A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

-GAIUS. GAIUS. 197'Bassus, thus confounding him with'Gabius Bassus tmentary work on Roman law. (Wenck, M4ayister
the grammarian. Vacarius, p. 91.)
To proceed to less futile or more plausible con- One of the conjectures, which has found nujectures, some have tried to identify Gaius with merous supporters, is, that the full designation of
Laelius, or Laelius Felix, for both Gaius and Gaius is C. Cassius Longinus, and that he is reLaelius Felix wrote notes on Q. Mucius Scaevola. ferred to by his praenomen simply, in order to
(Gaius, i. 188; Gell. xv. 27.) In favour of the distinguish him from an elder C. Cassius, the
compound Gains Laelius Felix are quoted two eminent follower of Capito and Masurius Sabinus,
passages from the Digest, in one of which (Dig. 5. and the head of the Cassiani, a sect to which
tit. 3. s. 43) Gaius says, "Et nostra quidean aetate Gaius adheres with strict devotion. C. Cassius is
Serapias, Alexandrina mulier, ad Divum Hadria- thrice cited in the Digest by-his praenomen Gains,
num perducta est cum quinque liberis, quos uno -twice by Javolenus, libro ii. ex Cassio, in Dig.'foetu enixa est;" and in the other (Dig. 5. 35. tit. 1. s. 54, and libro xi. ea Cassio, in Dig. 46.
tit. 4. s. 3), Paulus reports, "Sed et Laelius tit. 3. ~ 78,-and once by Julianus, in a passage
scribit se vidisse in Palatio mulierem liberam, quae where Sabinus and Gains are coupled. (Digr. 24.
ab Alexafidria perducta est ut Hadriano ostendere- tit. 3. s. 59.) VWhere Pomponius uses the extur, cum quinque liberis, ex quibus quatuor eodem pression "Gaius noster" (Dig. 45. tit. 3. s. 39), it.tempore enixa (inquit) dicebatur, quintum post is not certain that C. Cassius was not meant, for
diem quadragesimum." A comparison of these Pomponius was one of the Cassiani. There is,
passages is against the identity of Gains and Lae- however, strong reason for supposing that Pomlius, for, not to mention the variation between ponins refers to our Gainus, inasmuch as the fragtheir accounts, Laelius speaks more circumstan- ment in which the expression occurs is taken from
tially, as an eye-witness, while Gains writes as if the 22nd book of Pomponius ad Q. 1llucium, and
mentioning a fact which he knew only from ru- we know that Gaius speaks of a similar work of
mour. By the phrase nostra aetrate, he probably his own, " In his libris, quos ex Q. Mucio fecinus"
intends to denote that the extraordinary birth took (ii. 188). Gaius himself always quotes C. Cassius
place after he himself was born, but the words may simply as Cassius, not as C. Cassius. Servius (ad
have a wider acceptation, and refer to living me- Virg. Geomy. ii. v. 306, 307) says, " Apud majores
mory generally. omne mercimonium in permutatione constabat,
It has been guessed that Gaius, was closely quod et Gaius Homerico confirmat exemplo."
connected by relationship with Pomponius, for, on Now, we find from Inst. 3. tit. 23. ~ 2, and from
the one hand,' Pomnponius calls Gaius " Gaius nos- Dig. 18. tit. 1. ~ 1, that C. Cassius and Proculus
ter" (I. c.), and, on the other hand, Gaius calls quoted Homer (II. vii. 472-475) to prove that
Pomponius simply Sextus (Gaius, ii. 218), but it barter was a case of ertio et venditio. But the
is not certain that, in this last-cited passage, Pom- very same lines are cited by Gains (iii. 141),'and
ponius is meant, and, if he be, Gainus is not sin- they seem to have been' a trite quotation among
gular in alluding to him by his praenomen simply, the earlier jurists of his school, so that it is doubtfor Ulpian does the same. (Dig. 29. tit. 5. s.l. ~ 27.) ful whether our jurist or C. Cassius is referred to,
Two passages, which closely agree with frag- by Servius, the commentator on Virgil.
ments attributed in the Digest to the Eanchiridion It would be' useless to mention all the niaiseries
of Pomponius (Dig. 2. tit. 2. s. 2. ~ 22 and ~ 24), of those who have written on the age of Gains.
are cited by Joannes Lydus (De Magistrat. i. 26 Some, divide Gains Juventius (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2.
and 34), as from the commentary of Gaius on the ~ 42) into -two persons, and'so make Gains a disTwelve Tables. From the contents of these pas- ciple of L. Mucitus; others perform the same disages, it is not unlikely that something of similar vision on Gaius Aulus Ofilius or Gains Ateius
import.would be inserted in an introduction to a Pacuvius (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2. ~ 44), and so make
commentary on the Twelve Tables, and that the Gaius one of the disciples of Servius Sulpicius.
agreement between Gaius and Pomponius may But the most common error has consisted in the
have been produced, not by the latter borrowing assignation of too late rather than too early a date;
from the former, but by both borrowing from'the and Hugo's authority (Civilist. Mag. vol. ii. p. 358
same source, namely, M. Junius Gracchanus, who -378) for some' time gave currency to the opinion
-wrote upon the.'ancient magistracies of Rome; which had previously been' maintained, by Raevar,
[GRACCHANUS.] But it is also not impossible, dus' and Conradi, that Gains was a contemporary
that in compiling from the title De Origine Juris of Caracalla, who is designated in the Digest by
(Dig.' 1. tit. 2), Lydus may have seen the heading the name of Antoninus. There are certainly some
of the first fragment, which is taken from Gaius, circumstances difficult to account for, which mlight
and have overlooked the heading of the second, naturally have led to this belief. The Institutiones
which is taken from Pomponius. Yet it must be of Gains were an ordinary text book of instruction
admitted that lihe afterwards (i. 48) cites as from before the time when Justinian reformed the legal
Pomponius another passage taken from the same course appointed for students.. Four libri singulares
second fragment. (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2. ~ 34.) The of the same author (1. De Re Uxoria, 2. De Tute/is,
first fragment from Gaius, and the second from 3 and 4. De Testamnentis et Legatis) were similarly
Pomponius, run together in sense, reading as if the honoured as text books. Such parts of the Instiformer were the preface to the latter; and in this tutiones and the Libri Singulares as were thought to
way, with the simple heading " Gains li. i~." they be of practical use were taught in the lectures of the
are introduced by Magister Vacarius* into his ele- professors, while other parts were passed over as
antiquated. Why was it that Gaius should be
* Magister Vacarius taught the civil law in this
country about the middle of the twelfth century, we understand Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, not,
and, after being silenced, by king Stephen, seems as Wenck imagines'(p. 46. n, 6), an abbtey at
to have retired to the abbey De Fontibms, by which e/lls, in Somersetshire'