860 and completed in 1279, and a nave and four aisles; the interior has, however, been modernized. Opposite the door of the cathedral is a candelabrum with interesting sculptures of the end of the 13th century, consisting of 48 panels in bas-relief, with 24 representations from the life of Christ, and 24 of the life of St Erasmus (A. Venturi, Storia dell’ arte Italiana, iii. Milan, 1904, 642 seq.). The cathedral possesses three fine Exultet rolls, with miniatures dating from the 11th to the beginning of the 13th century. Behind the high altar is the banner sent by Pope Pius V. to Don John of Austria, the victor of Lepanto. The constable of Bourbon, who fell in the sack of Rome of 1527, is buried here. The other churches are of minor interest; close to that of La Trinitá is the Montagna Spaccata, where a vertical fissure from 6 to 15 ft. wide runs right down to the sea-level. Over the chasm is a chapel del Crocefisso, the mountain having split, it is said, at the death of Christ.
During the break-up of the Roman empire, Gaeta, like Amalfi and Naples, would seem to have established itself as a practically independent port and to have carried on a thriving trade with the Levant. Its history, however, is obscure until, in 823, it appears as a lordship ruled by hereditary hypati or consuls. In 844 the town fell into the hands of the Arabs, but four years later they were driven out with help supplied by Pope Leo IV. In 875 the town was in the hands of Pope John VIII., who gave it to the count of Capua as a fief of the Holy See, which had long claimed jurisdiction over it. In 877, however, the hypatus John (Ioannes) II. succeeded in recovering the lordship, which he established as a duchy under the suzerainty of the East Roman emperors. In the 11th century the duchy fell into the hands of the Norman counts of Aversa, afterwards princes of Capua, and in 1135 it was definitively annexed to his kingdom by Roger of Sicily. The town, however, had its own coinage as late as 1229.
In military history the town has played a conspicuous part. Its fortifications were strengthened in the 15th century. On the 30th of September 1707 it was stormed, after a three months’ siege, by the Austrians under Daun; and on the 6th of August 1734 it was taken, after a siege of four months, by French, Spanish and Sardinian troops under the future King Charles of Naples. The fortifications were again strengthened; and in 1799 it was temporarily occupied by the French. On the 18th of July 1806 it was captured, after an heroic defence, by the French under Masséna; and on the 18th of July 1815 it capitulated, after a three months’ siege, to the Austrians. In November 1848 Pope Pius IX., after his flight in disguise from Rome, found a refuge at Gaeta, where he remained till the 4th of September 1849. Finally, in 1860, it was the scene of the last stand of Francis II. of Naples against the forces of United Italy. Shut up in the fortress with 12,000 men, after Garibaldi’s occupation of Naples, the king, inspired by the heroic example of Queen Maria, offered a stubborn resistance, and it was not till the 13th of February 1861 that, the withdrawal of the French fleet having made bombardment from the sea possible, he was forced to capitulate.
See G. B. Federici, Degli antichi duchi, consoli o ipati della città di Gaeta (Naples, 1791); Onorato Gaetani d’ Aragona, Mem. stor. della città di Gaeta (Milan, 1879); C. Ravizza, Il Golfo di Gaeta (Novara, 1876). (T. As.)
GAETANI, or Caetani, the name of the oldest of the Roman
princely families which played a great part in the history of the
city and of the papacy. The Gaetani are of Longobard origin,
and the founder of the house is said to be one Dominus Constantinus
Cagetanus, who flourished in the 10th century, but
the family had no great importance until the election of Benedetto
Gaetani to the papacy as Boniface VIII. in 1294, when they at once
became the most notable in the city. The pope conferred
on them the fiefs of Sermoneta, Bassiano, Ninfa and San Donato
(1297–1300), and the marquisate of Ancona in 1300, while Charles
II. of Anjou created the pope’s brother count of Caserta.
Giordano Loffredo Gaetani by his marriage with Giovanna
dell’ Aquila, heiress of the counts of Fondi and Traetto, in 1297
added the name of Aquila to his own, and his grandson Giacomo
acquired the lordships of Piedimonte and Gioia. The Gaetani
proved brave warriors and formed a bodyguard to protect
Boniface VIII. from his many foes. During the 14th and 15th
centuries their feuds with the Colonna caused frequent disturbances
in Rome and the Campagna, sometimes amounting to
civil war. They also played an important rôle as Neapolitan
nobles. In 1500 Alexander VI., in his attempt to crush the great
Roman feudal nobility, confiscated the Gaetani fiefs and gave
them to his daughter Lucrezia Borgia (q.v.); but they afterwards
regained them.
At present there are two lines of Gaetani: (1) Gaetani, princes of Teano and dukes of Sermoneta, founded by Giacobello Gaetani, whose grandson, Guglielmo Gaetani, was granted the duchy of Sermoneta by Pius III. in 1503, the marquisate of Cisterna being conferred on the family by Sixtus V. in 1585. In 1642, Francesco, the 7th duke of Sermoneta, acquired by marriage the county of Caserta, which was exchanged for the principality of Teano in 1750. The present head of the house, Onorato Gaetani, 14th duke of Sermoneta, 4th prince of Teano, duke of San Marco, marquis of Cisterna, &c., is a senator of the kingdom of Italy, and was minister for foreign affairs for a short time. (2) Gaetani dell’ Aquila d’Aragona, princes of Piedimonte, and dukes of Laurenzana, founded by Onorato Gaetani dell’ Aquila, count of Fondi, Traetto, Alife and Morcone, lord of Piedimonte and Gioia, in 1454. The additional surname of Aragona was assumed after the marriage of Onorato Gaetani, duke of Traetto (d. 1529), with Lucrezia of Aragon, natural daughter of King Ferdinand I. of Naples. The duchy of Laurenzana, in the kingdom of Naples, was acquired by Alfonso Gaetani by his marriage in 1606 with Giulia di Ruggiero, duchess of Laurenzana. The lordship of Piedimonte was raised to a principality in 1715. The present (1908) head of the house is Nicola Gaetani dell’ Aquila d’Aragona (b. 1857), 7th prince of Piedimonte and 12th duke of Laurenzana.
See A. von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom (Berlin, 1868); F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom (Stuttgart, 1872); Almanach de Gotha (1907 and 1908).
GAETULIA, an ancient district in northern Africa, which in
the usage of Roman writers comprised the wandering tribes of
the southern slopes of Mount Aures and the Atlas, as far as the
Atlantic, and the oases in the northern part of the Sahara.
They were always distinguished from the Negro people to the
south, and beyond doubt belonged to the same Berber race
which formed the basis of the population of Numidia and
Mauretania (q.v.). The tribes to be found there at the present
day are probably of the same race, and retain the same wandering
habits; and it is possible that they still bear in certain places
the name of their Gaetulian ancestors (see Vivien St Martin,
Le Nord de l’Afrique, 1863). A few only seem to have mingled
with the Negroes of the Sahara, if we may thus interpret
Ptolemy’s allusion to Melano-Gaetuli (4. 6. 5.). They were noted
for the rearing of horses, and according to Strabo had 100,000
foals in a single year. They were clad in skins, lived on flesh
and milk, and the only manufacture connected with their name
is that of the purple dye which became famous from the time of
Augustus onwards, and was made from the purple fish found on
the coast, apparently both in the Syrtes and on the Atlantic.
We first hear of this people in the Jugurthine War (111–106 B.C.), when, as Sallust tells us, they did not even know the name of Rome. They took part with Jugurtha against Rome; but when we next hear of them they are in alliance with Caesar against Juba I. (Bell. Afr. 32). In 25 B.C. Augustus seems to have given a part of Gaetulia to Juba II., together with his kingdom of Mauretania, doubtless with the object of controlling the turbulent tribes; but the Gaetulians rose and massacred the Roman residents, and it was not till a severe defeat had been inflicted on them by Lentulus Cossus (who thus acquired the surname Gaetulicus) in A.D. 6 that they submitted to the king. After Mauretania became a Roman province in A.D. 40, the Roman governors made frequent expeditions into the Gaetulian territory to the south, and the official view seems to be expressed by Pliny (v. 4. 30) when he says that all Gaetulia as far as the Niger and the Ethiopian frontier was reckoned as subject to the
