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 GACHARD, LOUIS PROSPER (1800–1885), Belgian man of letters, was born in Paris on the 12th of March 1800. He entered the administration of the royal archives in 1826, and was appointed director-general, a post which he held for fifty-five years. During this long period he reorganized the service, added to the records by copies taken in other European collections, travelled for purposes of study, and carried on a wide correspondence with other keepers of records, and with historical scholars. He also edited and published many valuable collections of state papers; a full list of his various publications was printed in the Annuaire de l’académie royale de Belgique by Ch. Piot in 1888, pp. 220–236. It includes 246 entries. He was the author of several historical writings, of which the best known are Don Carlos et Philippe II (1867), Études et notices historiques concernant l’histoire des Pays-Bas (1863), Histoire de la Belgique au commencement du XVIII&#8202;e siècle (1880), Histoire politique et diplomatique de P. P. Rubens (1877), all published at Brussels. His chief editorial works are the Actes des états généraux des Pays-Bas 1576–1585 (Brussels, 1861–1866), Collection de documents inédits concernant l’histoire de la Belgique (Brussels, 1833–1835), and the Relations des ambassadeurs Vénitiens sur Charles V et Philippe II (Brussels, 1855). Gachard died in Brussels on the 24th of December 1885.

GAD, in the Bible. 1. A prophet or rather a “seer” (cp. 1 Sam. ix. 9), who was a companion of David from his early days. He is first mentioned in 1 Sam. xxii. 5 as having warned David to take refuge in Judah, and appears again in 2 Sam. xxiv. 11 seq. to make known Yahweh’s displeasure at the numbering of the people. Together with Nathan he is represented in post-exilic tradition as assisting to organize the musical service of the temple (2 Chron. xxix. 25), and like Nathan and Samuel he is said to have written an account of David’s deeds (1 Chron. xxix. 29); a history of David in accordance with later tradition and upon the lines of later prophetic ideas is far from improbable.

2. Son of Jacob, by Zilpah, Leah’s maid; a tribe of Israel (Gen. xxx. 11). The name is that of the god of “luck” or fortune, mentioned in Isa. lxv. 11 (R.V. mg.), and in several names of places, e.g. Baal-Gad (Josh. xi. 17, xii. 7), and possibly also in Dibon-Gad, Migdol-Gad and Nahal-Gad. There is another etymology in Gen. xlix. 19, where the name is played on: “Gad, a plundering troop (gĕdûd) shall plunder him (yegudennu), but he shall plunder at their heels.” There are no traditions of the personal history of Gad. One of the earliest references to the name is the statement on the inscription of Mesha, king of Moab (about 850 ), that the “men of Gad” had occupied Ataroth (E. of Dead Sea) from of old, and that the king of Israel had fortified the city. This is in the district ascribed to Reuben, with which tribe the fortunes of Gad were very closely connected. In Numbers xxxii. 34 sqq., the cities of Gad appear to lie chiefly to the south of Heshbon; in Joshua xiii. 24-28 they lie almost wholly to the north; while other texts present discrepancies which are not easily reconciled with either passage. Possibly some cities were common to both Reuben and Gad, and perhaps others more than once changed hands. That Gad, at one time at least, held territory as far south as Pisgah and Nebo would follow from Deut. xxxiii. 21, if the rendering of the Targums be accepted, “and he looked out the first part for himself, because there was the portion of the buried law-giver.” It is certain, however, that, at a late period, this tribe was localized chiefly in Gilead, in the district which now goes by the name of Jebel Jilʽād. The traditions encircling this district point, it would seem, to the tribe having been of Aramaean origin (see the story of Jacob); at all events its position was extremely exposed, and its population at the best must have been a mixed one. Its richness and fertility made it a prey to the marauding nomads of the desert; but the allusion in the Blessing of Jacob gives the tribe a character for bravery, and David’s men of Gad (1 Chron. xii. 8) were famous in tradition. Although rarely mentioned by name (the geographical term Gilead is usual), the history of Gad enters into the lives of Jephthah and Saul, and in the wars of Ammon and Moab it must have played some part. It followed Jeroboam in the great revolt against the house of David, and its later fortunes until 734 (1 Chron. v. 26) would be those of the northern kingdom.

See, for a critical discussion of the data, H. W. Hogg, ''Ency. Bib.'' cols. 1579 sqq.; also ; ;.

GADAG, or, a town of British India, in the Dharwar district of Bombay, 43 m. E. of Dharwar town. Pop. (1901) 30,652. It is an important railway junction on the Southern Mahratta system, with a growing trade in raw cotton, and also in the weaving of cotton and silk. There are factories for ginning and pressing cotton, and a spinning mill. The town contains remains of a number of temples, some of which exhibit fine carving, while inscriptions in them indicate the existence of Gadag as early as the 10th century.

GADARA, an ancient town of the Syrian Decapolis, the capital of Peraea, and the political centre of the small district of Gadaris. It was a Greek city, probably entirely non-Syrian in origin. The earliest recorded event in its history is its capture by Antiochus III. of Syria in 218 ; how long it may have existed before this date is unknown. About twenty years later it was besieged for ten months by Alexander Jannaeus. It was restored by Pompey, and in 30 was presented by Augustus to Herod the Great; on Herod’s death it was reunited to Syria. The coins of the place bear Greek legends, and such inscriptions as have been found on its site are Greek. Its governing and wealthy classes were probably Greek, the common people being Hellenized and Judaized Aramaeans. The community was Hellenistically organized, and though dependent on Syria and acknowledging the supremacy of Rome it was governed by a democratic senate and managed its own internal affairs. In the Jewish war it surrendered to Vespasian, but in the Byzantine period it again flourished and was the seat of a bishop. It was renowned for its hot sulphur baths; the springs still exist and show the remains of bath-houses. The temperature of the springs is 110° F. This town was the birthplace of Meleager the anthologist. There is a confusion in the narrative of the healing of the demoniac between the very similar names Gadara, Gerasa and Gergesa; but the probabilities, both textual and geographical, are in favour of the reading of Mark (Gerasenes, ch. v. 1, revised version); and that the miracle has nothing to do with Gadara, but took place at Kersa, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Gadara is now represented by Umm Kais, a group of ruins about 6 m. S.E. of the Sea of Galilee, and 1194 ft. above the sea-level. There are very fine tombs with carved sarcophagi in the neighbourhood. There are the remains of two theatres and (probably) a temple, and many heaps of carved stones, representing ancient buildings of various kinds. The walls are, or were, traceable for a circuit of 2 m., and there are also the remains of a street of columns. The natives are rapidly destroying the ruins by quarrying building material out of them.

GADDI. Four painters of the early Florentine school—father, son and two grandsons—bore this name.

1. was, according to Vasari, an intimate friend of Cimabue, and afterwards of Giotto. The dates of birth and death have been given as 1239 and about 1312; these are probably too early; he may have been born towards 1260, and may have died in or about 1333. He was a painter and mosaicist, is said to have executed the great mosaic inside the portal of the cathedral of Florence, representing the coronation of the Virgin, and may with more certainty be credited with the mosaics inside the portico of the basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, relating to the legend of the foundation of that church; their date is probably 1308. In the original cathedral of St Peter in Rome he also executed the mosaics of the choir, and those of the front representing on a colossal scale God the Father, with many other figures; likewise an altarpiece in the church of S. Maria Novella, Florence; these works no longer exist. It is ordinarily held that no picture (as distinct from mosaics) by Gaddo Gaddi is now extant. Messrs Crowe & Cavalcaselle, however, consider that the mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore bear so strong a resemblance in style to four of the frescoes in the upper church of Assisi, representing incidents in the life of St Francis (frescoes 2, 3, 4