Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/259

 1000 GESDAO. miles); bat tlie eridenoe of the name is oertatnly strong in its fiiToor. ClaTerins is midonbtedly wrong in transferring it to Dragonara on the right bank of the jPortore, which is aWe 16 Roman nuies from Larinnm, and about the same distance from Lnceria. (Clover. ItdL p. 1213; Bomanelli, vol. iii. pp. 12—15 ; Tria, Mem. di LarinOf pp. 18 — 23; Biondo. ItaL JOutUr, p. 421.) [E. H. B.] GESDAO or GESDAOKE, as it appeqv in the oblique case in the Itan. Jemsalem; Gascido in the Table, which D'Anville read Gadao. The Jerusalem Itin. places it on a road from Brigantio {Brian^on) to Suta: and it makes 10 M. P. from Brigantinm to Gesdao, and 9 from Gesdao to Matatio ad Marts. The Antonine Iiin. makes 18 M. P. from Brigantio to Ad Blartis, and omits Gesdao. The Table makes 6 M. P. from Brigantio to Alpis Cottia {MorU Ge- nevre)f and then 5 M. P. to Gascido, and 8 from Gascido to Ad Martis. All these numbers agree prettj well, and by following the road from Briangon the position thus determined seems to be Cuomo or Stzano. [G. L.] GESHUR. 1 . A people of the south of Palestine, reckoned with the Philistines and Canaanites (./iMA. xiii. 3), apparently contiguous to the Amalekites, against whom David made hostile incursions from Zildag in the countij of the Philistines. (1 Sam, xxviL 8.) 2. Another Bedouin tribe, on the east of Jordan, in the borders of the countiy occupied by the half- tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Bashan {DeuL iii. 14; JImA. zii. 5, ziiL 11, 13), in all which passages they are joined with the Maachathites. They were not dispossessed by the Israelites. 8. Geshur in Syria was apparently distinct from the last named. It was governed by a petty king of its own, to whose protection Absalom fled after the murder of his brother Amnon (2 Sean. xiii. 37, 88, ziv. 23), his mother Maacah bdng daughter to Talmai, king of Geshur. [G. W.] GESOGRIBATE, a place in Gallia, which appears in the Table as the termination of a road from Julio- magus {Afkgeri) through NanteSj Vcmnetj Sulim, and Voigiom. Walckenaer takes it to be BretL [Bri- VATB8.] The first part of this name is the same as the first part of Gesoriacum. [G. L.] GESONIA. Florus (iv. 12) says that Drusus established more than fifty forts along tiie banks of the Rhine; and in the next sentence he says, " Bon- nam et Geeoniam cum pontibus junxit, dassibusque firmavit." Those who think it worth the trouble to see what has been said on this corrupt passage may consult Duker's note. The reading Gesonia is very doubtful; and it is equally doubtfod what the true reading is: nrobably some name ending in cum, so that it would be " Bonnam et G . . . . cum pontibus junxit." Cluverius put Moguntiacum in place of " Gesoniam cum." D'Anville is here misled by trusting, after his fashion, to resemblance of names. He saw on the map a place called Zom, as he has it, below Cologne; and *'it seems that the name Zons preserves some analogy to that of Gesonia." [Gbsoriacum.] [G. L.] GESORIACUM or BONO'NIA {Boulogne), a placo on t^e NW. coast of Gallia. Mela says (iii. 2): *' From the Osismii the face of the Gallic shore looks to the north, and reaches to the Morini, the re- motest of the Gallic nati(»s, and it contains nothing that is better known than the port Gesoriacum." This was the port from which the emperor Claudius embarked for Britain. (Suet. C^tnui. c. 17.) A road GESORIACUIL in the Antonine Itin. passes fr«n Bagacoin (BoMyX through Castellum {Cassef) and Tamenna (7%a- roKemie), to Gesoriacum. The Table has the same road, with the remark that Gesogiacnm (Gesoria- cum) was then called Bononia. Ptolemy (iL 8. § 3) has ** Gesoriacum, a naval phioe of the Morini,'* be* tween Portus Itius and the river Tabudas or T»- bullas. But Boulogne is south of the Itins. Piinj (iv. 16) makes the shortest passage from Gesoriacun to Britain to be 50 M. P.; which is too modi, as D'Anville remarks, whether we measure to Dover or to ffgthej where he erroneously supposed that Caesar landed. But Pliny*s measurement is pnohably made to Rutupiae (/2icftAorou^i), near Sandufiek, wfaece the Romans had a fortified post, and which was tbeir landing-place from Gallia. Thb would make Pliny's distance nearer the truth, though still too mocfa. Gesoriacum is also the ** Portus Morinormn Britanai- cum** of Pliny (iv. 23), as appears from his grring the length of Gallia to the Ocean aloog a fine bmn. the Alpes " per Lugdunum ad portom Mocinomm Britannicum." There was a disuict (pagos) round Gesoriacum, named frixn the town. Dion Cassius (Ix. 21) states that the Booian senate voted that a triumphal arch shonld be erected in honour of the emperor Claudius on the spot frtn which he sailed to Britain; and if this is tme, it «aa erected at Boulogne, or that was the place where It was intended to be erected. D*AnvilIe UXkmn other writers in supposing that ^e Pharos or tower winch Caligula erected on this coast, whence he mfnared an invasion of Britain, was at Boulogne, (SneL CaUg. c. 45.) But there is no proof of this, exc^ the &ct of there having been an old tower at Bou- logne near the sea up to the end of the serentcesth century. Eginhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, speaks ci the em])eror repairing this tower, and of its being an ancient construction. Walckenaer (jG4og,, 4^ vol. i. p. 454) obaervea that there is no historical record of the name Geeoriacnm being changed to Bononia; and he preanmes that Bononia was the name of another part of the town, orof a town built on the other side of the porL This conjecture '* is confirmed by a passage of Fkms (iv. 12) whiclr no commentator or editor has nndentood, and which has often been spoiled by cu nupti ona mors or less improbable." He reads Uie passage thus: " Bononiam et Gessoriacum pontibus junxit, dassi- busque firmavit" But he does not say wliat an- thority he has for *' Bononia;" and we have obeerred [Gesonia] that the other name is uncertain. Any person may see that Florus in this paasage is speak- ing of the Rhine, and not of the coast. Beadea, the notion of enumerating among the great exploits of Drusus the making bridges over the Zione, the snail river of Boulogne, is rather ridiculous. This is not the only instance in which this laborious geographer has discovered what never existed. He adds that in the little place called Portel, at the foot of the hill of BouJogne, and half a league from the town, theie were discovered, at the beginning of the 17th cen- tury, a large wall exceedingly hard, three pieces of nuuble seven fe^ long, and a sarcophagus of a single piece, well worked; all which he supposes to confirm bis conjecture. Bononia is named Oceanenais on a medal of Coo- stans, to distinguish it from the Bononia of Italy. At this time the name Bononia was probably the only name used; and so Ammianns calls it (xx. 9), and Zoslmus (vi. 2), who, however, speaks of it as a dty of Lower Germania, though he knew it was on the