Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/248

Rh 234 GELASIUS. tween the two works, and between their respective writers, comparing the style of one Avith that of the other. And the ■preface to tlie Co?itinuation quoted by Photius distinctly asserts the author to have been the nephew of Cyril. The Continuation is not extant. Fabricius, without giving his au- thority, places the death of Gelasius in A. d. 394. The following writings of a Gelasius of Caesareia are mentioned ; but it is not clear to which of the Gelasii they belong. I. A71 Exposition of live. Creed, cited by Leontius, Adv. Nestorium, lib. i., not far from the end. 2. T^s SeffTTOTt/cTjs 'ETTi^ove/as Ylavilfyvpis, or Ets TO. ^EirKpavia Aoyos, A Homily for the Epi- pluiny, twice cited by Theodoret {Eranid. Dial. i. iii.), who classes the writer among "the ancients of Palestine." 3. A work of which Labbe has cited a fragment in his Conspectus Operum Damas- ceni; and which is described as Practica (TToixfi- w<n5 secundum Ecclesiam. (Phot. Bibl. Codd. 88, 89; Theodoret. Opera, vol. iv. pp. 46, 2.51, ed. Schulze ; Leontius, AdtJ. Nest, apud Bibl. Patrum, vol. ix. p. 684, ed Lyon. 1677 ; Fabric. BM. Gr. vol. ix. p. 290, &c.) 3. Of Cyzicus, was the son of a presbyter of the church of Cyzicus, and it was while at home in his father's house that he met with an old volume written on parchment, containing a full account of what was said and done at the first council of Nice. From this record he derived considerable aid in arguing with the Eutychians during their ascen- dancy under the usurper Basiliscus, A. d. 475 — 477 ; and this induced him to collect further in- formation respecting the Council, from Joannes, Eusebius of Caesareia, Rufinus, and others. He embodied the information thus collected in a work termed by Photius WpaKTiKov ttJs ITpwTrjs IvvShov 4u Tpiai TOjuoty; T7ie Acts of tJie First Council, in three parts ; but, as Photius remarks, it is as much entitled to the name of History as of Acts. The work is extant in the different editions of the Con- cilia; but it has been suspected that the third part, or book, has been mutilated or corrupted by the earliest editors, in order to get rid of the testi- mony which (judging from the abstract of Photius) it afforded, that Constantine was not baptized at Kome by Pope Sylvester. The first book compre. hends the history of Constantine to his victory over Licinius. The second comprehends the history of the Council ; and contains some discussions be- tween certain " philosophers," advocates of " the impious Arius and the blasphemies invented by him," §.nd the "holy bishops" of the opposite party ; which discussions Cave believes to be pure inventions either of Gelasius or of the author of the ancient manuscript which formed the basis of his work. The third book, as we now have it, con- tains only a few letters of the emperor Constan- tine. Baronius ascribes to Gelasius of Cyzicus a treatise against the Eutychians and Nestorians, of which he supposes the work De Duafms Naturis, which is commonly regarded as the original Latin work, and passes under the name of Pope Gelasius I., to be only a version. Baronius does not appear to have many supporters in this supposition. It may be observed that one manuscript used by Photius of the History of tJiS Nicene Council was anonymous, but in another the work was in- scribed "By Gelasius, bishop of Caesareia in Palestine." This inscription probably originated in a mistake. Photius could not find out who the GELLIAS. author of the work was further than he had de- scribed himself in the preface, but says that there had been two, if not three, bishops of Caesareia of the name. (Phot. Bibl. Codd. 15, 88, 89 ; Labbe, Co7icilia, vol. u. col. 103 — 286; Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. ix. p. 291, &c., vol. xii. p. 581, &c. ; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. i. p. 454, ed. Ox. 1740—43 ; Baro- nius, Annul, ad Ann. 496, cap. v. &c. ; Pagi, Cri- tice in Baron.) [J. C. M.] GE'LIMER (FeAiVep), last king of the Vandals (a. d. 530 — 534), son of Gelaris, grandson of Genzo, and great-grandson of Genseric, who, by the imprisonment and subsequent murder of Hil- deric, the reigning sovereign, usurped the throne of Carthage, a.d. 530. (Procop. 5e/Z. Vand. i. 9.) Justinian, who had formed an alliance with Hil- deric, in consequence of the protection afforded by him to the Catholics in Africa, commenced a war upon Gelimer, under the command of Belisarius, which, after the two battles of Carthage and Bulla, ended in the overthrow of the Vandal kingdom in Africa, a.d. 534 {Ibid. i. 10, ii. 9) ; thus ful- filling a current prophecy, of which the first half had been accomplished in the defeat of Bonifacius by Genseric [GJenseric] : " G. shall conquer B., and then B. shall conquer G." {Ibid. i. 21.) His brother, Zano, was killed at Bulla. {Ibid. ii. 3.) He himself fled to Mount Pappua (ii. 4), was taken after a severe siege (ii. 7), carried to Constantinople, compelled to perfonn obeisance to Justinian, and then, though precluded by his Arianism from the Patrician order, was treated kindly, and passed the rest of his life in an estate which was allowed to him in Galatia. (ii. 9.) His general character resembled the mingled cunning and cruelty which marked the princes of the Vandal tribes. But it can hardly be accident that has preserved so many traits of an almost romantic strain of thought and feeling. Such is his interview with his brother at Bulla, when they embraced each other in tears, with clasped hands, and without speaking a word (ii. 25). Such, when on Mount Pappua, is his request to the besieging general for a loaf, as not having seen bread for many days ; a sponge to wipe his inflamed eyes, and a harp, to sing a dirge composed by himself on his own miseries (ii. 6) ; or, again, his determina- tion to surrender at the moving sight of the two children fighting in the extremity of hunger for a cake (ii. 7). Such (if we adopt the interpretation of his friends) was the hysterical laugh in which, on his capture, he indulged at this sudden reverse of human fortune (ii. 7.), and his reiterated ex- clamation, without tear or sigh, as he walked in Belisarius' triumphal procession, " Vanity of vanities — all is vanity." (ii. 9. Comp. Gibbon, c. 41.) [A. P. S.] GE'LLIAS {VeKKias), a citizen of Agrigentum, celebrated for his great wealth and magnificent style of living, as well as for his unbounded hospi- tality. He flourished just before the destruction of Agrigentum by the Carthaginians under Hannibal, the son of Giscon (b. c. 406). On that occasion he fled for refuge to the temple of Athena ; but when he saw that no sanctuary could afford protection against the impiety of the enemy, he set fire to the temple and perished in the flames. ( Diod. xiii. 83, 90 ; Athen. i. p. 4, a ; Val. Max. iv. 8.) The name is written Tellias in most of the MSS. of Athe- naeus, and the error (if it be one) must be of ancient date, as the name is thus quoted both by Suidaa