Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/239

980 modern authors, which identified Gaulos with the Homeric island of Calypso, is discussed under the article OGYGIA [E.H.B]

GAURA MONS. Part of the Jerusalem Itin. contains a route from Civitas Valentia (Valence), on the Rhone, to Mansio Vapincum (Gap). After leaving Mansio Lucus (Luc), 9 Roman miles bring us to Mutatio Vologatis, which is perhaps Vaugelas; and the Itin. adds, “inde ascenditur Gaura Mons.” The next station, 8 Roman miles from Vologatis, is Mutatio Cambonum. [CAMBONUM] D'Anville found, in a manuscript map of the Dausphiné, a hill called Col de Cabre, which, as he supposes, preserves the name Gaura. Walckenaer supposes the Gaura to be the chain of mountains which extends from Serre, on a branch of the Durance, to Rimusa, at the foot of which is the place named Le Ga. Probably D'Anville and Walckenaer mean the same range of hills. [G.L]

GAURE´LEON. [ANDROS]

GAU´RION. [ANDROS]

GAURUS MONS, a mountain of Campania, now called Monte Barbaro, in the immediate neighbourhood of Puteoli, and about 3 miles NE. of Cumae. It is in fact the central and most elevated summit of a range of volcanic hills which extend from the promontory of Misenum to Neapolis [CAMPANIA p. 491], and is itself unquestionably an extinct volcano, presenting a distinct and tolerably regular crater. (Daubeny on Volcanoes, p. 200.) Its sloping sides, composed of volcanic sand and ashes, were very favourable to the growth of vines: hence the wines which it produced were in ancient times among the most celebrated in Italy, and were considered to vie with those of the Falernian and Massican hills. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9, 14.6. s. 8; Flor. 1.16.5; Athen. 1.26 Stat. Silv. 4.3. 64; Sil. Ital. 12.160.) The position of Mt. Gaurus, towering over the lower hills which encircled the lakes Avernus and Lucrinus, is distinctly pointed out by Lucan (2.667) and by Sidonius Apollinaris (Carm. 5.345), and is implied also by Silius Italicus (l. c), who places it in the immediate neighbourhood of Puteoli. Aurelius Symmachus also, in a poetic description of Bauli (Anthol. Lat. 268, ed. Meyer),distinctly points to the vine-covered flanks of Mt. Gaurus as rising above the hot springs of Puteoli and the lovely bay of Baiae; but there is a confusion in the passage of Pliny where he speaks of the wines of Mt. Gaurus and Massicus, which has led some writers to assume that the two hills must have been near together, and has thus given rise to much confusion. The Mons Gaurus was celebrated in Roman history as the scene of a great victory gained by the Romans under M Valerius Corvus over the Samnites, B.C. 340. (Liv. 7.32, 33.) This was the first in the long series of conflicts between those two nations, and on that account (as Niebuhr remarks) “is one of the most memorable in the history of the world: it decided, like the praerogativa, upon the great contest which bad now begun between the Sabellians and the Latins for the sovereignty of the world” (vol. iii. p. 119). The exact scene of the battle is not indicated; we are only told that it was fought at the foot of Mt. Gaurus. At a later period Cicero mentions this hill among the fertile districts of Campania which the agrarian law of Rullus proposed to sell for the benefit of the Roman people (de Leg. Agr. 2.14). [E.H.B]

GAUZACA or GAZACA (Γαυζακα ἢ Γαζάκη, Ptol. 6.18.4), a town seated in the district of the Paropamisadae. It is no doubt the same as Agazaca, one f the three cities of this tribe mentioned by Ammianus (23.6). It is conjectured by Forbiger that it may be the same as the modern Ghazni. The name is probably connected with Gaza, a word of Persian origin, signifying a treasurehouse. [V]

GAZA (Γάζα: Eth. Γαζαῖος), a very ancient and important city of Palestine Proper, first mentioned in the southern border of the Canaanites (Gens. x.: 19), but originally inhabited by the Avims, who were dispossessed by the Caphtorims. (Deut. ii.: 23.) It as included in the tribe of Judah (Josh. 15.47), but remained in possession of the Philistines (1 Sam. 6.17), whose capital it apparently was (Judges, 16.21). Josephus says that it was taken by Hezekiah. (Ant. 9.13.3.) It is celebrated in secular, as in sacred history. Arrian, in his Expedition of Alexander (2.27), describes it as a large city, distant 20 stadia from the sea, situated on a lofty mound, and fortified by a strong wall. It was well provisioned, and garrisoned by a force of Arab mercenaries under the command of an eunuch named Batis (or, according to Josephus, Babemeses), and its high walls baffled the engineers of Alexander (B.C. 332), who declared themselves unable to invent engines powerful enough to batter such massive walls. Mounds were raised on the south side of the town, which was most assailable, and the engines were erected on this artificial foundation. They were fired by the besieged, in a spirited sally, and the rout of the Macedonians was checked by the king in person, who was severely wounded in the shoulder during the skirmish. During his slow recovery the engines that had been used at Tyre were sent for, and the mound was proceeded with until it reached the height of 250 feet, and the width of a quarter of a mile. The besiegers were thrice repulsed from the wall; and when a breach had been effected, in the third assault, and the city carried by escalade, its brave garrison still fought with desperate resolution, until they were all killed. The women and children were reduced to slavery. The siege had apparently occupied three or four months; and the conqueror introduced a new population into the place from the neighboring towns, and used it as a fortress. (Arrian, 2.27, followed by Bp. Thirlwall, Greece, vol. vi. pp. 354--357.) If this be true, the statement of Strabo, that it was destroyed by Alexander, and remained desert, must be taken with some qualification (p. 759). Indeed, the figure which it makes in the intermediate period discredits the assertion of Strabo in its literal sense. Only twenty years after its capture by Alexander, a great battle was fought in its neighbourhood, between Ptolemy and Demetrius, wherein the latter was defeated, with the loss of 5000 slain and 8000 prisoners. “Gaza, where he had left his baggage, while it opened its gates to his cavalry on his retreat, fell into the hands of the pursuing enemy.” (Thirlwall, vol. vii. p. 340.) Again, in the wars between Ptolemy Philopator and Antiochus the Great (B.C. 217), it was used as a depôt of military stores by the Egyptian king (Plb. 5.68); and when the tide of fortune turned, it retained its fidelity to its old masters, and was destroyed by Antiochus (B.C. 198). And it is mentioned, to the credit of its inhabitants, by Polybius, that, although they in no way excelled in courage the other inhabitants of Coelosyria, yet they far surpassed them in liberality and fidelity and invincible hardihood, which had shown itself in two former instances, viz., in first resisting the Persian invaders,