Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/248

 GERASA. sldering the importance of the niins, that the hb- torical notices are so scanty; bat it appears to have attained its celebrity posterior to the classical geo- graphera, as all the fragments of the inscriptions to be found among the ruins bear the name of the em- peror Antoninus. It is much to be regretted that the results of the careful survey of this interesting city by Captains Irby and Slangles, in company with Mr. Bankes, have never yet been given to the world. It was first discovered by Seetzen, in 1805 — 1806, and afterwards described by the enter- prising Burckhardt; since which time it has been frequently visited and described by European tra- vellers. The summary description of those mcist accurate observers Captains Irby and Mangles must 8ufiii*e in this place; but for fuller particulars the reader may consult Burckhardt {Syriay pp. 252 — 264) and Buckingham (^Travels in Palestine^ caps. xs. xxi.), the former of whom has furnished a ge- neral plan of the city, and the latter a more accurate plan, with details of the principal buildings. But the best idea of the extent and grandeur of the ruins may be obtained from the wonderfully accurate re> production in thi-ee engravings from Daguerreotype drawings by Dr. Keith, published in illustnition of the 36th edition of his father's work on ** Tho Evi- dence of Prophecy," in which the principal streets and buildings are clearly to be distinguiulied. The summary description above alluded to is as follows : — " It has been a splendid city, built on two sides of a valley, with a fine stream running through it ; the situation is beautiful. The town has been prin- cipally composed of two main streets, crossing each other in the centre at right angles, like Antinoe. The streets have been lined with a double row of columns, some of which are I<»iic and some Co- rinthian; the pavement is exceedingly good, and there is an elevated space on each side for foot pafi- sengers ; the marks of the chariot wheels are visible in many parts of the streets. Djerash, supposed to be either Pella or Gerasa. but in some respects answering to neither, can boost of more public edi- fices than any city we have seen. There are two theatres, two grand temples, one, as appeani by a Greek inscription, dedicated to the sun, like that at Palmyra, and not imlike that edifice, being con- structed in the centre of an immense double peri- style court. The diameter of the columns of the temple is five feet, and the height of just propor- tions ; the capitals are Corinthian and well executed. One singularity in this edifice is a chamber under ground,' below the principal hall of the temple, with a bath in the centre. Five or six inferior temples are scattered about the town, and a magnificent look} oval space, of 309 feet long, adds greatly to the beauty of the ruins. The scene of the larger theatre is nearly perfect, presenting a singularity very rarely to be met with. There are two grand baths, and also two bridges crossing the valley and river. The temples, and both theatres, are built of marble, but not of very fine sort. Three hundred yards from SW. gate is the Circus or Stadium, and near it is the triumphal arch. The cemetery sur- rounds the city, but the sarcophagi are not very highly finished ; upwards of 230 columns are now standing in the city. There is to the NE., about 200* yards distance, a very lai^e reservoir for water, and a {Hctaresqae tomb fronted by 4 Corinthian eolumns ; near it also is an aqueduct. These ruins, being overgrown with wood, are objects of consider- able interest. There are nnmerous inscriptwns in GEBGI& 989 all directions, chiefly of the time of Antoninus Pius ; most of them are much mutilated ; but the one I allude to about the Temple of the Sun, was on the propyleum of that edifice, which has been a grand piece of architecture. On the whole, we hold Djerash to be a much finer mass of ruins tlian Palmyra ; the city has three entrances of richly or- namented gateways, and the remains of the wall, with its occasional toweis, aro in wonderful preser- vation." [G. W.] GERASUS, a river of Dada (Amm. Marc xxxi. 3. § 7), which Jomandes (de Get, 22) calU Grissia, and the Geographer of Ravenna Gkesia. Schafarik (^Slav, AH. vol. i. p. 507), who makes it out to bo the same as the Cusus of Tacitus {Ann, ii. 63), identifies it with the KSros^ an affluent of the Thein, [E. B. J.] GERE'NIA (rcpifWo, Pans., Steph. B. <. v. ; rh. r4f»iya, Strab.; rtptiposy Km. Fragm. 22 : Eth. Tcp^yiof), a town of Messenia, where Nestor was said to have been brought up af^erthe destruction of Pylos, and whence be derived the surname Gerenian, which occurs so frequently in Homer. There is, however, no town of this name in Homer, and numy of the ancient critics identified the later Gerenia with the Homeric Enope. (//. i. 150; Pans. iii. 26. § 9; Strab. viii. p. 360.) Under the Roman empire Ge- renia was the most northerly of Uie Eleuthero-La- conian towns, and was situated on the eastern side I of the Mcssenian gulf, upon the mountainous pro- montory now called Cape KephcUi It possessed a celebrated sanctuary of Machaon, which bore the name of Rhodon. Pansanias says that in the district of Gerenia there was a mountain called Calathium, upon which there was a sanctuaiy of Claea, and close to the latter a cavern, of which the entrance was narrow, though within there were many things worthy to be seen. (Pans. iii. 26. § 11*) This cavern is undoubtedly the one noticed by Leake, which is situ- ated at the head of a little valley behind the beach of KUries, and immediately under a rocky gorge in the mountains : at present the entrance is not narrow, but it appears to have been widened to make it more ronvenient for a sheep-fold, for which purpose it is at present used. I.icake obsen'ed two or thi'ee se- pulchral niches in the side of the clifis about the valley. Two very ancient inscriptions discovered at Gerenia are published by Bockh. {Corp, Inter, no. 13,42.) Gerenia is placed by the Frendi Commission at Zamdta, about three miles from the coast, where a castle built by the Franks rests upon 'ery ancient foundations. But Leake observes that the words of Pausanias (iiu 26. § 1 1 ) — Ttfnipias ik &t is fit- vitymcof &vw rptdKotrra iv^x* ' ffra9iovs *AKoeyoyia — leave little or no doubt that Gerenia was a mari- time town, and that it is now represented by KitrUt on the coast He further supposes that £amdta is the site of Alagonia. But since the most ancient towns in Greece were almost imiversally built at some distance from the coast, it is not improbable that tho acropolis and the original town of Gerenia stood at ZamdtOf but that the town itself was afterwards removed to the coast. (Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 323, Peloponne$iacay p. 180; Boblaye, Hecherches, fo. p. 93 ; Curtins, PehptmnemM. vol. ii. p. 286.) GEBGIS, GERGl'THUS, GERGI'THES(r^if, TfpyiihSj rdfyiBtt: Eth. CtpyiBtos), a town in Troas, on the north of the river Scamuider, was in- habited, according to Herodotus (v. 122, vii. 43), by descendants of the ancient Teucrians. In the