Chapter 10

See theOtia Imperialiain G. Leibnitz’sScriptores rerum Brunsvicensium, vols. i. and ii. (Hanover, 1707); extracts in J. Stevenson’s edition ofCoggeshall(Rolls series, 1875). Of modern accounts the best are those by W. Stubbs in his edition ofGervase of Canterbury, vol. i. introd. (Rolls series, 1879), and by R. Pauli inNachrichten der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen(1882). In the older biographers theDialogus de scaccarioof Richard Fitz Neal (q.v.) is wrongly attributed to Gervase.

(H. W. C. D.)

GERVEX, HENRI(1852- ), French painter, was born in Paris on the 10th of December 1852, and studied painting under Cabanel, Brisset and Fromentin. His early work belonged almost exclusively to the mythological genre which served as an excuse for the painting of the nude—not always in the best of taste; indeed, his “Rolla” of 1878 was rejected by the jury of the Salonpour immoralité. He afterwards devoted himself to representations of modern life and achieved signal success with his “Dr Péan at the Salpétrière,” a modernized paraphrase, as it were, of Rembrandt’s “Anatomy Lesson.” He was entrusted with several important official paintings and the decoration of public buildings. Among the first are “The Distribution of Awards (1889) at the Palais de l’Industrie” (now in the Versailles Museum), “The Coronation of Nicolas II.” (Moscow, May 14, 1896), “The Mayors’ Banquet” (1900), and the portrait group “La République Française”; and among the second, the ceiling for the Salle des Fêtes at the hôtel de ville, Paris, and the decorative panels painted in conjunction with Blanchon for the mairie of the 19th arrondissement, Paris. He also painted, with Alfred Stevens, a panorama, “The History of the Century” (1889). At the Luxembourg is his painting “Satyrs playing with a Bacchante” as well as the large “Members of the Jury of the Salon” (1885). Other pictures of importance, besides numerous portraits in oils and pastel, are “Communion at Trinity Church,” “Return from the Ball,” “Diana and Endymion,” “Job,” “Civil Marriage,” “At the Ambassadeurs,” “Yachting in the Archipelago,” “Nana” and “Maternity.”

GERVINUS, GEORG GOTTFRIED(1805-1871), German literary and political historian, was born on the 20th of May 1805 at Darmstadt. He was educated at the gymnasium of the town, and intended for a commercial career, but in 1825 he became a student of the university of Giessen. In 1826 he went to Heidelberg, where he attended the lectures of the historian Schlosser, who became henceforth his guide and his model. In 1828 he was appointed teacher in a private school at Frankfort-on-Main, and in 1830Privatdozentat Heidelberg. A volume of his collectedHistorische Schriftenprocured him the appointment of professor extraordinarius; while the first volume of hisGeschichte der poëtischen Nationallitteratur der Deutschen(1835-1842, 5 vols., subsequently entitledGeschichte der deutschen Dichtung; 5th edition, by K. Bartsch, 1871-1874) brought him the appointment to a regular professorship of history and literature at Göttingen. This work is the first comprehensive history of German literature written both with scholarly erudition and literary skill. In the following year he wrote hisGrundzüge der Historik, which is perhaps the most thoughtful of his philosophico-historical productions. The same year brought his expulsion from Göttingen in consequence of his manly protest, in conjunction with six of his colleagues, against the unscrupulous violation of the constitution by Ernest Augustus, king of Hanover and duke of Cumberland. After several years in Heidelberg, Darmstadt and Rome, he settled permanently in Heidelberg, where, in 1844, he was appointed honorary professor. He zealously took up in the following year the cause of the German Catholics, hoping it would lead to a union of all the Christian confessions, and to the establishment of a national church. He also came forward in 1846 as a patriotic champion of the Schleswig-Holsteiners, and when, in 1847, King Frederick William IV. promulgated the royal decree for summoning the so-called “United Diet” (Vereinigter Landtag), Gervinus hoped that this event would form the basis of the constitutional development of the largest German state. He founded, together with some other patriotic scholars, theDeutsche Zeitung, which certainly was one of the best-written political journals ever published in Germany. His appearance in the political arena secured his election as deputy for the Prussian province of Saxony to the National Assembly sitting in 1848 at Frankfort. Disgusted with the failure of that body, he retired from all active political life.

Gervinus now devoted himself to literary and historical studies, and between 1849 and 1852 published his work onShakespeare(4 vols., 4th ed. 2 vols., 1872; Eng. trans. by F. E. Bunnett, 1863, new ed. 1877). He also revised hisHistory of German Literature, for a fourth edition (1853), and began at the same time to plan hisGeschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts(8 vols., 1854-1860), which was preceded by anEinleitung in die Geschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts(1853). The latter caused some stir in the literary and political world, owing to the circumstance that the government of Baden imprudently instituted a prosecution against the author for high treason. In 1868 appearedHändel und Shakespeare, zur Ästhetik der Tonkunst, in which he drew an ingenious parallel between his favourite poet and his favourite composer, showing that their intellectual affinity was based on the Teutonic origin common to both, on their analogous intellectual development and character. The ill-success of this publication, and the indifference with which the latter volumes of hisHistory of the 19th Centurywere received by his countrymen, together with the feeling of disappointment that the unity of Germany had been brought about in another fashion and by other means than he wished to see employed, embittered his later years. He died at Heidelberg on the 18th of March 1871.

Gervinus’s autobiography (G. G. Gervinus’ Leben, von ihm selbst) was published by his widow in 1893. It does not, however, go beyond the year 1836. See E. Lehmann,Gervinus, Versuch einer Charakteristik(1871); R. Gosche,Gervinus(1871); J. Dörfel,Gervinus als historischer Denker(1904).

GERYON(Geryones,Geryoneus), in Greek mythology, the son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoë, daughter of Oceanus, and king of the Island of Erytheia. He is represented as a monster with three heads or three bodies (triformis,trigeminus), sometimes with wings, and as the owner of herds of red cattle, which weretended by the giant shepherd Eurytion and the two-headed dog Orthrus. To carry off these cattle to Greece was one of the twelve “labours” imposed by Eurystheus upon Heracles. In order to get possession of them, Heracles travelled through Europe and Libya, set up the two pillars in the Straits of Gibraltar to show the extent of his journey, and reached the great river Oceanus. Having crossed Oceanus and landed on the island, Heracles slew Orthrus together with Eurytion, who in vain strove to defend him, and drove off the cattle. Geryon started in pursuit, but fell a victim to the arrows of Heracles, who, after various adventures, succeeded in getting the cattle safe to Greece, where they were offered in sacrifice to Hera by Eurystheus. The geographical position of Erytheia is unknown, but all ancient authorities agree that it was in the far west. The name itself (= red) and the colour of the cattle suggest the fiery aspect of the disk of the setting sun; further, Heracles crosses Oceanus in the golden cup or boat of the sun-god Helios. Geryon (fromγηρύω, the howler or roarer) is supposed to personify the storm, his father Chrysaor the lightning, his mother Callirrhoë the rain. The cattle are the rain-clouds, and the slaying of their keepers typifies the victory of the sun over the clouds, or of spring over winter. The euhemeristic explanation of the struggle with the triple monster was that Heracles fought three brothers in succession.

See Apollodorus ii. 5. 10; Hesiod,Theogony, 287; Diod. Sic. iv. 17; Herodotus iv. 8; F. Wieseler in Ersch and Gruber,Allgemeine Encyclopädie; F. A. Voigt in Roscher’sLexikon der Mythologie; L. Preller,Griechische Mythologie; article “Hercules” in Daremberg and Saglio,Dictionnaire des antiquités.

GESENIUS, HEINRICH FRIEDRICH WILHELM(1786-1842), German orientalist and biblical critic, was born at Nordhausen, Hanover, on the 3rd of February 1786. In 1803 he became a student of philosophy and theology at the university of Helmstädt, where Heinrich Henke (1752-1809) was his most influential teacher; but the latter part of his university course was taken at Göttingen, where J. G. Eichhorn and T. C. Tychsen (1758-1834) were then at the height of their popularity. In 1806, shortly after graduation, he becameRepetentandPrivatdozentin that university; and, as he was fond of afterwards relating, had Neander for his first pupil in Hebrew. In 1810 he became professor extraordinarius in theology, and in 1811 ordinarius, at the university of Halle, where, in spite of many offers of high preferment elsewhere, he spent the rest of his life. He taught with great regularity for upward of thirty years, the only interruptions being that of 1813-1814 (occasioned by the War of Liberation, during which the university was closed) and those occasioned by two prolonged literary tours, first in 1820 to Paris, London and Oxford with his colleague Johann Karl Thilo (1794-1853) for the examination of rare oriental manuscripts, and in 1835 to England and Holland in connexion with his Phoenician studies. He soon became the most popular teacher of Hebrew and of Old Testament introduction and exegesis in Germany; during his later years his lectures were attended by nearly five hundred students. Among his pupils the most eminent were Peter von Bohlen (1796-1840), A. G. Hoffmann (1769-1864), Hermann Hupfeld, Emil Rödiger (1801-1874), J. F. Tuch (1806-1867), W. Vatke (1806-1882) and Theodor Benfey (1809-1881). In 1827, after declining an invitation to take Eichhorn’s place at Göttingen, Gesenius was made aConsistorialrath; but, apart from the violent attacks to which he, along with his friend and colleague Julius Wegscheider, was in 1830 subjected by E. W. Hengstenberg and his party in theEvangelische Kirchenzeitung, on account of his rationalism, his life was uneventful. He died at Halle on the 23rd of October 1842. To Gesenius belongs in a large measure the credit of having freed Semitic philology from the trammels of theological and religious prepossession, and of inaugurating the strictly scientific (and comparative) method which has since been so fruitful. As an exegete he exercised a powerful, and on the whole a beneficial, influence on theological investigation.

Of his many works, the earliest, published in 1810, entitledVersuch über die maltesische Sprache, was a successful refutation of the widely current opinion that the modern Maltese was of Punic origin. In the same year appeared the first volume of theHebräisches u. Chaldäisches Handwörterbuch, completed in 1812. Revised editions of this appear periodically in Germany,e.g.that of H. Zimmern and F. Buhl (1905). The publication of a new English edition was started in 1892 under the editorship of Professors C. A. Briggs, S. R. Driver and F. Brown.The Hebräische Grammatik, published in 1813 (27th edition by E. Kautzsch; English translation from 25th and 26th German editions by G. W. Collins and A. E. Cowley, 1898), was followed in 1815 by theGeschichte der hebräischen Sprache(now very rare), and in 1817 by theAusführliches Lehrgebäude der hebräischen Sprache. The first volume of his well-known commentary on Isaiah (Der Prophet Jesaja), with a translation, appeared in 1821; but the work was not completed until 1829. TheThesaurus philologico-criticus linguae Hebraicae et Chaldaicae V. T., begun in 1829, he did not live to complete; the latter part of the third volume is edited by E. Rödiger (1858). Other works:De Pentateuchi Samaritani origine, indole, et auctoritate(1815), supplemented in 1822 and 1824 by the treatiseDe Samaritanorum theologia, and by an edition ofCarmina Samaritana;Paläographische Studien über phönizische u. punische Schrift(1835), a pioneering work which he followed up in 1837 by his collection of Phoenician monuments (Scripturae linguaeque Phoeniciae monumenta quotquot supersunt); an Aramaic lexicon (1834-1839); and a treatise on the Himyaritic language written in conjunction with E. Rödiger in 1841. Gesenius also contributed extensively to Ersch and Gruber’sEncyclopädie, and enriched the German translation of J. L. Burckhardt’sTravels in Syria and the Holy Landwith valuable geographical notes. For many years he also edited the HalleAllgemeine Litteraturzeitung. A sketch of his life was published anonymously in 1843 (Gesenius: eine Erinnerung für seine Freunde), and another by H.Gesenius, Wilhelm Gesenius, ein Erinnerungsblatt an den hundertjährigen Geburtstag, in 1886. See also the article in theAllgemeine deutsche Biographie.

GESNER, ABRAHAM(1797-1864), Canadian geologist, was born in Nova Scotia in 1797. He qualified as a doctor of medicine in London in 1827. Returning to the Dominion, he published in 1836Remarks on the Geology and Mineralogy of Nova Scotia, and continuing his researches he was enabled in 1843 to bring before the Geological Society of London “A Geological Map of Nova Scotia, with an accompanying Memoir” (Proc. Geol. Soc.iv. 186). In 1849 he issued a volume on the industrial resources of the country. He dealt also with the geology and mineralogy of New Brunswick and Prince Edward’s Island. Devoting himself to the economic side of geology in various parts of North America, he was enabled to bring out in 1861A Practical Treatise on Coal, Petroleum and other Distilled Oils. He died at Halifax, N.S., on the 29th of April 1864.

GESNER, JOHANN MATTHIAS(1691-1761), German classical scholar and schoolmaster, was born at Roth near Ansbach on the 9th of April 1691. He studied at the university of Jena, and in 1714 published a work on thePhilopatrisascribed to Lucian. In 1715 he became librarian and conrector (vice-principal) at Weimar, in 1729 rector of the gymnasium at Ansbach, and in 1730 rector of the Thomas school at Leipzig. On the foundation of the university of Göttingen he became professor of rhetoric (1734) and subsequently librarian. He died at Göttingen on the 3rd of August 1761. His special merit lies in the attention he devoted to the explanation and illustration of the subject matter of the classical authors.

His principal works are: editions of theScriptores rei rusticae, of Quintilian, Claudian, Pliny the Younger, Horace and the Orphic poems (published after his death);Primae lineae isagoges in eruditionem universalem(1756); an edition of B. Faber’sThesaurus eruditionis scholasticae(1726), afterwards continued under the titleNovus linguae et eruditionis Romanae thesaurus(1749);Opuscula minora varii argumenti(1743-1745);Thesaurus epistolicus Gesnerianus(ed. Klotz, 1768-1770);Index etymologicus latinitatis(1749). See J. A. Ernesti,Opuscula oratoria(1762), p. 305; H. Sauppe,Göttinger Professoren(1872); C. H. Pöhnert,J. M. Gesner und sein Verhältnis zum Philanthropinismus und Neuhumanismus(1898), a contribution to the history of pedagogy in the 18th century; articles by F. A. Eckstein inAllgemeine deutsche Biographieix.; and Sandys,Hist. of Class. Schol.iii. (1908), 5-9.

GESNER[improperlyGessner; in Latin,Gesnerus],KONRAD VON(1516-1565), German-Swiss writer and naturalist, called “the German Pliny” by Cuvier, was born at Zürich on the 26th of March 1516. The son of a poor furrier, he was educated in that town, but fell into great need after the death of his father at the battle of Kappel (1531). He had good friends, however, in his old master, Myconius, and subsequently in Heinrich Bullinger, and he was enabled to continue his studies at theuniversities of Strassburg and Bourges (1532-1533); he found also a generous patron in Paris (1534), in the person of Joh. Steiger of Berne. In 1535 the religious troubles drove him back to Zürich, where he made an imprudent marriage. His friends again came to his aid, enabled him to study at Basel (1536), and in 1537 procured for him the professorship of Greek at the newly founded academy of Lausanne (then belonging to Berne). Here he had leisure to devote himself to scientific studies, especially botany. In 1540-1541 he visited the famous medical university of Montpellier, took his degree of doctor of medicine (1541) at Basel, and then settled down to practise at Zürich, where he obtained the post of lecturer in physics at the Carolinum. There, apart from a few journeys to foreign countries, and annual summer botanical journeys in his native land, he passed the remainder of his life. He devoted himself to preparing works on many subjects of different sorts. He died of the plague on the 13th of December 1565. In the previous year he had been ennobled.

To his contemporaries he was best known as a botanist, though his botanical MSS. were not published till long after his death (at Nuremberg, 1751-1771, 2 vols, folio), he himself issuing only theEnchiridion historiae plantarum(1541) and theCatalogus plantarum(1542) in four tongues. In 1545 he published his remarkableBibliotheca universalis(ed. by J. Simler, 1574), a catalogue (in Latin, Greek and Hebrew) of all writers who had ever lived, with the titles of their works, &c. A second part, under the title ofPandeclarium sive partitionum universalium Conradi Gesneri Ligurini libri xxi., appeared in 1548; only nineteen books being then concluded. The 21st book, a theological encyclopaedia, was published in 1549, but the 20th, intended to include his medical work, was never finished. His great zoological work,Historia animalium, appeared in 4 vols. (quadrupeds, birds, fishes) folio, 1551-1558, at Zürich, a fifth (snakes) being issued in 1587 (there is a German translation, entitledThierbuch, of the first 4 vols., Zürich, 1563): this work is the starting-point of modern zoology. Not content with such vast works, Gesner put forth in 1555 his book entitledMithridates de differentiis linguis, an account of about 130 known languages, with the Lord’s Prayer in 22 tongues, while in 1556 appeared his edition of the works of Aelian. To non-scientific readers, Gesner will be best known for his love of mountains (below the snow-line) and for his many excursions among them, undertaken partly as a botanist, but also for the sake of mere exercise and enjoyment of the beauties of nature. In 1541 he prefixed to a singular little work of his (Libellus de lacte et operibus lactariis) a letter addressed to his friend, J. Vogel, of Glarus, as to the wonders to be found among the mountains, declaring his love for them, and his firm resolve to climb at least one mountain every year, not only to collect flowers, but in order to exercise his body. In 1555 Gesner issued his narrative (Descriptio Montis Fracti sive Montis Pilati) of his excursion to the Gnepfstein (6299 ft.), the lowest point in the Pilatus chain, and therein explains at length how each of the senses of man is refreshed in the course of a mountain excursion.

Lives by J. Hanhart (Winterthur, 1824) and J. Simler (Zürich, 1566); see also Lebert’sGesner als Arzt(Zürich, 1854). A part of his unpublished writing, edited by Prof. Schmiedel, was published at Nuremberg in 1753.

GESSNER, SOLOMON(1730-1788), Swiss painter and poet, was born at Zürich on the 1st of April 1730. With the exception of some time (1749-1750) spent in Berlin and Hamburg, where he came under the influence of Ramler and Hagedorn, he passed the whole of his life in his native town, where he carried on the business of a bookseller. He died on the 2nd of March 1788. The first of his writings that attracted attention was hisLied eines Schweizers an sein bewaffnetes Mädchen(1751). Then followedDaphnis(1754),Idyllen(1756 and 1772),Inkel and Yariko(1756), a version of a story borrowed from theSpectator(No. 11, 13th of March 1711) and already worked out by Gellert and Bodmer, andDer Tod Abels(1758), a sort of idyllic pastoral. It is somewhat difficult for us now to understand the reason of Gessner’s universal popularity, unless it was the taste of the period for the conventional pastoral. His writings are marked by sweetness and melody, qualities which were warmly appreciated by Lessing, Herder and Goethe. As a painter Gessner represented the conventional classical landscape.

Collected editions of Gessner’s works were repeatedly published (2 vols. 1777-1778, finally 2 vols. 1841, both at Zürich). They were translated into French (3 vols., Paris, 1786-1793), and versions of theIdyllenappeared in English, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Bohemian. Gessner’s life was written by Hottinger (Zürich, 1796), and by H. Wölfflin (Frauenfeld, 1889); see also hisBriefwechsel mit seinem Sohn(Bern and Zürich, 1801).

GESSO,an Italian word (Lat.gypsum), for “plaster of Paris” especially when used as a ground for painting, or for modelling or sculpture.

GESTA ROMANORUM,a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales, probably compiled about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th. It still possesses a twofold literary interest, first as one of the most popular books of the time, and secondly as the source, directly or indirectly, of later literature, in Chaucer, Gower, Shakespeare and others. Of its authorship nothing certain is known; and there is little but gratuitous conjecture to associate it either with the name of Helinandus or with that of Petrus Berchorius (Pierre Bercheure). It is even a matter of debate whether it took its rise in England, Germany or France. The work was evidently intended as a manual for preachers, and was probably written by one who himself belonged to the clerical profession. The name,Deeds of the Romans, is only partially appropriate to the collection in its present form, since, besides the titles from Greek and Latin history and legend, it comprises fragments of very various origin, oriental and European. The unifying element of the book is its moral purpose. The style is barbarous, and the narrative ability of the compiler seems to vary with his source; but he has managed to bring together a considerable variety of excellent material. He gives us, for example, the germ of the romance of “Guy of Warwick”; the story of “Darius and his Three Sons,” versified by Occleve; part of Chaucer’s “Man of Lawes’ Tale”; a tale of the emperor Theodosius, the same in its main features as that of Shakespeare’sLear; the story of the “Three Black Crows”; the “Hermit and the Angel,” well known from Parnell’s version, and a story identical with theFridolinof Schiller. Owing to the loose structure of the book, it was easy for a transcriber to insert any additional story into his own copy, and consequently the MSS. of theGesta Romanorumexhibit considerable variety. Oesterley recognizes an English group of MSS. (written always in Latin), a German group (sometimes in Latin and sometimes in German), and a group which is represented by the vulgate or common printed text. The earliest editions are supposed to be those of Ketelaer and de Lecompt at Utrecht, of Arnold Ter Hoenen at Cologne, and of Ulrich Zell at Cologne; but the exact date is in all three cases uncertain.

An English translation, probably based directly on the MS. Harl. 5369, was published by Wynkyn de Worde about 1510-1515, the only copy of which now known to exist is preserved in the library of St John’s College, Cambridge. In 1577 Richard Robinson published a revised edition of Wynkyn de Worde, and the book proved highly popular. Between 1648 and 1703 at least eight impressions were issued. In 1703 appeared the first vol. of a translation by B. P., probably Bartholomew Pratt, “from the Latin edition of 1514.” A translation by the Rev. C. Swan, first published in 2 vols. in 1824, forms part of Bonn’s antiquarian library, and was re-edited by Wynnard Hooper in 1877 (see also the latter’s edition in 1894). The German translation was first printed at Augsburg, 1489. A French version, under the title ofLe Violier des histoires romaines moraliséz, appeared in the early part of the 16th century, and went through a number of editions; it has been reprinted by G. Brunet (Paris, 1858). Critical editions of the Latin text have been produced by A. Keller (Stuttgart, 1842) and Oesterley (Berlin, 1872). See also Warton, “On the Gesta Romanorum,” dissertation iii., prefixed to theHistory of English Poetry; Douce,Illustrations of Shakespeare, vol. ii.; Frederick Madden, Introduction to the Roxburghe Club edition ofThe Old English Versions of the Gesta Romanorum(1838).

GETA, PUBLIUS SEPTIMIUS(189-212), younger son of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, was born at Mediolanum (Milan). In 198 he received the title of Caesar, and in 209 those of Imperator and Augustus. Between him and his brother Caracallathere existed from their early years a keen rivalry and antipathy. On the death of their father in 211 they were proclaimed joint emperors; and after the failure of a proposed arrangement for the division of the empire, Caracalla pretended a desire for reconciliation. He arranged a meeting with his brother in his mother’s apartments, and had him murdered in her arms by some centurions.

Dio Cassius lxxvii. 2; Spartianus,Caracalla, 2; Herodian iv. 1.

GETAE,an ancient people of Thracian origin, closely akin to the Daci (seeDacia). Their original home seems to have been the district on the right bank of the Danube between the rivers Oescus (Iskr) and Iatrus (Yantra). The view that the Getae were identical with the Goths has found distinguished supporters, but it is not generally accepted. Their name first occurs in connexion with the expedition of Darius Hystaspis (515B.C.) against the Scythians, in the course of which they were brought under his sway, but they regained their freedom on his return to the East. During the 5th century, they appear as furnishing a contingent of cavalry to Sitalces, king of the Odrysae, in his attack on Perdiccas II., king of Macedon, but the decay of the Odrysian kingdom again left them independent. When Philip II. of Macedon in 342 reduced the Odrysae to the condition of tributaries, the Getae, fearing that their turn would come next, made overtures to the conqueror. Their king Cothelas undertook to supply Philip with soldiers, and his daughter became the wife of the Macedonian. About this time, perhaps being hard pressed by the Triballi and other tribes, the Getae crossed the Danube. Alexander the Great, before transporting his forces into Asia, decided to make his power felt by the Macedonian dependencies. His operations against the Triballi not having met with complete success, he resolved to cross the Danube and attack the Getae. The latter, unable to withstand the phalanx, abandoned their chief town, and fled to the steppes (Γετία ἡ ἔρημος, north of the Danube delta), whither Alexander was unwilling to follow them. About 326, an expedition conducted by Zopyrion, a Macedonian governor of Thrace, against the Getae, failed disastrously. In 292, Lysimachus declared war against them, alleging as an excuse that they had rendered assistance to certain barbarous Macedonian tribes. He penetrated to the plains of Bessarabia, where his retreat was cut off and he was forced to surrender. Although the people clamoured for his execution, Dromichaetes, king of the Getae, allowed him to depart unharmed, probably on payment of a large ransom, great numbers of gold coins having been found near Thorda, some of them bearing the name of Lysimachus. When the Gauls made their way into eastern Europe, they came into collision with the Getae, whom they defeated and sold in large numbers to the Athenians as slaves. From this time the Getae seem to have been usually called Daci; for their further history seeDacia.

The Getae are described by Herodotus as the most valiant and upright of the Thracian tribes; but what chiefly struck Greek inquirers was their belief in the immortality of the soul (hence they were calledἀθανατίζοντες) and their worship of Zalmoxis (or Zamolxis), whom the euhemerists of the colonies on the Euxine made a pupil of Pythagoras. They were very fond of music, and it was the custom for their ambassadors the priests to present themselves clad in white, playing the lyre and singing songs. They were experts in the use of the bow and arrows while on horseback.

See E. R. Rösler, “Die Geten und ihre Nachbarn,” inSitzungsberichte der k. Akad. der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische Classe, xliv. (1863), andRomänische Studien(Leipzig, 1871); W. Tomaschek, “Die alten Thraker,” in aboveSitzungsberichte, cxxviii. (Vienna, 1893); W. Bessel,De rebus Geticis(Göttingen, 1854); C. Müllenhoff in Ersch and Gruber’sAllgemeine Encyclopädie; T. Mommsen,Hist. of Rome(Eng. trans.), bk. v. ch. 7.

GETHSEMANE(Hebr. for “oil-press”), the place to which Jesus and His disciples withdrew on the eve of the Crucifixion. It was evidently an enclosed piece of ground, a plantation rather than a garden in our sense of the word. It lay east of the Kidron and on the lower slope of the mount of Olives, at the foot of which is the traditional site dating from the 4th century and now possessed by the Franciscans. The Grotto of the Agony, a few hundred yards farther north, is an ancient cave-cistern, now a Latin sanctuary. (See furtherJerusalem.)

GETTYSBURG,a borough and the county-seat of Adams county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 35 m. S.W. of Harrisburg. Pop. (1900) 3495; (1910) 4030. It is served by the Western Maryland and the Gettysburg & Harrisburg railways. The site of the borough is a valley about 1½ m. wide; the neighbouring country abounds in attractive scenery. Katalysine Spring in the vicinity was once a well-known summer resort; its waters contain lithia in solution. Gettysburg has several small manufacturing establishments and is the seat of Pennsylvania College (opened in 1832, and the oldest Lutheran college in America), which had 312 students (68 in the preparatory department) in 1907-1908, and of a Lutheran theological seminary, opened in 1826 on Seminary Ridge; but the borough is best known as the scene of one of the most important battles of the Civil War. Very soon after the battle a soldiers’ national cemetery was laid out here, in which the bodies of about 3600 Union soldiers have been buried; and at the dedication of this cemetery, in November 1863, President Lincoln delivered his celebrated “Gettysburg Address.” In 1864 the Gettysburg Battle-Field Memorial Association was incorporated, and the work of this association resulted in the conversion of the battle-field into a National Park, an act for the purpose being passed by Congress in 1895. Within the park the lines of battle have been carefully marked, and about 600 monuments, 1000 markers, and 500 iron tablets have been erected by states and regimental associations. Hundreds of cannon have been mounted, and five observation towers have been built. From 1816 to 1840 Gettysburg was the home of Thaddeus Stevens. Gettysburg was settled about 1740, was laid out in 1787, was made the county-seat in 1800, and was incorporated as a borough in 1806.

Battle of Gettysburg.—The battle of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of July 1863 is often regarded as the turning-point of the American Civil War (q.v.) although it arose from a chance encounter. Lee, the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, had merely ordered his scattered forces to concentrate there, while Meade, the Federal commander, held the town with a cavalry division, supported by two weak army corps, to screen the concentration of his Army of the Potomac in a selected position on Pipe Creek to the south-eastward. On the 1st of July the leading troops of General A. P. Hill’s Confederate corps approached Gettysburg from the west to meet Ewell’s corps, which was to the N. of the town, whilst Longstreet’s corps followed Hill. Lee’s intention was to close up Hill, Longstreet and Ewell before fighting a battle. But Hill’s leading brigades met a strenuous resistance from the Federal cavalry division of General John Buford, which was promptly supported by the infantry of the I. corps under General J. F. Reynolds. The Federals so far held their own that Hill had to deploy two-thirds of his corps for action, and the western approaches of Gettysburg were still held when Ewell appeared to the northward. Reynolds had already fallen, and the command of the Federals, after being held for a time by Gen. Abner Doubleday, was taken over by Gen. O. O. Howard, the commander of the XI. corps, which took post to bar the way to Ewell on the north side. But Ewell’s attack, led by the fiery Jubal Early, swiftly drove back the XI. corps to Gettysburg; the I. corps, with its flank thus laid open, fell back also, and the remnants of both Federal corps retreated through Gettysburg to the Cemetery Hill position. They had lost severely in the struggle against superior numbers, and there had been some disorder in the retreat. Still a formidable line of defence was taken up on Cemetery Hill and both Ewell and Lee refrained from further attacks, for the Confederates had also lost heavily during the day and their concentration was not complete. In the meanwhile Meade had sent forward General W. S. Hancock, the commander of the Federal II. corps, to examine the state of affairs, and on Hancock’s report he decided to fight on the Cemetery Hill position. Two corps of his army were still distant, but the XII. arrived before night, the III. was near, and Hancock moved the II. corps on his own initiative. Headquarters and the artillery reserve started for Gettysburg on the night of the 1st.On the other side, the last divisions of Hill’s and Ewell’s corps formed up opposite the new Federal position, and Longstreet’s corps prepared to attack its left.

Owing, however, to misunderstandings between Lee and Longstreet (q.v.), the Confederates did not attack early on the morning of the 2nd, so that Meade’s army had plenty of time to make its dispositions. The Federal line at this time occupied the horse-shoe ridge, the right of which was formed by Culp’s Hill, and the centre by the Cemetery hill, whence the left wing stretched southward, the III. corps on the left, however, being thrown forward considerably. The XII. held Culp’s, the remnant of the I. and XI. the Cemetery hills. On the left was the II., and in its advanced position—the famous “Salient”—the III., soon to be supported by the V.; the VI., with the reserve artillery, formed the general reserve. It was late in the day when the Confederate attack was made, and valuable time had been lost, but Longstreet’s troops advanced with great spirit. The III. corps Salient was the scene of desperate fighting; and the “Peach Orchard” and the “Devil’s Den” became as famous as the “Bloody Angle” of Spottsylvania or the “Hornets’ Nest” of Shiloh. While the Confederate attack was developing, the important positions of Round Top and Little Round Top were unoccupied by the defenders—an omission which was repaired only in the nick of time by the commanding engineer of the army, General G. K. Warren, who hastily called up troops of the V. corps. The attack of a Confederate division was, after a hard struggle, repulsed, and the Federals retained possession of the Round Tops. The III. corps in the meantime, furiously attacked by troops of Hill’s and Longstreet’s corps, was steadily pressed back, and the Confederates actually penetrated the main line of the defenders, though for want of support the brigades which achieved this were quickly driven out. Ewell, on the Confederate left, waited for the sound of Longstreet’s guns, and thus no attack was made by him until late in the day. Here Culp’s Hill was carried with ease by one of Ewell’s divisions, most of the Federal XII. corps having been withdrawn to aid in the fight on the other wing; but Early’s division was repulsed in its efforts to storm Cemetery Hill, and the two divisions of the centre (one of Hill’s, one of Ewell’s corps) remained inactive.

That no decisive success had been obtained by Lee was clear to all, but Ewell’s men on Culp’s Hill, and Longstreet’s corps below Round Top, threatened to turn both flanks of the Federal position, which was no longer a compacthorseshoebut had been considerably prolonged to the left; and many of the units in the Federal army had been severely handled in the two days’ fighting. Meade, however, after discussing the eventuality of a retreat with his corps commanders, made up his mind to hold his ground. Lee now decided to alter his tactics. The broken ground near Round Top offered so many obstacles that he decided not to press Longstreet’s attack further. Ewell was to resume his attack on Meade’s extreme right, while the decisive blow was to be given in the centre (between Cemetery Hill and Trostle’s) by an assault delivered in the Napoleonic manner by the fresh troops of Pickett’s division (Longstreet’s corps). Meade, however, was not disposed to resign Culp’s Hill, and with it the command of the Federal line of retreat, to Ewell, and at early dawn on the 3rd a division of the XII. corps, well supported by artillery, opened the Federal counter-attack; the Confederates made a strenuous resistance, but after four hours’ hard fighting the other division of the XII. corps, and a brigade of the VI., intervened with decisive effect, and the Confederates were driven off the hill. The defeat of Ewell did not, however, cause Lee to alter his plans. Pickett’s division was to lead in the great assault, supported by part of Hill’s corps (the latter, however, had already been engaged). Colonel E. P. Alexander, Longstreet’s chief of artillery, formed up one long line of seventy-five guns, and sixty-five guns of Hill’s corps came into action on his left. To the converging fire of these 140 guns the Federals, cramped for space, could only oppose seventy-seven. The attacking troops formed up before 9A.M., yet it was long before Longstreet could bring himself to order the advance, upon which so much depended, and it was not till about 1P.M.that the guns at last opened fire to prepare the grand attack. The Federal artillery promptly replied, but after thirty minutes’ cannonade its commander, Gen. H. J. Hunt, ordered his batteries to cease fire in order to reserve their ammunition to meet the infantry attack. Ten minutes later Pickett asked and received permission to advance, and the infantry moved forward to cross the 1800 yds. which separated them from the Federal line. Their own artillery was short of ammunition, the projectiles of that day were not sufficiently effective to cover the advance at long ranges, and thus the Confederates, as they came closer to the enemy, met a tremendous fire of unshaken infantry and artillery.

The charge of Pickett’s division is one of the most famous episodes of military history. In the teeth of an appalling fire from the rifles of the defending infantry, who were well sheltered, and from the guns which Hunt had reserved for the crisis, the Virginian regiments pressed on, and with a final effort broke Meade’s first line. But the strain was too great for the supporting brigades, and Pickett was left without assistance. Hancock made a fierce counterstroke, and the remnant of the Confederates retreated. Of Pickett’s own division over three-quarters, 3393 officers and men out of 4500, were left on the field, two of his three brigadiers were killed and the third wounded, and of fifteen regimental commanders ten were killed and five wounded. One regiment lost 90% of its numbers. The failure of this assault practically ended the battle; but Lee’s line was so formidable that Meade did not in his turn send forward the Army of the Potomac. By the morning of the 5th of July Lee’s army was in full retreat for Virginia. He had lost about 30,000 men in killed, wounded and missing out of a total force of perhaps 75,000. Meade’s losses were over 23,000 out of about 82,000 on the field. The main body of the cavalry on both sides was absent from the field, but a determined cavalry action was fought on the 3rd of July between the Confederate cavalry under J. E. B. Stuart and that of the Federals under D. McM. Gregg some miles E. of the battlefield, and other Federal cavalry made a dashing charge in the broken ground south-west of Round Top on the third day, inflicting thereby, though at great loss to themselves, a temporary check on the right wing of Longstreet’s infantry.

GEULINCX, ARNOLD(1624-1669), Belgian philosopher, was born at Antwerp on the 31st of January 1624. He studied philosophy and medicine at the university of Louvain, where he remained as a lecturer for several years. Having given offence by his unorthodox views, he left Louvain, and took refuge in Leiden, where he appears to have been in the utmost distress. He entered the Protestant Church, and in 1663, through the influence of his friend Abraham Heidanus, who had assisted him in his greatest need, he obtained a poorly paid lectureship at the university. He died at Leiden in November 1669. His most important works were published posthumously. TheMetaphysica vera(1691), and theΓνῶθι σεαυτόν,sive Ethica(under the pseudonym “Philaretus,” 1675), are the works by which he is chiefly known. Mention may also be made ofPhysica vera(1688),Logica restituta(1662) andAnnotata in Principia philosophiae R. Cartesii(1691).

Geulincx principally deals with the question, left in an obscure and unsatisfactory state by Descartes, of the relation between soul and body. Whereas Descartes made the union between them a violent collocation, Geulincx practically called it a miracle. Extension and thought, the essences of corporeal and spiritual natures, are absolutely distinct, and cannot act upon one another. External facts are not the causes of mental states, nor are mental states the causes of physical facts. So far as the physical universe is concerned, we are merely spectators; the only action that remains for us is contemplation. The influence we seem to exercise over bodies by will is only apparent; volition and action only accompany one another. Since true activity consists in knowing what one does and how one does it, I cannot be the author of any state of which I am unconscious; I am not conscious of the mechanism by which bodily motion is produced, hence I am not the author of bodily motion (“Quod nescis quomodo fiat, id non facis”). Body and mind are like two clocks which act together, because both have been set together by God. A physical occurrence is but the occasion (opportunity, occasional cause) on which God excites in me a corresponding mental state; the exercise of my will is the occasion on which God moves my body. Every operation in which mind and matter are both concerned is an effect of neither, but the direct act of God. Geulincx was thus the first definitely to systematize the theory called Occasionalism, which had already been propounded by Gérauld de Cordemoy (d. 1684), a Parisian lawyer, and Louis de la Forge, a physician of Saumur. But the principles on which the theory was founded compelled a further advance. God, who is the cause of the concomitance of bodily and mental facts, is in truth the sole cause in the universe. No fact contains in itself the ground of any other; the existence of the facts is due to God, their sequence and coexistence are also due to him. He is the ground of all that is. My desires, volitions and thoughts are thus the desires, volitions and thoughts of God. Apart from God, the finite being has no reality, and we only have the idea of it from God. Descartes had left untouched, or nearly so, the difficult problem of the relation between the universal element or thought and the particular desires or inclinations. All these are regarded by Geulincx as modes of the divine thought and action, and accordingly the end of human endeavour is the end of the divine will or the realization of reason. The love of right reason is the supreme virtue, whence flow the cardinal virtues, diligence, obedience, justice and humility. Since it is impossible for us to make any alteration in the world of matter, all we can do is to submit. Chief of the cardinal virtues is humility, a confession of our own helplessness and submission to God. Geulincx’s idea of life is “a resigned optimism.”

Geulincx carried out to their extreme consequences the irreconcilable elements in the Cartesian metaphysics, and his works have the peculiar value attaching to the vigorous development of a one-sided principle. The abrupt contradictions to which such development leads of necessity compels revision of the principle itself. He was thus important as the precursor of Malebranche and Spinoza.

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