Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/241

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982
GAZA.
GEDROSIA.
981

in the fifth century to unite the two churches, the provincial synod confirmed it in its former independence of that see. (Sozomen, H. E. 5.3, p. 597). Several of its bishops are mentioned in the ecclesiastical annals. (Le Quien, Oriens Christ. l.c.) [G.W]

GAZA. 1. (Γάζα, Arrian, Arr. Anab. 4.2), a city or strongly fortified place in Sogdiana, taken by Alexander the Great in person, on his advance beyond the Jaxartes or Sihun. Bishop Thirlwall (Hist. of Greece, vol. vi. p. 286), and others, conjecture that this place may be recognised at Ghaz near Urtappeh, in the desert between that place and the river. Ibn Haukil (p. 270) describes Ghaz as the summer residence of the rulers of this district. It seems, however, probable that this and other cities taken at this time by Alexander the Great were more to the eastward, in the hilly country. (Wilson, Ariana, p. 165, &c.; Mem. of Emp. Baber, Introd. p. xii.)

2. In Media. [GAZACA] [V]

GAZACA (Γάζακα, Strab. xi. p.523), the Palace of the Parthians, situated in a plain in Atropatene. The name in the earlier editions of Strabo was always written Gaza, but Groskurd detected the error in the MS., and proposed the reading Γάζακα for Γάζα καὶ, which has been adopted by Kramer, and is doubtless the correct one. The name is connected with Gaza, and is, perhaps, a modification of it. It is probably connected with the Persian Ghaz, a place of treasure. (For the name, see Ptol. 6.18; Amm. Marc. 23.6, where it is written Agazaca; Theoph. Chronogr. pp. 257, 270; Cedren. p. 412; Niceph. Patriarch. ep. 12; Hist. Misc. 18.16; Theoph. Simocatt. Hist. Maur. 5.8, 10; and GAUZACA). Pliny speaks of a place he calls Gazae, at a distance of 450 M. P. from Artaxata; this should probably be corrected to Gazaca (6.13, 16). If Colonel Rawlinson be right, as we think he is, in his theory with respect to Ecbatana, this town underwent many curious changes of name, according to the rulers who successively occupied it. [ECBATANA] [V]

GAZELON or GADILON (Γαδιλών), a town in the north-west of Pontus, in a fertile plain between the river Halys and Amisus. (Strab. 12.547; Plin. Nat. 6.2.) From this town the whole district received the name of Gadilonitis, which is probably the right form, which must, perhaps, be restored in two passages of Strabo, in one of which (p. 553) the common reading is Γαλαουῖτις, and in the other (p. 560) Γαζηλωτός. [L.S]

GAZIU'RA (Γαζίουρα: Azurnis?), a town in Pontus, on the river Iris, near the point where its course turns northwards. It was the ancient residence of the kings of Pontus, but in Strabo's time it was deserted. (Strab. xii. p.547.) Dio Cassius (35.12) notices it as a place where Mithridates took up his position against the Roman Triarius. (Comp. Plin. Nat. 6.2.) [L.S]

GAZO'RUM, the same as Zagorum, Zagorus, or Zagora (Ζάψωρα, Ζάψωρον, Ζάψωρος), a town of Paphlagonia, on the Euxine, between Sinope and the river Halys. (Arrian, Peripl. P. Eux. p. 15; Marcian Heracl. p. 73; Ptol. 5.4.5, where it is called Ζάψειρα.) [L.S]

GAZO´RUS. [GASORUS.]

GEBAL, GEBALE'NE (Γεβαληνή, Γαβαληνή), a people and district of that part of Arabia Petraea to which Josephus gives the name of Idumaea. (Antiq. 1.1.) Eusebius and S. Jerome properly regard it as identical with Mount Seir (Onomast. s. v. Σηειρ), the habitation of Esau and his descendants. (Genes. 36.8, 31.) The name describes the mountainous character of the country situated around Petra. (Ononmast. s. v. Ἰδουμαία.) [IDUMAEA] [G.W]

GE´BALA, GEBALAECA. [VARDULI.]

GEDERAH, GEDEROTH (Γάδηρα, Γαδηρώθ: Eth. Γαδαραθίιμ). There can be no doubt that the same place is intended under these various forms, probably identical also with Gedor, Γεδώρ (Josh. 15.58, there reckoned to the tribe of Judah). Geden is reckoned as one of the cities presided over by a king or sheikh of the Canaanitish tribes (Josh. 12.13) reduced by Joshua. Gederah or Gederothaim is reckoned to that part of the tribe of Judah situated in the valley or plain (15.36); in conformity with which notice it is said in 2 Chron. 28.18: “The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof,” &c. [G.W]

GEDOR (Γεδώρ), one of the towns of Judah situated in the hill country. (Josh. 15.58; 1 Chron. 4.39.) Eusebius mentions a village named Κέδους, 10 miles distant from Diospolis (Lydda), on the road to Eleutheropolis (Onomast. s. v.), which may possibly be identical with “a place with ruins on the brow of the high mountain ridge . . called Jedûr, which is doubtless the same as the Gedor of the mountains of Judah.” (Biblical Res. vol. ii. p. 338.)

GEDRO'SIA (Γεδρωσία, Strab. xv. pp. 721, 722, Ptol. 6.21.1, &c.; Κεδρωσία, Diod. 17.105: Eth. Γεδρώσοι, Strab. xv. pp. 723,724; Γεδρωσοί, Dionys. A. R. 5.1086; Γαδρώσιοι, Arrian, 6.26, 27; Γαδρωσόι, Arrian, 6.23; Gedrosi, Plin. Nat. 6.20. s. 23; Gedrusi, Plin. Nat. 6.23, 24; Gedrosii, Curt. 9.10), an extensive district of Asia, which is washed on the S. by the Indian Ocean, and bounded on the E. by the Indus, which separates it from India, on the N. by the Montes Baetii (now Washáti Mountains), Drangiana, and Carmania Deserta, and on the W. by Carmania. It comprehended probably nearly the same district which is now known by the name of Mekrán. Little was known of this province in ancient times, and its existence was most likely not heard of till Alexander's return from India, when he and Craterus marched across it by two separate routes, while the fleet under Nearchus coasted along its shore. Arrian has given some description of it, as it appeared to Nearchus; and there is a later and fuller account, as far as the names of places, in Ptolemy and Marcian, from which we may infer that after the foundation of Alexandria some trade existed between that part of Asia and that city. Straho differs from Ptolemy, by interposing between Gedrosia and the sea-coast some maritime tribes, as the Arabii or Arbii, between the Indus and the Arabis, and the Oreitae, between them and the Persian Gulf. The probability is that Gedrosia did include the whole district between the sea and the borders of Seistan and the kingdom of Kábul. Sir Alexander Burnes, in his Map, gives the whole country the name of Beluchistán, and makes Mekrán its sea-board. The Beluchis, from their language, must be comparatively modern colonists from Persia. The northern part of Gedrosia was hilly, and comprehended the Baetii Montes (now Washáti). Towards the middle ran another chain connected with the river Arabis, and called the Arbiti Montes,