ἡ ἔρημος, north of
the Danube delta), whither Alexander was unwilling to follow
them. About 326, an expedition conducted by Zopyrion, a
Macedonian governor of Thrace, against the Getae, failed
disastrously. In 292, Lysimachus declared war against them,
alleging as an excuse that they had rendered assistance to certain
barbarous Macedonian tribes. He penetrated to the plains of
Bessarabia, where his retreat was cut off and he was forced to
surrender. Although the people clamoured for his execution,
Dromichaetes, king of the Getae, allowed him to depart unharmed,
probably on payment of a large ransom, great numbers
of gold coins having been found near Thorda, some of them
bearing the name of Lysimachus. When the Gauls made their
way into eastern Europe, they came into collision with the Getae,
whom they defeated and sold in large numbers to the Athenians
as slaves. From this time the Getae seem to have been usually
called Daci; for their further history see Dacia.
The Getae are described by Herodotus as the most valiant and upright of the Thracian tribes; but what chiefly struck Greek inquirers was their belief in the immortality of the soul (hence they were called ἀθανατίζοντες) and their worship of Zalmoxis (or Zamolxis), whom the euhemerists of the colonies on the Euxine made a pupil of Pythagoras. They were very fond of music, and it was the custom for their ambassadors the priests to present themselves clad in white, playing the lyre and singing songs. They were experts in the use of the bow and arrows while on horseback.
See E. R. Rösler, “Die Geten und ihre Nachbarn,” in Sitzungsberichte der k. Akad. der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische Classe, xliv. (1863), and Romänische Studien (Leipzig, 1871); W. Tomaschek, “Die alten Thraker,” in above Sitzungsberichte, cxxviii. (Vienna, 1893); W. Bessel, De rebus Geticis (Göttingen, 1854); C. Müllenhoff in Ersch and Gruber’s Allgemeine Encyclopädie; T. Mommsen, Hist. of Rome (Eng. trans.), bk. v. ch. 7.
GETHSEMANE (Hebr. for “oil-press”), the place to which Jesus and His disciples withdrew on the eve of the Crucifixion. It was evidently an enclosed piece of ground, a plantation rather than a garden in our sense of the word. It lay east of the Kidron and on the lower slope of the mount of Olives, at the foot of which is the traditional site dating from the 4th century and now possessed by the Franciscans. The Grotto of the Agony, a few hundred yards farther north, is an ancient cave-cistern, now a
Latin sanctuary. (See further Jerusalem.)
GETTYSBURG, a borough and the county-seat of Adams
county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 35 m. S.W. of Harrisburg.
Pop. (1900) 3495; (1910) 4030. It is served by the Western
Maryland and the Gettysburg & Harrisburg railways. The site
of the borough is a valley about 112 m. wide; the neighbouring
country abounds in attractive scenery. Katalysine Spring in
the vicinity was once a well-known summer resort; its waters
contain lithia in solution. Gettysburg has several small manufacturing
establishments and is the seat of Pennsylvania College
(opened in 1832, and the oldest Lutheran college in America),
which had 312 students (68 in the preparatory department)
in 1907–1908, and of a Lutheran theological seminary, opened in
1826 on Seminary Ridge; but the borough is best known as
the scene of one of the most important battles of the Civil War.
Very soon after the battle a soldiers’ national cemetery was laid
out here, in which the bodies of about 3600 Union soldiers have
been buried; and at the dedication of this cemetery, in November
1863, President Lincoln delivered his celebrated “Gettysburg
Address.” In 1864 the Gettysburg Battle-Field Memorial
Association was incorporated, and the work of this association
resulted in the conversion of the battle-field into a National Park,
an act for the purpose being passed by Congress in 1895. Within
the park the lines of battle have been carefully marked, and
about 600 monuments, 1000 markers, and 500 iron tablets
have been erected by states and regimental associations.
Hundreds of cannon have been mounted, and five observation
towers have been built. From 1816 to 1840 Gettysburg was the
home of Thaddeus Stevens. Gettysburg was settled about 1740,
was laid out in 1787, was made the county-seat in 1800, and was
incorporated as a borough in 1806.
Battle of Gettysburg.—The battle of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of July 1863 is often regarded as the turning-point of the American Civil War (q.v.) although it arose from a chance encounter. Lee, the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, had merely ordered his scattered forces to concentrate there, while Meade, the Federal commander, held the town with a cavalry division, supported by two weak army corps, to screen the concentration of his Army of the Potomac in a selected position on Pipe Creek to the south-eastward. On the 1st of July the leading troops of General A. P. Hill’s Confederate corps approached Gettysburg from the west to meet Ewell’s corps, which was to the N. of the town, whilst Longstreet’s corps followed Hill. Lee’s intention was to close up Hill, Longstreet and Ewell before fighting a battle. But Hill’s leading brigades met a strenuous resistance from the Federal cavalry division of General John Buford, which was promptly supported by the infantry of the I. corps under General J. F. Reynolds. The Federals so far held their own that Hill had to deploy two-thirds of his corps for action, and the western approaches of Gettysburg were still held when Ewell appeared to the northward. Reynolds had already fallen, and the command of the Federals, after being held for a time by Gen. Abner Doubleday, was taken over by Gen. O. O. Howard, the commander of the XI. corps, which took post to bar the way to Ewell on the north side. But Ewell’s attack, led by the fiery Jubal Early, swiftly drove back the XI. corps to Gettysburg; the I. corps, with its flank thus laid open, fell back also, and the remnants of both Federal corps retreated through Gettysburg to the Cemetery Hill position. They had lost severely in the struggle against superior numbers, and there had been some disorder in the retreat. Still a formidable line of defence was taken up on Cemetery Hill and both Ewell and Lee refrained from further attacks, for the Confederates had also lost heavily during the day and their concentration was not complete. In the meanwhile Meade had sent forward General W. S. Hancock, the commander of the Federal II. corps, to examine the state of affairs, and on Hancock’s report he decided to fight on the Cemetery Hill position. Two corps of his army were still distant, but the XII. arrived before night, the III. was near, and Hancock moved the II. corps on his own initiative. Headquarters and the artillery reserve started for Gettysburg on the night of the 1st.
