Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/209

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
loc cit.
loc cit.

GAD ATA S. levied troops, in order to reinforce Q. Cornificius. Fearing the fleet of the Pompeiani, he went by land, and, on his march, was much harassed by the Dal- matians. In the neighbourhood of Salonae, after having lost more than 2000 men in an engagement with the natives, he threw himself into the town with the remainder of his forces, and for some time defended himself bravely against M. Octavius, but, in a few months, he was seized with a mortal illness^ and died about the end of the year B. c. 48, or the beginning of the following year. (Ap- pian, Illyr. 12 and 27, Bell. Civ. ii. 59 ; Dion Cass. xlii. 11,12.) (A. Rachenstein, Ueber A. Gabinius ein Pro- pramm. 8vo. Aarau. 1826 ; Druraann, Gesch. Roms. vol. iv. pp. 40 — 62, where all the authorities are col- lected.) 6. A. Gabinius Sisenna, the son of No. 5, by his wife Lollia, accompanied his father to Syria, and remained in that province, with a few troops, while his father was engaged in restoring Ptolemy Auletes to the throne of Egypt. When Memmius was exciting the people against his father, he flung himself at the feet of Memmius, who treated him with indignity, and was not softened by his supplicating posture. In classical writers he is never spoken of by any other name than Sisenna. (Val. Max. viii. 1. § 3 ; Dion Cass, xxxix. 56.) 7. P. Gabinius Capito was praetor in b. c. 89, and afterwards propraetor in Achaia, where he was guilty of extortion, for which, upon his return to Rome, he was accused by L. Piso (whom the Achaei had selected as their patronus), and con- demned. (Cic. pro Arch. 5, Div, in Caecil. 20.) Lactantius (i. 6) mentions him as one of the three deputies who were sent in B.C. 76 to Erythrae to collect Sibylline prophecies. 8. P. Gabinius Capito (perhaps a son of No .7) was one of the most active of Catiline's accom- plices. When questioned by Cicero, who sent for him after the arrest of the Allobrogian deputies, he at first boldly denied having had any communica- tion with them. He was afterwards consigned to the custody of M. Crassus, and executed. He seems to be the same as C. Gabinius Cimber. (Sail. Jiell. Cat. 17, 40, 44, 47, 55 ; Cic. in Cat. iii. 3, 5, 6, iv. 6.) [J. T. G.] GA'BIUS API'CIUS. [Apicius, No. 2.] GA'BIUS BASSUS. [Bassus.] GA'BRIAS. [Babrias.] GABRIE'LIUS {TaSpi-^Kios), prefect of By- zantium, under the emperor Justinian. The Greek Anthology contains an inscription for his statue, by Leontius (Brunck,.4«a/, vol. iii, p. 103; Jacobs, AntJi. Graec. vol. iv. p. 74), and one epi- gram by Gabriel himself. (Brunck, Anal. vol. iii, p. 7 ; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iii. p. 228.) The astrological writer, Johannes Laurentius Lydus, inscribed three of his books to Gabriel. There are several ecclesiastical writers of this name, but they are of no importance. (Fabric. Bill. Graec. vol. iv. pp. 156, 475 ; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol, xiii. pp. 895-6.) [P. S.] GA'DATAS (raSctTos], an Assyrian satrap, re- volted to Cyrus, according to Xenophon in the Cyropaedeia, to revenge himself on the king of Assyria, who had had him made an eunuch be- cause, being a handsome man, one of the royal concubines had cast on him an eye of favour. Having found means to betray to Cyrus an im- portant fortress, his province was inva-ded by the GAEA, 195 Assyrian king ; but Cyrus hastened to his relief, and saved him and his forces at a very critical moment. After this Gadatas, through fear of the Assyrians, left his satrapy and joined the army of Cyrus, to whom lie proved of great use, through his knowledge of the country. On the capture of Babylon, the king was slain by Gadatas and Go- BRYAS, (Xen. Cyrop. v. 2. § 28, 3. §§ 8—29, 4. §§ 1—14, 29—40, vii. 5. §§ 24—32.) [E. E.] GAEA or GE {Vaia or F^), the personification of the earth. She appears in the character of a divine being as early as the Homeric poems, for we read in the Iliad (iii. 104) that black sheep were sacrificed to her, and that she was invoked by per- sons taking oaths, (iii. 278, xv. 36, xix. 259, Od. V. 124.) She is further called, in the Homeric poems, the mother of Erechtheus and Tithyus. (//. ii. 548, Od. vii. 324, xi. 576 ; comp. Apollon. Rhod. i. 762, iii. 716.) According to the Theo- gony of Hesiod (117, 125, &c.), she was the first being that sprang from Chaos, and gave birth to Uranus and Pontus. By Uranus she then became the mother of a series of beings, — Oceanus, Coeus, Creius, Hyperion, lapetus, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Thetys, Cronos, the Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes, Arges, Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges. These children of Ge and Uranus were hated by their father, and Ge therefore concealed them in the bosom of the earth ; but she made a large iron sickle, gave it to her sons, and requested them to take vengeance upon their father. Cronos undertook the task, and mutilated Uranus, The drops of blood which fell from him upon the earth (Ge), became the seeds of the Erinnyes, the Gi- gantes, and the Melian nymphs. Subsequently Ge became, by Pontus, the mother of Nereus, Thau- mas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia. (Hes. Tlieog. 232, &c, ; ApoUod, i. I. § 1, &c.) Besides these, however, various other divinities and monsters sprang from her. As Ge was the source from which arose the vapours producing divine inspiration, she herself also was regarded as an oracular divinity, and it is well known that the oracle of Delphi was believed to have at first been in her possession ( Aeschyl. Eum. 2 ; Pans. x. 5. § 3), and at Olympia, too, she had an oracle in early times. (Paus. v. 14. § 8.) That Ge belonged to the ^eo x^t^i""', re- quires no explanation, and hence she is frequently mentioned where they are invoked. (Philostr. Viz. Apoll. vi. 39 ; Ov. Met. vii. 196.) The surnames and epithets given to Ge have more or less refer- ence to her character as the all-producing and all- nourishing mother [mater omniparens et alma), and hence Servius {ad Aen. iv. 166 ) classes her together with the divinities presiding over marriage. Her worship appears to have been universal among the Greeks, and she had temples or altars at Athens, Sparta, Delphi, Olympia, Bura, Tegea, Phlyus, and other places. (Thuc. ii. 15 ; Paus. i. 22. § 3, 24. § 3, 31. § 2, iii. 11. § 8, 12. § 7, v. 14. § 8, vii. 25. § 8, viii. 48. § 6.) We have express state- ments attesting the existence of statues of Ge in Greece, but none have come down to us. At Patrae she was represented in a sitting attitude, in the temple of Demeter (Paus, vii, 21. §4), and at Athens, too, there was a statue of her. (i, 24, § 3.) Servius (ad Aen. x, 252) remarks that she was re- presented with a key. At Rome the earth was worshipped under the name of Tellus (which is only a variation of Terra). There, too, she was regarded as an infernal divinity o 2