Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/210

Rh 196 GAIUS. {^4a x^'Ji'io), being mentioned in connection with Dis and the Manes, and when persons invoked them or Tellus they sank their arms downwards, while in invoking Jupiter they raised them to heaven. (Varro, de Re Rust. i. 1. 15 ; Macrob. Sat. iii. 9 ; Liv. viii. 9, x. 29.) The consul P. Sempronius Sophus, in B. c. 304, built a temple to Tellus in consequence of an earthquake which had occurred during the war with the Picentians. This temple stood on the spot which had formerly been occupied by the house of Sp. Cassius, in the street leading to the Carinae. (Flor. i. 19. § 2 ; Liv. ii. 41 ; Val. Max. vi. 3. § 1 ; Plin. //. A^. xxxiv. 6, 14 ; Dionys. viii. 79.) Her festival was celebrated on the 15th of April, immediately after that of Ceres, and was called Fordicidia or Hordicidia. The sacrifice, consisting of cows, was offered up in the Capitol in the presence of the Vestals. A male divinity, to whom the pontiff prayed on that occa- sion, was called Tellumo. (Hartung, Die Relig. der Rom. vol. ii. p. 84, &c.) GAEE'OCHUS (ratrjoxos), that is, " the holder of the earth," is a common epithet of Poseidon (Hom. Od. xi. 240), and near Therapne, in La- conia, he had a temple under the name of Gae- eochus. (Paus. iii. 20. § 2.) But the name is also given to other divinities to describe them as the protectors and patrons of certain districts, e. g. Artemis Gaeeochus at Thebes. (Soph. Oed. Tyr. 160.) [L. S.] GAETU'LICUS, a poet of the Greek Antho- logy, whose epigrams are variously inscribed in the Palatine MS., rotrouXiou, YairovXiKov^ TairovXi- Xov, TaiToriWov, TaiTovKiKLOv^ and in the Planu- dean Anthology, FiTovKiov. The Anthology con- tains nine pleasing epigrams by him on various subjects (Branck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 166 ; Jacobs, Anth. Gr.aec. vol. ii. p. 151.) Several scholars have identified him with Cn. Lentulus Gaetulicus, the Roman historical writer and poet, under Tiberius [Lentulus]. For this there is no authority ex- cept the name, and an objection arises from the fact that the Greek epigrams of Gaetulicus are quite free from the licentious character which Martial (i. Praef. ; Plin. Epist. v. 3. § 6) and Sidonius Apollinaris {Epist. ii. 10, p. 148 ; Carm. ix. p. 256) agree in attributing to the verses of the Roman poet. (Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. xiii. p. 896 ; Fa- bric. Bill. Graeo. vol. iv. pp. 475, 476.) [P. S.] GAINAS. [Arcadius.] GAIUS. [Caius.] GAIUS. Of the personal history of this famous jurist scarcely any thing is known. Even the spelling of his name has been as fruitful a subject of controversy as the orthography of our own Shakespeare or Shakspere. Some have chosen to write Caius instead of Gains, and, in favour of this spelling, quote Quintilian (i. 7. § 28). "Quid? quae scribuntur alitor quam enuntiantur? Nam et Graius C iitera notatur, quae inversa(o) mulierem significat." They understand this passage to mean that the w,ord which is spelt with a C is pro- nounced with a G ; but Quintilian is here speaking oi notae, and the true meaning may be, that the word which, when written at length, is written Gaius, and is pronounced as it is written, is yet desigriated shortly by th« nota C, which is different from its initial letter. Caius was undoubtedly the original spelling, used at a time when the letter C, which occupies in the Roman alphabet the place of Gamma in the Greek, bad, in some cases, the GAIUS. power of Gamma. Caius was always pronounced Gaius, and was written in Greek Fdios^ while in other words, as Cicero, which was written in Greek KiKepwv, the initial C had a power distinct from Gamma. It was in the beginning of the sixth century of the city that the letter G was intro- duced into the Roman alphabet, by Spurius Car- vihus (Plut. Prob. Rom. 54), and thenceforward the difference of pronunciation began to be indi- cated by a difference of notation; but in some cases, as Caius and Cneus, the change was slowly intro- duced. Probably at the time when Gaius lived, and certainly in the time of Justinian, his name was generally spelt, as it was pronounced, with a G, although the initial nota C still continued in use. This appears from inscriptions, and from the best manuscripts. In the Florentine manuscript of the Digest, the praenomen Gaius is always spelt with a G, there being no difference whether the word is used by itself, or as a praenomen, fol- lowed by other names. (Dausquius, Orthographia Latini Sermonis Vetm et Nova, vol. ii. p. 70, fol. Paris, 1677 ; Grotefend, in Ersch and Gruber's Alg. Encyc, under the letter C ; Schneider, Ele- mentarhhre der Lateinisclien SpracJie, i. 1, p. 233.) In early times the name was trisyllabic, like the Greek Tdios (CatuU. x. 30 ; Mart. ix. 94, xi. 37 ; Stat. Sylv. iv. 9, 22), but, in times of less pure Latinity, it was pronounced as a dissyllable. (Auson. Epig. 75.) It had a meaning in ancient Latin, as in modern Tuscan, equivalent to the En- glish Gay, and was connected by etymologists with the Greek 7010), whence' the names Caius and Caia were thought peculiarly appropriate to the mar- riage ceremony. " Caii dicti a gaudio parentum," says C. Titius Probus in his treatise De Nominilits, &c. As Gaius is known by no other appellation, some have supposed that he had no other, but was either a freedman or a foreigner. Then as to his birthplace : some have fancied that he was a Greek, because he understood Greek ; and some that, like Justinian, he was a native of lUyricum, because Justinian thrice calls him Gaius noster. (Prooem. Inst. § 6, Inst. 4. tit. 18. § 5 ; Const. Omnem. § 1.) Some have thought that Gaius was his gentile or family name, and, relying on the supposed authority of a manuscript of the Brevia- rium Alaricianum, or Westgothic Lea Romana, have given him the praenomen Titus. The origin of this supposition is probably due to some passages in the Corpus Juris (0. g. Cod. 6. tit. .3. s. 9), where Gaius is employed as a fictitious name, and is found in connection with other fictitious names, as Titus, Titius, Lucius. Others, believing that Gains was a praenomen, have attributed to him the cognomen Noster, because not only does Justinian in the passages we have cited so ciill him, but the phrase Gaius Noster is used by Pomponius in Dig. 45. tit. 3. s. 39. It is scarcely necessary to say, that Noster in this form of expression usually refers to that literary intimacy with which we regard a favourite author. Yet, partly because Gaius is called by Justinian Noster, and partly on account of some passages in the mutilated and corrupted Westgothic compendium of the Institutes of Gaius, Vacca and other learned civilians inferred that Gaius was a Christian ! Some, not content with Noster^ and misled by a false reading in Gellius (ii. 4), have given him the cognomen