Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/246

Rh 232 GAZA. vol. V. p. 942, and under their best form in the edition of PhUastrius by Galeardus, fol. Brix. 1738. [W. R.] GAU'RADAS {TavpaZas the author of an epi- gram in the Greek Anthology, in the Doric dialect, of that fanciful kind in which an echo is made to repeat the last word of the line, and thus to return an answer to its sense. The first two, out of the six lines of the epigram, may serve for an ex- ample : — 'EpcS KopiffKas' a 5e fx ov (pi^7. — (piAei. Nothing more is known of Gauradas. [P. S.] GA'VIUS or GA'BIUS, a name which occurs in some Roman municipia. Cicero mentions at least three persons of this name : — 1. P. Gavius, of Cosa, crucified by Verres (Cic. e. Verr. v. 61). 2. T. Gavius Caepio, a man of wealth and rank, whose son was tribune of the soldiers in the army of Bibulus in Syria, b. c. 50 {ad Alt. v. 20. $4). 3. L. Gavius, who attended to the business of Brutus in Cappadocia, when Cicero was proconsul in Cilicia, and to whom Cicero offered a praefecture at the request of Brutus. Cicero, however, com- plains bitterly of the disrespectful behaviour of Gavius, and calls him *' canis P. Clodii." {ad Alt. vi. 1. § 4, 3. § 6.) Whether he is the same as the Gavius of Firmum {ad Ait. iv. 8. b. § 3) can- not be determined. Three persons of this name likewise occur in the Jiistory of Roman literature : — 1. Gavius Apicius. [Apicius, No 2.) 2. Gavius Bassus. [Bassus.] 3. Gavius Silo, a rhetorician, mentioned by the elder Seneca. (Senec. Controv. v. Praef.) GAZA, THEODO'RUS, one of the latest of the scholars and writers of the Byzantine empire, was a native, not of Athens, as some have erroneously supposed, but of Thessalonica ; and on the capture of that city by the Turks (a. d. 1430), he fled into Italy. He appears to have gone first to Mantua, where he studied the Latin tongue, under Victo- rinus of Feltre, who was then teaching at Mantua. In A.D. 1439 he was at the council of Florence; and in 1 440 he was at Sienna. He afterwards settled at Ferrara, where he was appointed rector and professor of Greek in the Gymnasium on its establishment (which took place under duke Lionel, who occupied the duchy from 1441 to 1450) ; and, by his talents and reputation, attracted students thither from all parts of Italy. At Fer- rara he composed his elements of grammar. It has been said that before this appointment he was re- duced to the greatest destitution ; but this is doubtful, though he has himself recorded that he gained his subsistence at one time by transcribing books ; and a copy of the Politica of Aristotle and of the Iliad of Homer, transcribed by him, •were, a century since, and perhaps still are, extant at Venice. In 1450 he was, with several other Greeks, invited to Rome by Pope Nicholas V., and Avas employed in translating the works of Greek authors into Latin. After the death of Ni- cholas, Theodore went (a. d. 1456) to Naples, where he obtained an honourable appointment from the king, Alfonso the Magnanimous, to ' GAZA. whose favcur he was recommended by Panormita, the king's secretary. On the death of Alfonso (a. d. 1458), he returned to Rome, where he re- mained, under the patronage of Cardinal Bessarion, by whose recommendation he was provided with a benefice in the southern part of the kingdom of Naples; according to some statements, in Apulia, according to others in the country of the Bruttii, i. e. in Calabria. The benefice was itself small ; and the fraud or carelessness of those who received the in come for him (as he continued to reside at Rome), made it still less. Disappointed in the hope of a reward for his literary labours (especially for his translations of Aristotle's De Historia Animalium) from the Pope (Sixtus IV.), whose niggardly recom- pense he is said to have thrown indignantly into the Tiber, he retired (according to the accountmost com- monly received) to his benefice, and there ended his days. He was certainly buried there. Hody has, however, shown reason to doubt the truth of the story of his indignation at the Pope's niggardliness (al- though this niggardliness is made the subject of an indignant remonstrance by Melancthon, and of some bitter verses by Jul. Caes. Scaliger) ; and several authorities of the period in which he lived state that he died at Rome. It is remarkable that the place of the death of a man so eminent should be thus doubtful. Melchior Adam ( Vitae Germanor. FkilosopL, ed. 3d, p. 7) states that Rudolph us Agricola heard him (ad. 1476 or 1477) "Ari- stotelis scripta enarrantem ;" an obscure expression, but which, if founded in fact, shows that he must have at least paid a visit to Ferrara during or after his second residence at Rome. His death occurred A. D. 1478, when he must have been far advanced in years. The ability and learning of Theodore Gaza re- ceived the highest praise in his own and the suc- ceeding age. His accurate acquaintance with the Latin language, and his ready and elegant employ- ment of it, made it doubtful whether his Latin versions of Greek writers or his Greek versions of Latin writers were the more excellent. Hody has collected the eulogies passed upon him in prose and verse by many scholars, including Politian, Eras- mus, Xylander, Jul. Caes., and Jos. Scaliger, Me- lancthon, and Huet. He was, however, severely criticised in his own day by Georgius Trapezuntius and his son Andreas. He had incurred the ejimity of George by making new Latin versions of writings which George had already translated ; and Politian, though elsewhere the eulogist of Theodore, charges him with having concealed the obligations which he owed to the versions of his predecessor. His works are as follows : 1. FpanfiaTiKfis Elcra- •yoyyiis to et's riaaapa^ or Introductivae Grain- matices Libri IV. This Greek grammar was first printed by Aldus Manutius at Venice a. d. 1495 : it long enjoyed a high reputation, and was re- peatedly reprinted, entire or in separate portions. A Latin version was also made of the first and second books by Erasmus, and of the other parts by others. 2. Uepl Mrivuv, or De Mens^us, a treatise on the months of the Athenian calendar, first printed, with the grammar, by Aldus, as above. This also has been repeatedly reprinted, either by itself, or with a Latin version by Perellus ; the version has also been separately printed, and is inserted in the Thesaurus of Gronovius. (Vol. ix. col. 977 — 1016.) 3. ne/){ "Apxatoyoyias TodpKuv, Epistola ad Franc
 * hx<^ ^t'Aa/UOi ffxryKaraivcaov ri. — ti ;