Page:A dictionary of the Book of Mormon.pdf/132

Gadiomnah. 12). The most momentous of all these wars was the one that was waged during the earthly life of our Savior. It virtually commenced in the second year of His mortal existence, and continued with slight intermissions until the twenty-first. So powerful and arrogant, had the robbers grown in that age that Giddianhi, their leader, in A. C. 16, wrote an epistle to Lachoneus the chief judge, calling upon the Nephites to submit themselves to the robbers and their ways; to accept their oaths and covenants; and in all things become like unto them. The presumption of the robber chief does not appear to have been without foundation, for so desperate had the condition of the people become that Lachoneus devised and carried out the stupendous movement of gathering them all, both Nephites and Lamanites, to one land, where they would be safe by consolidation, and be able to wear out the robbers by masterly inactivity. In this he succeeded, and the robber bands were destroyed by privation, famine, and the sword.

After the days of Jesus, the Gadiantons again appeared, when iniquity began to prevail; and by the year A. C. 300 they had spread over all the land. To their baneful influence may be attributed many of the atrocities and abominations that disgraced the last wars between the Nephites and Lamanites.  GADIOMNAH. A wicked city, sunk in the earth in the dire convulsions that occurred on this continent at the time the Redeemer was crucified. In its place hills and valleys appeared, while deep in the bosom of the earth were buried its iniquitous inhabitants, that they might be hidden from the sight of Heaven, and that the blood of the prophets and saints whom they had slain might no more come up before the Lord (III Nephi, 9:8). This city is only mentioned in the Book of Mormon in connection with its destruction.   GALILEE. The northern division of 