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

GELLIUS. GELLIUS. 235
and Eustathius. (Suid. s. v.'A04vYaLo and TEX- which must otherwise have remained obscure; but
Alas; Eustath. ad Od. p. 1471.) [E. H. B.] the style is deformed by that species of affectation
GE'LLIA GENS, plebeian, was of Samnite which was pushed to extravagant excess by Apuorigin, and afterwards settled at Rome. We find leius-the frequent introduction of obsolete words
two generals of this name in the history of the and phrases derived for the most part from the
Samnite wars, Gellius Statius in the second Sam- ancient comic dramatists. The eighth book is ennite war, who was defeated and taken prisoner, tirely lost with the exception of the index, and a
B. c. 305 (Liv. ix. 44), and Gellius Egnatius in the few lines at the beginning of'the sixth were long
third Samnite war. [EGNATIUS, No. 1.] The wanting, until the deficiency was supplied from the
Gellii seem to have settled at Rome soon after the Epitome of the Divine Institutions of Lactantius
conclusion of the second Punic war; since the first (c. 28), first published in a complete form in 1712,
who is mentioned as a Roman is Cn. Gellius in the by Pfaff, from a MS. in the Royal Library at
time of Cato the Censor, who defended L. Turius Turin. [LACTANTIUS.] It is not probable that
when the latter was accused by Cn. Gellius. (Gell. any portion of the Noctes Atticae was moulded
xiv. 2.) This Cn. Gellius was probably the father into shape before A. D. 143, since, in the second
of Gellius, the historian, mentioned below, with chapter of the first book, Herodes Atticus is spoken
whom he has been frequently confounded. (Meyer, of as "' consulari honore praeditus," and the sevenOrator. Rom. Fragm. p. 141, 2nd edition.) The teenth chapter of the thirteenth book contains an
Gellii subsequently attained the highest offices in allusion to the second consulship of Erucius Clarus,
the state; but the first member of the gens who which belongs to A. D. 146.
obtained the consulship was L. Gellius Poplicola, The Editio Princeps of A. Gellius was printed at
in B. C. 72. The only surnames of this gens under Rome, fol. 1469, by Sweynheym and Pannarts,
the republic are CANvs and POPLICOLA. It is with a prefatory epistle by Andrew, afterwards
doubtful to whom the following coin of this gens bishop of Aleria, to Pope Paul II.; was reprinted
refers: it has on the obverse the head of Pallas, at the same place by the same typographers in 1472,
and on the reverse a soldier and a woman in a followed or preceded by the beautiful impression of
quadriga, with CN. GEL. ROMA. Jenson, fol. Ven. 1472; and at least seven other
editions of less note came forth in Italy, chiefly at
Afi i s Venice, before the close of the fifteenth century.
The first which can advance any claim to a critical
revision of the text founded on the collation of
MSS. is that published at Paris, 8vo. 1585, under
the superintendence of Henry Stephens and Louis
Carrio, which served as the standard until superseded by the accurate labours of J. F. Gronovius,
12mo. Amst., L. Elzev., 1651, and D. Elzev., 1665,
A. GE'LLIUS, not Agellius as Lipsius and of which the latter is the superior. The Octavo
others have imagined, a Latin grammarian, with Variorums (Lug. Bat. 1666, 1687) exhibit the text
regard to whose history we possess no source of of J. F. Gronovius, with some additional matter by,information except his own book. From this we Thysius and Oiselius; but these are not equal in
gather that he was of good family and connections, value to the Quarto Variorum of Jac. Gronovius,
a native probably of Rome; that he had travelled Lug. Bat. 1706 (reprinted, with some dissertations,
much, especially in Greece,'and had resided for a by Conradi, 8vo. Leips. 1762), which must be
considerable period at Athens; that he had studied regarded as the best edition, for the most recent,
rhetoric under T. Castricius and Sulpicius Apolli- that of Lion, 2 vols. 8vo. Gotting. 1824, 1825, is
naris, philosophy under Calvisius Taurus and a slovenly and incorrect performance.
Peregrinus Proteus, enjoying also the friendship We have translations into English by Beloe,
and instructions of Favorinus, HerodesAtticus, and 3 vols, 8vo. Lond. 1795; into French by the Abbe
Cornelius Fronto; that while yet a youth he had de Verteuil, 3 vols. 12mo. Par. 1776, 1789, and
been appointed by the praetor to act as an umpire by Victor Verger, 3 vols. Par. 1820, 1830;. into
in civil causes; and that subsequently much of the German (of those p6rtions only which illustrate
time which he would gladly have devoted to literary ancient history and philosophy) by A. H. W. von
pursuits had been occupied by judicial duties of a Walterstern, 8vo. Lemgo, 1785. t [W. R.].
similar description. The precise date of his birth, CN. GE'LLIUS, a contemporary of the Gracchi,
as of his death, is unknown; but from the names was the author of a history- of Rome from the
of his preceptors and companions we conclude that earliest epoch, extending, as we gather from Cenhe must have lived under Hadrian, Antoninus sorinus, down to the year B. C. 145 at least. We
Pius, and M. Aurelius, A. D. 117-180. know that the Rape of the Sabines was commemoHis well-known work entitled Noctes Atticae, rated in the second book; the reign of Titus Tatius
because it was composed in a country-house near in the third; the death of Postumius during the
Athens during the long nights of winter, is a sort second Punic war, and the purpose to which his
of miscellany, containing numerous extracts from skull was applied by the Boii (Liv.. xxiii. 24), in
Greek and Roman writers, on a great variety of the thirty-third; and we find a quotation in Chotopics connected with history, antiquities, philo- risius from the ninety-seventh, if we can trust the
sophy, and philology, interspersed with original number. Hence it is manifest that a considerable
remarks, dissertations, and discussions, the whole space was devoted to the legends connected with
thrown together into twenty books, without any the origin of the nation; and that if these books
attempt at order or arrangement. We here find were in general equal in length to the similar
preserved a multitude of curious and interesting divisions in Livy, the compilation of Gellius must
passages from authors whose works have perished, have been exceedingly voluminous, and the details
and a vast fund of information elucidating questions more ample than those contained in the great work