Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/256

Rh 242 GENIUS. the name Genius itself is Latin (it is connected with i/eu'itus, 'yi-yv-oixai, and equivalent in mean- ing to generator or father ; see August, de Civ. Dei, vii. 1 3). The genii of the Romans are fre- quently confounded with the Manes, Lares, and Penates (Censorin. 3.) ; and they have indeed one great feature in common, viz. that of protecting mortals ; but there seems to be this essential differ- ence, that the genii are the powers which produce life {(Hi genitales), and accompany man through it as his second or spiritual self, whereas the other powers do not begin to exercise their influence till life, the work of the genii, has commenced. The genii were further not confined to man, but every living being, animal as well as man, and every place, had its genius. (Paul. Diac. p. 71 ; Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 302.) Every human being at his birth obtains (soriitur) a genius. Horace {Epist. ii. 2. 187) describes this genius as vultu mutabilis, whence we may infer either that he conceived the genius as friendly towards one person, and as hos- tile towards another, or that he manifested himself to the same person in different ways at different times, i. e. sometimes as a good, and sometimes as an evil genius. The latter supposition is con- firmed by the statement of Servius (ad Aen. vi. 743), that at our birth we obtain two genii, one leading us to good, and the other to evil, and that at our death by their influence we either rise to a higher state of existence, or are condemned to a lower one. The spirit who appeared to Cassius, saying, " We shall meet again at Philippi," is ex- pressly called his evil spirit, Ko/co5ai/xwi'. (Val. Max.*i. 7. § 7 ; Plut. Brut. 36.) Women called their genius Juno (Senec. Epist. 110; TibuU. iv. 6. 1 ) ; and as we may thus regard the genii of men a3 being in some way connected with Jupiter, it would follow that the genii were emanations from the great gods. Every man at Rome had his own genius, whom he worshipped as sanctus et sanctissi- mus deus, especially on his birthday, with libations of vnne, incense, and garlands of flowers. (TibuU. li. 2. 5 ; Ov. Trist. iii. 13. 18, v. 5, 11 ; Senec. Epist. 114; Herat. Carm. iv. 11. 7.) The bridal bed was sacred to the genius, on account of his connection with generation, and the bed itself was called kctiis geniulis. On other merry occasions, also, sacrifices were offered to the genius, and to indulge in merriment was not unfrequently ex- pressed by genio indulgere, genium curare or pla- care. The whole body of the Roman people had its own genius, who is often seen represented on coins of Hadrian and Trajan. (Amob. ii. 67 ; 'S>evv. ad Aen. vi. 603; Liv. xxx. 12; Cic. pro Cluent. 5.) He was worshipped on sad as well as joyous occasions ; thus, e. g. sacrifices {ma- jores hostiae caesae quinque, Liv. xxi. 62) were offered to him at the beginning of the second year of the Hannibalian war. It was observed above that, according to Servius (comp. ad Aen. V. 95), every place had its genius, and he adds, that such a local genius, when he made himself visible, appeared in the form of a serpent, that is, the symbol of renovation or of new life. The genii are usually represented in works of art as winged beings, and on Roman monuments a genius commonly appears as a youth dressed in the toga, with a patera or cornucopia in his hands, and his head covered ; the genius of a place appears in the form of a serpent eating fruit placed before him. (Ilartung, Die Rdig. der Rom. 1. p. 32, &c. ; GENNADI US. Schomann, de Diis Manibus, Laribus, et Geniis^ Greifswald, 1840.) [L. S.] GENNA'DIUS, a presbyter of Marseilles, who flourished at the close of the fifth century, is known to us as the author of a work De Viris II- lustribns., containing one hundred short lives of ecclesiastical writers from A. d. 392 to about A. d. 495, thus forming a continuation of the tract by Jerome which bears the same title. The last notice, devoted to the compiler himself, embraces all that is known with regard to his history and compositions: "Ego Gennadius, Massiliae presby- ter, scripsi adversus oranes haereses libros octo, et adversus Nestorium libros sex, adversus Pelagium libros tres, et tractatus de mille annis et de Apo- calypsi beati Johannis, et hoc opus, et epistolam de fide mea misi ad beatum Gelasium, urbis Romae episcopura." Gelasius died A. n. 496. Of the writings here enumerated, none have been preserved, with the exception of the Biogra- phical Sketches and the Epistola de Fide mea., or, as it is sometimes headed, Lihellus de Ecclesiasiicia Dogmatibus, which was at one time ascribed to St. Augustin. Notwithstanding the pretensions put forth by Gennadius himself as a champion of orthodoxy, expressions have been detected in both of the above pieces which indicate a decided lean- ing towards Semipelagianism. On the other hand, it has been maintained that the whole of these passages are interpolations, since the most ob- noxious are altogether omitted in the two oldest MSS. of the De Viris lUustribus now extant, those of Lucca and Verona. The preliminary remarks 'upon Jerome are also, in all probability, the pro- duction of a later hand. The De Viris Illustribus was published in a volume containing the Catalogue of Jerome, along with those of Isidorus, Honorius, &c., by Suf- fridus, Bvo. Colon,, 1580 ; with the notes of Miraeus, fol. Antw. 1639; with the notes of Mi- raeus and E. S. Cyprianus, 4to., Helmst., 1700 ; by J. A. Fabricius, in his Bibliotlieca Ecclesiustica, fol., Hamb., 1718, and is included in most editions of the collected works of Jerome. The Libellus de Ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus will be found in the Benedictine edition of St. Augustin, vol. viii. Append, p. 75. and was published sepa- rately by Elmenhorst, 4to., Hamburg, 1614. (See the historians of Semipelagianism referred to at the end of the article Cassianus.) [W. R.] GE'NNADIUS ( revvaSioy), the name of two Greek prelates, both bishops or patriarchs of Con- stantinople. 1. The earlier of- the two was a presbyter of the Church of Constantinople, and became bishop of that see, A. D. 459, on the decease of Anatolius [Anato- li us]. He was one of those who pressed the emperor Leo I., theThracian, to punish Timothy Aelurus (or the Cat), who had occupied the see of Alexandria on the murder of Proterius, and his intervention was so far successful that Timothy was banished, A. D. 4 GO. He also opposed Peter Gnapheus (or the Fuller) who, under the patronage of Zeno, son- in-law of the emperor, and general of the Eastern provinces, had expelled Martyrius from the see of Antioch, and occupied his place. Gennadius ho- nourably received Martyrius, who went to Constan- tinople, and succeeded in procuring the banish- ment of Peter, A. D. 464. Gennadius died, A. D. 471, and was succeeded by Acacius [AcACius, No. 4J. Theodore Anagnostes (or the Reader)