Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/641

 •v CIMBmCA. east (Stnbw I c. ; Diod. ▼. 32 ; Josiin, zzxviii. 3 ; Amm. Marc. zzzi. 5, 12; Gland. BelL Get, 639.) The qnestioii as to the oatiooality of the Gimbri is involved in greater obscurity. Mere resemblance of name led some of the ancients to identify the Gimbri with the Gimmerians in Asia. (Strab. I. &; Plat. Mar, 10; Polyaen. viii. 10; Diod. ▼. 32; Steph. Bjz. «. V. "^ASiot.) This sapposition has jnstly been abandoned by all modem writers, thongh they are still divided in opinion, some regarding the Gimbri as a tribe of the great Celtic nation, and others as being a Germanic tribe. The testimony of the an- cients, which ought not to be set aside, except for most weighty reasons, must here decide the qnes> tion. The ancients are almost nnanimoos in repre- senting the Gimbri aa Gelts or Ganls. (Sail. Jug, 114; Flor. iiL 3; Appian, de Reb, Illyr. 4, BdL Civ. I 29, iv. 2; Diod. l.c, and ziv. 114; Plut. Cam. 15; Dion Gass. zllv. 42; Justin, zxiv. 6; Qros. v. 16.) Against this statement modem critics have nrged, t^t the names ChidUf CeUae^ and Galatae are naed very vaguely and loosely by the ancients, and that sometimes they are applied to Germans also; a second objection is, that a Geltic tribe skonld have dwelt so far north as JuUtrndy and so far away from other Geltic tribes These objections, however, do not weigh very heavily against the fiusts, that the very name of the Gimbri beurs a strong resemblance to that of the Geltic Kymri; and that the armour and customs of the Gimbri, as described by Phitarch {Mar, 25, 27) and Stiabo (viL p. 294), are very di£G»ent from those of the Germans. All tiiese circumstances render it in the highest d^ree probable that the Gimbri were a Geltic or Gallic and not a Germanic nation. (Gomp. H. Mfiller, Die Marhen dea Vaierkmdes, p. 131, foL) The cir- cumstances which led the Gimbri to migrate south- ward, were undoubtedly the same as those which, daring those centuries, so often set nations in mo- tion, viz. the love of adventure and warlike oiter- prise, or the pressure of o^er immigrating people from the £a^ The statement that the Gimbri were driven from their countiy by a fearful inun- dation of the sea, is a mere invention without any foundatioo. (Strab. viL p. 293.) Their name is said to signify "• robbers.** (Plut Mar, 11; Fest p. 43, ed. Midler.) For further details respecting the Gimbri, see U. Mliller, L c; Zeuss, i>ie Deu^ «cAm, p. 141, IbU.; Wilhehn, Germ, p. 172, folL; Schiem, De Cimbrorum Origimbut etMigrationibuBy Havniae, 1842 ; Latham, Appeitdix to his edit, of Tac, Germ, p. civ. foil.) [L. S.] GrMBRIGA GHEBSONESUS. [Ghebsonesus GIMBR(yRUM PRGMONTCBIUM. [Gimbri.] GIMIATE'NE (Kifuofniinf), a division of Paph- lagonia, which took its name from a hill fort, Gimiata, at the foot of the range of Olgassys. Mithridates, called Gtistes, made this his stronghold, and so became master of the Pontus. (Strab. p. 562.) As to the proper form of the name, see Groskurd's note (TramL StrabOj vol. ii. p. 502.) The name of this diision is incorrectly written Ktwurrnrij in Gasaubon's text of Strabo. [G. L.] Gl'MlNUS, a mountain and lake of Southern Etruria, between Volsinii and Falerii. The former, still called Monte CiminOj is a conspicuous object from Borne and the whole surrounding countiy, and forms the culminating point of a tract or range of volcanic heights, which extend from the neighbour- hood of the Tiber in a SW. direction towards the CIMMERH. 623 sea at CivUa Vecchia: and separates the great plain or basin of the Roman Campagna from the plains of Gentral Etruria. The whole df this tract appears to have been covered in ancient times, as a part of it still is, with a dense forest known as the Silva Gi- mviA (Giminius Saltns, Flor.), which, according to Livy, was regarded by the Romans in early ages with no less awe than the Hercynian forest was in the days of the historian : so that when in b. c. 810, the consul, Q. Fabius Mazimus, for the first time approached it with a Roman army, the senate in alami sent him peremptory orders not to attempt its passage. This, however, he had already effected with safety before he received the prohibition. (Liv. ix. 36—39 ; Floras, i. 17 ; Frontin. Strai, L 2. § 2.) The expressions of Livy are, however, certainly ex- aggerated: though the forest may have presented a formidable obstacle to an invading army, it is im- possible that it should not have been traversed by traders and other peaceful travellers, as well as by the armies of the Etruscans themselves, on t^eir ad- vance to Sutrium, in the previous campaigns. The highest point of the range exceeds 3000feet in height^ but it is far from presenting a regular and continu- ous ridge, the several masses or clusters of hills, of which it is composed, being separated by passes of very moderate elevation. It is across one of these, about 2 miles to the W. of the Giminian Lake, that the ancient Via Gassia was carried from Sutrium to Foram Gassii: the modem high road from Rome to Florence abraptly ascends the heights above Ron^ ciglionej and skirts the basin of the lake on its £. side. The Via Gimnia, of which we find mention in an inscription of the time of Hadrian (Grell. 3306), probably followed much the same direction. The lake (Giminius Lacus, Vib. Seq. p. 23; Gi- mini Lacus. Virg. Aen. vu. 69^ ; Sil. Ital. viii. 493; Ki/Atpia Xifuffif Strab.) is situated in the heart of the mountain, to which the name of Mons Giminns more properly belongs: the deep basin-shaped depression in which it is formed, is evidently the crater of an extinct volcano. A legend recorded by Servius {ad Aen, I, c.) attributed its formation to Hercules, while another, similar to those connected with the Lacus Albanus and Fucinus, represented it as covering the site of a town named Saccumum or Sucdnium, which was said to have been swallowed up by an earthquake. (Amm. Marc xvil 7. § 13; Sotion, de Mir. Fent, 41.) Strabo and Golumella tell us that it abounded in fish and wild fowl. (Strab. v. p. 226 ; Golum. viii. 16. § 2.) It is about 3 miles in circumference, and is now called the Logo di VicOj from a village of that name on its E. bimk. [£. H. B.] GIMME'RIGUM {Kiii4i9piK6v, Scymn. Frag, xci; Anon. PeripL 5), a town of the Cimmerian Bosporas situated near the mountain of the same name (Kifi- fxipiovy Strab. vii. p. 309 : Aghirmisck Daghi^ or Opouk) rising in the E. portion of the S. coast of the peninsula of Kertsch, (Kbler, Mem. de VAcad. de St. PeterOurg, vol. ix. p. 649.) [E. B. J.] GIMMETUI (Kififi4piot a people who belong partly to legend and partly to history. The story of the Odyssey (xi. 14) describes them as dwelling beyond the ocean-stream, plunged in darkness and unblest by the rays of Helios. According to Hero- dotus, they were originally in occupation of the ter- ritory between the Borysthenes and the Tanais, and being expelled from their country by the Scythians, skirted the shores of the Eoxine, and having passed through Golchis and over the river Halys, invaded Asia to the W. of that river. In this inroad they