or Wad-al-Gazel, which, joining another considerable | folded. The meridiani engaged in the afternoon. river flowing from Kuku, discharges itself into the Nubia Palus or Kangra, and it is so delineated in Rennell's map; but others, seemingly with better reason, apprehend the Gir of Ptolemy to be the BahrKulla of Browne, in his history of Africa.

GLADIATORII LUDI, combats originally exhibited at the grave of deceased persons at Rome. They were first introduced there by the Bruti, upon the death of their father, A.U.C. 490, and they thus formed originally a kind of funeral sacrifice, the shades of the dead being supposed to be propitiated with blood. For some time after this they were exhibited only on such occasions. Subsequently, however, the magistrates, to entertain the people, gave shows of gladiators at the Saturnalia and the festival of Minerva. Incredible numbers of men were destroyed in this manner. Af ter the triumph of Trajan over the Dacians, spectacles of this kind were exhibited for 123 days, in which 10,000 gladiators fought. Gladiators were kept and maintained in schools by persons called lanista, who purchased and trained them. The whole number under one lanista was called familia. Gladiators were at first composed of captives and slaves, or of condemned malefactors. But afterward also freeborn citizens, induced by hire or by inclination, fought on the arena; some even of noble birth; and, what is still more wonderful, women of rank, and dwarfs. When there were to be any shows, handbills were circulated to give notice to the people, and to mention the place, number, time, and every circumstance requisite to be known. When they were first brought upon the arena, they walked round the place with great pomp and solemnity, and after that they were matched in equal pairs with great nicety. They first had a skirmish with wooden files, called rudes or arma lusoria. After this the effective weapons, such as swords, daggers, &c., called arma decretoria, were given them, and the signal for the engagement was given by the sound of a trumpet. As they had all previously bound themelves to contend till the last, the fight was bloody and obstinate; and when one signified his submission by surrendering his arms, the victor was not permitted to grant him his life without the leave and approbation of the multitude. This was done by pressing down their thumbs, with the hands clenched. On the contrary, if the people wished him slain, they turned their thumbs upward. The first of these signs was called pollicem premere; the second, pollicem vertere. The combats of gladiators were sometimes different, either in weapons or dress, whence they were generally distinguished into the following orders. The secutores were armed with a sword and buckler, to keep off the net of their antagonists, the retiarii. These last endeavoured to throw their net over the head of their opponent, and in that manner to entangle him, and prevent him from striking. If this did not succeed, they betook themselves to flight. Their dress was a short coat, with a hat tied under the chin with broad riband. They bore a trident in their left hand. The Threces, originally Thracians, were armed with a falchion and small round shield. The myrmillones, called also Galli, from their Gallic dress, were much the same as the secutores. They were, like them, armed with a sword, and on the top of their headpiece they wore the figure of a fish embossed, called uópuvpos, whence their name. The hoplomachi were completely armed from head to foot, as their name implies. The Samnites, armed after the manner of the Samnites, wore a large shield, broad at the top, and growing more narrow at the bottom, more conveniently to defend the upper parts of the body. The essedarii generally fought from the essedum, or chariot used by the ancient Gauls and Britons. The andabatæ, àvabárai, fought on horseback, with a helmet that covered and defended their faces and eyes. Hence andabatarum more pugnare is to fight blind

The postulatitii were men of great skill and experience, and such as were generally produced by the emperors. The fiscales were maintained out of the emperor's treasury, fiscus. The dimachari fought with two swords in their hands, whence their name. After these cruel exhibitions had been continued for the amusement of the Roman populace, they were abolished by Constantine the Great, near 600 years from their first institution. They were, however, revived under the reign of Constantius and his two successors, but Honorius for ever put an end to these cruel barbarities.

GLAUCE, I. a daughter of Creon, king of Corinth, called also Creusa, married to Jason after his separation from Medea.-II. A fountain at Corinth, which was said to have received its name from Glauce, who threw herself into it in order to be freed from the enchantments of Medea. (Pausan., 2, 3.)

GLAUCUS, I. son of Hippolochus, and grandson of Bellerophon. He was, with Sarpedon, leader of the Lycian auxiliaries of King Priam. Upon the discovery made on the field of battle by him and Diomede, that their grandfathers, Bellerophon, king of Ephyre or Corinth, and Eneus, king of Etolia, had been remarkable for their friendship, they mutually agreed to exchange their armour, that of Glaucus being of gold, and that of Diomede of brass. Hence arose the proverb, "It is the exchange of Glaucus and Diomede," to denote inequality in things presented or exchanged. Glaucus was slain by Ajax. (Hom., Il., 6, 119, seqq. -Virg., En., 6, 483.)-II. A sea deity, probably only another form of Poseidon or Neptune, whose son he is, according to some accounts. (Euanthes, ap. Athen, 7, p. 296.) Like the marine gods in general, he had the gift of prophecy; and we find him appearing to the Argonauts (Apoll. Rh., 1, 1310, seq.), and to Menelaus (Eurip., Orest., 356, seqq.), and telling them what had happened, or what was to happen. In later times, sailors were continually making reports of his soothsaying. (Pausan., 9, 22.) Some said that he dwelt with the Nereides at Delos, where he gave responses to all who sought them. (Aristot., ap. Athen., 1. c.) According to others, he visited each year all the isles and coasts, with a train of monsters of the deep (Krea), and, unseen, foretold in the Eolic dialect all kinds of evil. The fishermen watched for his approach, and endeavoured by fastings, prayer, and fumigations to avert the ruin with which his prophecy menaced the fruits and cattle. At times he was seen among the waves, and his body appeared covered with muscles, seaweed, and stones. He was heard evermore to lament his fate in not being able to die. (Plat., Rep., 10, 611.-Schol., ad loc.)-This last circumstance refers to the common pragmatic history of Glaucus. He was a fisherman, it is said (Pausan., l. c.-Ovid, Met., 13, 904, seqq.), of Anthedon, in Boeotia. Observing one day the fish which he had caught and thrown on the grass to bite it, and then to jump into the sea, his curiosity excited him to taste it also. Immediately on his doing so he followed their example, and thus became a sea-god. Another account made him to have obtained his immortality by tasting the grass, which had revived a hare he had run down in Etolia. (Nicand., ap. Athen., l. c) He was also said to have built and steered the Argo, and to have been made a god of the sea by Jupiter during the voyage. (Possis, ap. Athen., l. c.) An account of the story of his love for Scylla will be found under the latter article. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 248, seqq.)-III. A son of Sisyphus, king of Corinth, by Merope, the daughter of Atlas, born at Potniæ, a village of Boeotia. According to one account, he restrained his mares from having intercourse with the steeds; upon which Venus inspired the former with such fury, that they tore his body to pieces as he re

since Stephanus of Byzantium gives it as the ethnic derivative of Gonni. The scholiast on Lycophron (v. 904), in commenting on a passage of the poet where this town is alluded to, says it was also called Gonussa. (Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 1, p. 380.) GORDIÆI, mountains in Armenia, where the Tigris

GORDIANUS, I., MARCUS ANTONINUS AFRICANUS, born during the reign of the first Antonine, of one of the most illustrious and wealthy families of Rome, made himself very popular during his quæstorship by his munificence, and the large sums which he spent in provi ding games and other amusements for the people. He also cultivated literature, and wrote several poems, among others one in which he celebrated the virtues of the two Antonines. Being intrusted with the gov ernment of several provinces, he conducted himself in such a manner as to gain universal approbation. He was proconsul of Africa A.D. 237. When an insurrection broke out in that province against Maximinus, on account of his exactions, and the insurgents saluted Gordianus as emperor, he prayed earnestly to be ex

turned from the games which Adrastus had celebrated in honour of his father. Another version of the story makes them to have run mad after eating a certain plant at Potniæ. (Etymol. Mag., s. v. Пorviúdeç.– Hygin., fab., 250.-Virgil, Georg., 3, 268.-Heyne, ad Virg., l. c.-Palaph., de Incred., c. 26.-Schol. ad Eurip., Phan., 1141.)-IV. A son of Minos and Pas-rises. iphaë, who, pursuing, when a child, a mouse, fell into a vessel of honey and was smothered. His father, ignorant of his fate, consulted the oracle to know where he was, and received for answer that there was a three-coloured cow in his herd, and that he who could best tell what she was like, could restore his son to life. The soothsayers were all assembled, and Polyidus, the son of Coiranus, said that her colour was that of the berry of the brier, green, red, and, lastly, black. Minos thereupon desired him to find his son; and Polyidus, by his skill in divination, discovered where he was. Minos then ordered him to restore him to life; and, on his declaring his incapacity so to do, shut him up in a chamber with the body of his child. While here, the soothsayer saw a serpent approach the body, and he struck and killed it. Another im-cused, on account of his age, being then past eighty, mediately appeared, and seeing the first one dead, retired, and came back soon after with a plant in its mouth, and laid it on the dead one, which instantly came to life. Polyidus, by employing the same herb, recovered the child. Minos, before he let him depart, insisted on his communicating his art to Glaucus. He did so; but, as he was taking leave, he desired his pupil to spit into his mouth. Glaucus obeyed, and lost the memory of all he had learned. (Apollod., 3, 3, 1.-Tzetz., ad Lyc., 811.) Hyginus makes him to have been restored to life by Esculapius. (Hygin., Poet. Astron., 2, 14.)

and to be allowed to die in peace; but the insurgents threatening to kill him if he refused, he accepted the perilous dignity, naming his son Gordianus as his colleague, and both inade their solemn entry into Carthage amid universal applause. The senate cheerfully confirmed the election, proclaiming the two Gordiani as emperors, and declaring Maximinus and his son to be enemies to their country. Meantime, however, Capellianus, governor of Mauritania, collected troops in favour of Maximinus, and marched against Carthage. The younger Gordianus came out to oppose him, but was defeated and killed, and his aged father, on learning the sad tidings, strangled himself. Their reign had not lasted two months altogether, yet they were greatly regretted, on account of their personal quali

GLAUCUS SINUS, a gulf of Lycia, at the head of which stood the city of Telmissus or Macri, whence in ancient times the gulf was sometimes also called Sinus Telmissius, and whence comes likewise its mod-ties, and the hopes which the people had founded on ern name, Gulf of Macri.

GLOTA OF CLOTA, a river of Britain, now the Clyde, falling into the Glota Estuarium, or Frith of Clyde.

GNATIA, a town of Apulia, the same as Egnatia, the name being merely shortened by dropping the initial vowel. (Vid. Egnatia.)

GNIDUS. Vid. Cnidus.
GNOSSUS. Vid. Cnosus.

GOBRYAS, a Persian, one of the seven noblemen who conspired against the usurper Smerdis. (Vid. Darius )

them. (Capitol., Vit. Gordian. Tr.)-II. M. Anto nius Africanus, son of Gordianus, was instructed by Serenus Samonicus, who left him his library, which consisted of 62.000 volumes. He was well informed, and wrote several works, but was intemperate in his pleasures, which latter circumstance seems to have recommended him to the favour of the Emperor Heli. ogabalus. Alexander Severus advanced him subsequently to the consulship. He afterward passed into Africa as lieutenant to his father, and, when the latter was elevated to the throne, shared that dignity with him. But, after a reign of not quite two months, he fell in battle at the age of forty-six, against Capellianus, a

tolinus, Vit. Gordian. Tr.)—III. MARCUS ANTONINUS Pius, grandson, on the mother's side, of the elder Gordianus, and nephew of Gordianus the younger, was twelve years of age when he was proclaimed Cæsar by general acclamation of the people of Rome, after the news had arrived of the death of the two Gordiani in Africa. The senate named him colleague of the two new emperors Maximus and Balbinus, but in the fol

GOMPHI, a city of Thessaly, of considerable strength and importance, and the key of the country on the side of Epirus. It was situate on the borders of the Atha-partisan of Maximinus. (Vid. Gordianus, I.-Capi manes, and was occupied by that people not long before the battle of Cynoscephale. When Cæsar entered Thessaly, after his joining Domitius at Ægitium, the inhabitants of Gomphi, aware of his failure at Dyrrhachium, closed their gates against him; the walls, however, were presently scaled, notwithstanding their great height, and the town was given up to plunder. In his account of this event, Cæsar describes Gomphi as a large and opulent city. (Bell. Civ., 3, 80-lowing year (A.D. 238, according to Blair and other Compare Appian, B. C., 2, 64.) The Greek geographer Meletius places it on the modern site of Stagous, or Kalabachi as it is called by the Turks (Geogr., p. 388); but Pouqueville was informed that its ruins were to be seen at a place called Cleisoura, not far from Stagous. (Vol. 3, p. 339.)

GONATAS, one of the Antigoni. (Vid. Gonni.) GONNI, a town of Thessaly, twenty miles from Larissa, according to Livy (36, 10), and close to the entrance of the gorge of Tempe. It was strongly fortified by Perses in his first campaign against the Romans, who made no attempt to render themselves masters of this key of Macedonia. (Liv., 42, 54.) Antigonus, surnamed Gonatas, was probably born here,

chronologers) a mutiny of the prætorian soldiers took place at Rome, Balbinus and Maximus were murdered, and the boy Gordianus was proclaimed emperor. His disposition was kind and amiable, but at the beginning of his reign he trusted to the insinuations of a certain Maurus and other freedmen of the palace, whe abused his confidence, and committed many acts of injustice. In the second year of his reign a revolt broke out in Africa, where a certain Sabinianus was proclaimed emperor, but the insurrection was soon put down by the governor of Mauritania. In the following year, Gordianus being consul with Claudius Pompeianus, married Furia Sabina Tranquillina, daughter of Misitheus, a man of the greatest personal merit, who

might inspire his soldiers with courage, and make his enemies believe that he was born to conquer Asia, he cut the knot with his sword, and from that circumstance asserted that the oracle was really fulfilled, and that his claims to universal empire were fully justified. (Justin, 11, 7.-Curt., 3, 1.)

was then placed at the head of the emperor's guards. | Alexander, in his conquest of Asia, passed by GordiMisitheus disclosed to Gordianus the disgraceful con- um; and as he wished to leave nothing undone which duct of Maurus and his friends, who were immediately deprived of their offices and driven away from court. From that moment Gordianus placed implicit trust in his father-in-law, on whom the senate conferred the title of "Guardian of the Republic." In the next year, news came to Rome that the Persians under Sapor had invaded Mesopotamia, had occupied Nisibis and Carrhæ, entered Syria, and, according to Capitolinus, had taken Antioch. Gordianus, resolving to march in person against this formidable enemy, opened the temple of Janus, according to an ancient custom which had been long disused, and, setting out from Rome at the head of a choice army, took his way by Illyricum and Mosia, where he defeated the Goths and Sarmatians, and drove them beyond the Danube. In the plains of Thrace, however, he encountered another tribe, the Alani, from whom he experienced a check; but they having also retired towards the north, Gordianus crossed the Hellespont, and landed in Asia, whence he proceeded into Syria, delivered Antioch, defeated the Persians in several battles, retook Nisibis and Carrhæ, and drove Sapor back to his own dominions. The senate voted him a triumph, and also a statue to Misitheus, to whose advice much of the success of Gordianus was attributed. Unfortunately, however, that wise counsellor died the following year, not without suspicions of foul play being raised against Philippus, an officer of the guards, who succeeded him in the command. In the year after, A.D. 244, Gordianus advanced into the Persian territory, and defeated Sapor on the banks of the Chaboras; but while he was preparing to pursue him, the traitor Philippus, who had contrived to spread discontent among the soldiers by attributing their privations to the inexperience of a boyish emperor, was proclaimed by the army his colleague in the empire. Gordianus consented, but soon after was murdered by the ambitious Philippus. A monument was raised to him by the soldiers, with an inscription, at a place called Zaitha, twenty miles east of the town of Circesium, not far from the left bank of the Euphrates, which continued to be seen until it was destroyed by Licinius, who claimed to be a descendant of Philippus. Gordianus was about twenty years old when he died. His body, according to Eutropius, was carried to Rome, and he was numbered among the gods. His short reign was a prosperous one for Rome. (Capitol., Vit. Gord. Tert.-Herodian, 7, 10, seqq.—Id., 8, 6, seqq.-Eutrop., 9, 2.)

GORDIUM, a city of Galatia in Asia Minor, on the river Sangarius, a little to the east of Pessinus. Here was preserved the famous Gordian knot which Alexander cut. (Vid. Gordius.) This place changed its name in the reign of Augustus to Juliopolis, which was given it by Cleo, a leader of some predatory bands in this quarter. After the battle of Actium, he declared for Augustus; and being thus left in safe possession of this city, which was his birthplace, changed its name out of compliment to the memory of Cæsar. (Justin, 11, 7.-Liv., 38, 18.—Curt., 3, 1.—Mannert, Geogr., vol. 6, pt. 3, p. 72.)

GORDIUS, a Phrygian, who, though originally a peasant, was raised to the throne. During a sedition, the Phrygians consulted the oracle, and were told that all their troubles would cease as soon as they chose for their king the first man they met going to the temple of Jupiter mounted on a chariot. Gordius was the object of their choice, and he immediately consecrated his chariot in the temple of Jupiter. The knot which tied the yoke to the draught-tree was made in such an artful manner, that the ends of the cord could not be perceived. From this circumstance, a report was soon spread that the empire of Asia was promised by the oracle to him that could untie the Gordian knot.

GORGIAS, a celebrated statesman, orator, and sophist, born at Leontini in Sicily, whence he was surnamed Leontinus. He flourished in the fifth century before the Christian era, during the most brilliant period of the literary activity of Greece, and has been immortalized by the dialogue of Plato which bears his name. The dates of his birth and death are alike uncertain, but the number of his years far outran the ordinary length of human existence, and, in the different statements, ranges between 100 and 109. Whatever may have been the speculative errors of Gorgias, his long life was remarkable for an undeviating practice of virtue and temperance, which secured to his last days the full possession of his faculties, and imparted cheerfulness and resignation in the hour of death. According to Eusebius, Gorgias flourished in the 86th Olym piad, and came to Athens Olymp. 88, 2, or B.C. 427, to seek assistance for his native city, the independence of which was menaced by its powerful neighbour Syracuse. In this mission he justified the opinion which his townsmen had formed of his talents for business and political sagacity, and, upon its successful termination, withdrew from public life and returned to Athens, which, as the centre of the mental activity of Greece, offered a wide field for the display of his intellectual powers and acquirements. He did not, however, take up his residence permanently in that city, but divided his time between it and Larissa in Thessaly, where he is said to have died shortly before or after the death of Socrates. To the 84th Olympiad is assigned the publication of his philosophical work entitled "Of the Non-Being, or of Nature" (ñɛpì rov un ovτos, ǹ ñɛpì púσɛwc), in which, according to the extracts from it in the pseudo-Aristotelian work "De Xenophane, Zenone, et Gorgia," and in Sextus Empiricus, he purposes to show: 1. that absolutely nothing exists: 2. that even if anything subsists, it cannot be known: and, 3. that even if aught subsists and can be known, it cannot be expressed and communicated to others. In the arguments, however, by which he sought to establish these positions, and, generally speaking, in his physical doctrines, Gorgias deferred, in some measure, to the testimony of sense, which the stricter Eleatics rejected absolutely, as inadequate and contradictory. On this account, although the usual statement which directly styles him the disciple of Empedocles is erroneous, it is probable that he drew from the writings of that philosopher his acquaintance with the physiology of the Eleatic school. quently it would appear that Gorgias devoted himself entirely to the practice and teaching of rhetoric, and in this career his professional labours seem to have been attended with both honour and profit. Accord ing to Cicero (de Orat., 1, 22.—Ib., 3, 32), he was the first who engaged to deliver impromptu a public discourse upon any given subject. These oratorical displays were characterized by the poetical ornament and elegance of the language, and the antithetical structure of the sentences, rather than by the depth and vigour of the thought; and the coldness of his eloquence soon passed into a proverb among the ancients. As a teacher of rhetoric, Gorgias is said to have first introduced numbers into prose, and to have attached much importance to antitheses both in individual words and in the members of a sentence. (Consult Hardion, Dissert., 11.-Mem. de l'Acad. des. Inscr., &c., vol. 19, p. 204.) It is said, that after a display of eloquence made by him at the Olympic and Pythian Games, a

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golden statue was erected to him at Delphi.-Besides | to Valeria, "the powerful;" Euryale to Latrotva, some fragments, there are still extant two entire ora- "the wide-rolling ;" and Medusa to Guberna, "the tions ascribed to him, entitled respectively, "The En-directress," from her ruling the course of the billows. comium of Helen," and "The Apology of Palamedes," two tasteless and insipid compositions, which may, however, not be the works of Gorgias. On this point consult Foss, "De Gorgia Leontino Commentatio," Hal., 1828, who denies their authenticity, which is maintained, on the other hand, by Schonhörn, "De Authentia Declamationum qua Gorgia Leontini nomine extant," Bresl., 1826. (Plat., Hipp. Maj., p.282.Id., Gorg.-Dion. Hal., Jud. de Lys., 3, p.458, ed. Reiske. Diogenes Laert., 8, 58.-Sext., Emp. adv. Math., 7, 65.-Clinton, Fast. Hell., vol. 1, p. 377. -Preller, Hist. Philos., p. 134, seqq.-Schöll, Gesch. Gr. Litt., vol. 1, p. 363.)

GORGO, I. wife of Leonidas, king of Sparta. A fine repartee of hers given by Plutarch. When a stranger female observed to her, "You Spartan women are the only ones that rule men," she replied, "True, for we are the only ones that give birth to men." (Plut., Lacon. Apophth., p. 227.)-II. The capital of the Chorasmi in Bactriana. It is supposed to correspond to the modern Urghenz. (Bischoff und Möller, Wörterb. der Geogr., p. 567.)

And he adds, in farther explanation, "nam et vis undarum semper manet eadem, et fluctuatio: cursus autem mutatur, ventis, annive tempestatibus mutatis." Hesiod, therefore, who places the Gorgons in Oceanic isles (Theog., 274, seqq.), is more consistent with the early legend than later poets, who almost all assign the Gorgons a dwelling place in some part or other of Libya. Hence there is great probability in Völcker's reading of Kvpnvns for Kioonvns in Eschylus (Prom. V., 799.-Keightley's Mythology, p. 252, seqq.)

GORTYS OF GORTYNIA, I. a city of Crete, next to Cnosus in splendour and importance. Strabo writes, that these two cities had in early times entered into a league, which enabled them to reduce nearly the whole of Crete under their subjection; subsequently, however, dissensions having arisen between them, they were constantly engaged in hostilities. Homer speaks of Gortys as a place of great strength (1., 2, 646), with a territory extending to the sea. (Od., 3, 293.) From other authors we learn that it stood in a plain, watered by the river Lethæus, and at a distance of ninety stadia from the Libyan Sea, on which were situate its two havens, Lebena and Metallum. Formerly this city was of very considerable size, since Strabo

it was very much diminished. He adds, that Ptolemy Philopator had begun to enclose it with fresh walls; but the work was not carried on for more than eight stadia. (Strabo, 478.)-According to the Arcadian traditions, had been founded by Gortys, the son of Tegeates; a fact which was, however, denied by the Cretans, who affirmed that Gortys was the son of Rhadamanthus. (Pausan., 8, 1.-Compare Steph. Byz., s. v.) It was most probably a Pelasgic city, since, according to Stephanus, it once bore the appellation of Larissa. Apollo was especially revered here, whence he is sometimes called Gortynius. (Anton., Lib., 25.) Jupiter was also worshipped in this place under the title of Hecatombæus. The ruins of this ancient city have been visited by Tournefort, Pococke, and still more recently by Mr. Cockerell, who observed the remains of a theatre and other considerable vestiges. He likewise explored some remarkable excavations near the town, consisting of numerous chambers and galleries, which have been supposed to belong to the celebrated Cretan labyrinth, though this is generally stated to have been situated at Cnosus.As regards the form of the ancient name, consult remarks under the article Cortona. (Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 3, p. 383.)-II. A town of Arcadia, near the river Gortynius, and southeast of Heræa. It was distinguished for its temple of Pentelic marble dedicated to Esculapius. The statue of the god, as well as that of Hygieia, were by Scopas. (Pausan., 8, 28.) The

GORGONES, three celebrated sisters, daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, whose names were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, and who were all immortal except Me-reckons its circuit at fifty stadia; but when he wrote dusa. According to the mythologists, their hairs were entwined with serpents, they had wings of gold, their hands were of brass, their body was covered with impenetrable scales, their teeth were as long as the tusks of a wild boar, and they turned to stone all those on whom they fixed their eyes. (Apollod., 2, 4, 2.Tzetz., ad Lyc., 838.)-Homer speaks of an object of terror which he calls Gorgo, and the Gorgonian head. He places the former on the shield of Agamemnon (I., 11, 36), and, when describing Hector eager for slaughter, he says that he had "the eyes of Gorgo and of man-destroying Ares." (Il., 8, 348.) The Gorgeian head was on the ægis of Jupiter (I., 5, 741), and the hero of the Odyssey fears to remain in Erebus, lest Proserpina should send out "the Gorgeian head of the dire monster" against him. (Od., 11, 633.) Eschylus calls the Gorgons the "three sisters of the Graiæ, winged, serpent-fleeced, hateful to man, whom no one can look on and retain the breath of existence." (Prom. V., 804, seqq.) The Gorgons and Graiæ are always mentioned together; and it was while the Graiæ were handing to one another their single eye (Vid. Phorcydes) that Perseus intercepted it; and, having thus blinded the guards, was enabled to come on the Gorgons unperceived. (For an account of the legend of Perseus and Medusa, consult each of those articles.) According to R. P. Knight, the Gorgon, or Medusa, in the centre of Minerva's ægis, appears to have been a symbol of the Moon (Orph. in Clem. Alex, Strom., lib. 5, p. 675); exhibited sometimes with the charac-site of Gortys is now called Atchicolo Castro. ter and expression of the destroying, and sometimes GоTHI, a powerful northern nation, who acted an with those of the generative or preserving, attribute; important part in the overthrow of the Roman empire. the former of which is expressed by the title of Gorgo, The name " Gothi," or Goths, appears first in history and the latter by that of Medusa. It is sometimes in the third century, and it was then used by the Rorepresented with serpents, and sometimes with fish, in man writers as synonymous with the more ancient one the hair; and occasionally with almost every symbol of Getæ, a people who lived on the banks of the lower of the passive generative or productive power; it being Danube, near the shores of the Euxine. The Greek the female personification of the Disk, by which almost writers generally considered the Getæ or Goths as all the nations of antiquity represented the sun; and a Scythian tribe. There has been much discussion this female personification was the symbol of the Moon. on the question whether the Geta or Goths came ori(Inquiry into the Symb. Lang., &c., ◊ 179-Class.ginally from Scandinavia, or migrated thither from Asia. Journal, vol. 26, p. 46.)—Hermann, however, with more probability, makes both the Graia and Gorgons to be merely personifications of the terrors of the sea, the former denoting the white-crested waves that dash against the rocks on the coast; the latter, the strong billows of the wide open main. (Herm., Opusc., vol. 2, p. 179, seq.) He therefore makes Stheno equivalent

The old Scandinavian tradition in the Edda makes their chief, Odin or Woden, to have come from the banks of the Dniester to the shores of the Baltic many centuries before the Christian era (vid Odinus), and it is to Asia, therefore, that we must look as the native country of the Gothic, or, rather, Teutonic, race. (Consult remarks under the article Germania,

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1.)

have procured the terms under which Mancinus obtained safety for his army; but the senate, on his return, was so much displeased at the unfavourable nature of these conditions, that they resolved on giving up all the principal officers to the Numantines. By the good-will, however, of the popular assembly, influenced, as it would seem, by the soldiers and their

About the middle of the third century of our era, the | the Gracchi, married Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Goths are recorded to have crossed the Dniester, and Africanus the Elder. He died while his sons were to have devastated Dacia and Thrace. The Emperor young, having twice filled the office of consul, and, acDecius lost his life in opposing them in Moesia (A.D. cording to Plutarch, obtained two triumphs. After 251), after which his successor Gallus induced them the death of her husband, Cornelia refused all offers by money to withdraw again to their old dwellings on of marriage, and devoted herself to the charge and edthe Dniester. They then seem to have spread east-ucation of her children, who, as Plutarch tells us, ward, and to have occupied the country about the were less the inheritors of manly virtue by being Cimmerian Bosporus, whence they sailed across the sprung from the noblest blood in Rome, than they Euxine, occupied Trebisond, and ravaged Bithynia. were its possessors from the careful nurture of their In the year 269 they landed in Macedonia, but were mother Cornelia. (Plut., Vit. Gracch.)-II. Tiberius, defeated by the Emperor Claudius II. Three years elder son of the preceding, was born B.C. 163. His after, Aurelian gave up Dacia to a tribe of Goths, who mother was the celebrated Cornelia, daughter of the are believed to have been the Visigoths or Western elder Africanus. Tiberius served his first campaign Goths, while those who ravaged Asia Minor were the in Africa under his uncle Scipio, and having obtained Ostrogoths or Eastern Goths. This distinction of the the office of consul's quæstor, we find him next under race into two grand divisions appears about this time. Mancinus, the unfortunate commander in the Numan Under Constantine I. the Goths from Dacia invaded tine war. His name, which the Numantines respectIllyricum, but were repelled. Constantine II. after-ed from remembering his father's virtues, is said to ward allowed a part of them to settle in Moesia, who seem to have soon after embraced Christianity, as it was for them that Ulphilas translated the Scriptures, about the middle of the 4th century, into the dialect called Maso-Gothic. About the year 375, the Huns, coming from the East, fell upon the Ostrogoths, and drove them upon the Visigoths, who were living north of the Danube. The latter, being hard pressed, im-connexions in the lower classes, it was decided to plored permission of the Roman commander to be al- send Mancinus as the real criminal, and to spare the lowed to cross that river, and take shelter on the ter- other officers for the sake of Gracchus. Treatment ritory of the empire. The Emperor Valens consented, of this nature was likely to rouse Gracchus against and a vast multitude of them were allowed to settle in the senate, and make him the friend of the poor; and Moesia, but soon afterward they quarrelled with the accordingly, in three years afterward, we find him beRoman authorities, invaded Thrace, and defeated and ginning his short career as a political agitator. He killed Valens, who came to oppose them. From that was elected tribune of the commons B.C. 128, and time they exercised great influence over the Byzantine immediately began to attempt the revival of the Licincourt, either as allies and mercenaries, or as formida- ian Rogations. (Vid. Agrariæ Leges.) In so doing ble enemies. Towards the end of the 4th century, he appears to have had in view the two grand princiAlaric, being chosen king of the Visigoths, invaded ples which that law involved, namely, the employment Northern Italy, but was defeated by Stilicho near Ve- of freemen in cultivating the soil in preference to rona. He came again, however, about two years af- slaves, and especially the more generally recognised ter, and took and plundered Rome. His successor principle of the equitable division of the public land. A taulphus made peace with the empire, and repaired Three commissioners were appointed to superintend to the south of Gaul, where the Visigoths founded a the working of the new law, which Gracchus had prokingdom, from which they afterward passed into Spain, posed, if we may trust Plutarch, with the approval of where a Visigothic dynasty reigned for more than two some of the most eminent persons of the times, among centuries till it was conquered by the Moors. Mean- whom were Mucius Scævola and Crassus the orator. while the Ostrogoths or Eastern Goths, who had set- Such general interest was excited by the question, tled in Pannonia, after the destruction of the kingdom that crowds arrived from all parts of the country to of the Huns, extended their dominion over Noricum, support either side; and there appeared no doubt Rhætia, and Illyricum, and about the year 489 they in- which way the matter would go when left to the tribes. vaded Italy, under their king Theodoric, and defeated The aristocracy, however, secured the veto of M. OcOdoacer, king of the Heruli, who had assumed the tavius, one of the tribunes, and thereby quashed the title of King of Italy, a title which Theodoric then proceedings whenever the law was brought on, which took for himself, with the consent of the Eastern em- violent mode of opposition led Gracchus to exercise peror. Theodoric was a great prince: his reign was his veto on other questions, stop the supplies, and a period of rest for Italy, and his wise administration throw the government into the most complete helpdid much towards healing the wounds of that country.lessness. Thus far the contest had been lawful; but But his successors degenerated, and the Gothic dominion over Italy lasted only till 544, when it was overthrown by Narses, the general of Justinian. From this time the Goths figure no longer as a power in the history of Western Europe, except in Spain. We find, however, their name perpetuated long after in Scandinavia, where a kingdom of Gothia existed until the 12th century, distinct from Sweden Proper, until both crowns were united on the head of Charles Swerkerson, A.D. 1161, who assumed the title of King of the Swedes and the Goths, which his successors bear to this day. On the early history of the Goths, consult Jornandes, "De Getarum sive Gothorum Origine et Rebus Gestis;" Isidorus, "Chronicon Gothorum;" and Procopius, "De Bello Gothico." The first two, however, are not to be trusted implicitly when they treat of the remote genealogy and origin of the Gothic race. (Encycl. Us. Knowl., vol. 11, p. 328, seq.) GRACCHUS, I. Tiberius Sempronius, the father of

at this juncture, Gracchus, irritated by continual opposition, invited Octavius to propose his (Gracchus') ejection from the office of tribune; and on his refusal, pleading the utter uselessness of two men so different in sentiment holding the same office, he put the question to the tribes that Octavius be ejected. When the first seventeen out of the thirty-five tribes had voted for it, Gracchus again implored him to resign; and, on his entreaty proving unsuccessful, polled another tribe, constituting a majority, and sent his officers to drag Octavius from the tribune's chair. The Agrarian law was forthwith passed; and Gracchus himself, his brother Caius, and his father-in-law Appius Claudius, were appointed the commissioners. But the senate, to show their opinion of the whole proceeding, withheld from him the usual allowance of a public officer, giving only about one shilling a day. While things were in this state, the dominions and treasures of Attalus, king of Pergamus, were by him bequeathed to