Gălătæa and Galathæa, a sea-nymph, daughter of Nereus and Doris. She was passionately loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus, whom she treated with coolness and disdain; while Acis, a shepherd of Sicily, enjoyed her unbounded affection. The happiness of these two lovers was disturbed by the jealousy of the Cyclops, who crushed his rival to pieces with a piece of a broken rock, while he sat in the bosom of Galatæa. Galatæa was inconsolable for the loss of Acis, and as she could not restore him to life, she changed him into a fountain. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 789.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 103.——The daughter of a Celtic king, from whom the Gauls were called Galatæ. Ammianus, bk. 15.——A country girl, &c. Virgil, Eclogues, poem 3.
Gălătia, or Gallogræcia, a country of Asia Minor, between Phrygia, the Euxine, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. It received its name from the Gauls, who migrated there under Brennus, some time after the sacking of Rome. Strabo, bk. 12.—Justin, bk. 37, ch. 4.—Livy, bk. 38, chs. 12, 40.—Lucan, bk. 7, li. 540.—Cicero, bk. 6, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 5.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 32.—Ptolemy, bk. 5, ch. 4.——The name of ancient Gaul among the Greeks.
Galaxia, a festival, in which they boiled a mixture of barley, pulse, and milk, called Γαλαξια by the Greeks.
Galba, a surname of the first of the Sulpicii, from the smallness of his stature. The word signifies a small worm, or according to some, it implies, in the language of Gaul, fatness, for which the founder of the Sulpician family was remarkable.——A king among the Gauls, who made war against Julius Cæsar. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 2, ch. 4.——A brother of the emperor Galba, who killed himself, &c.——A mean buffoon, in the age of Tiberius. Juvenal, satire 5, li. 4.——Servius, a lawyer at Rome, who defended the cause of adulterers with great warmth, as being one of the fraternity. Horace ridicules him, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 46.——Servius Sulpicius, a Roman who rose gradually to the greatest offices of the state, and exercised his power in the provinces with equity and unremitted diligence. He dedicated the greatest part of his time to solitary pursuits, chiefly to avoid the suspicions of Nero. His disapprobation of the emperor’s oppressive command in the provinces, was the cause of new disturbances. Nero ordered him to be put to death, but he escaped from the hands of the executioner, and was publicly saluted emperor. When he was seated on the throne, he suffered himself to be governed by favourites, who exposed to sale the goods of the citizens to gratify their avarice. Exemptions were sold at a high price, and the crime of murder was blotted out, and impunity purchased with a large sum of money. Such irregularities in the emperor’s ministers greatly displeased the people; and when Galba refused to pay the soldiers the money which he had promised them when he was raised to the throne, they assassinated him in the 73rd year of his age, and in the eighth of his reign, and proclaimed Otho emperor in his room, January 16th, A.D. 69. The virtues which had shone so bright in Galba, when a private man, totally disappeared when he ascended the throne; and he who showed himself the most impartial judge, forgot the duties of an emperor, and of a father of his people. Suetonius & Plutarch, Lives.—Tacitus.——A learned man, grandfather to the emperor of the same name. Suetonius, Galba, ch. 4.——Sergius, a celebrated orator before the age of Cicero. He showed his sons to the Roman people, and implored their protection by which means he saved himself from the punishment which either his guilt or the persuasive eloquence of his adversaries, Marcus Cato and Lucius Scribonius, urged as due to him. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 53; Rhetorica ad Herennium, bk. 4, ch. 5.
Galēnus Claudius, a celebrated physician in the age of Marcus Antoninus and his successors, born at Pergamus, the son of an architect. He applied himself with unremitted labour to the study of philosophy, mathematics, and chiefly of physic. He visited the most learned seminaries of Greece and Egypt; and at last came to Rome, where he soon rendered himself famous by his profession. Many, astonished at his cures, attributed them to magic, and said that he had received all his knowledge from enchantments. He was very intimate with Marcus Aurelius the emperor, after whose death he returned to Pergamus, where he died, in his 90th year, A.D. 193. He wrote no less than 300 volumes, the greatest part of which were burnt in the temple of Peace at Rome, where they had been deposited. Galenus confessed himself greatly indebted to the writings of Hippocrates for his medical knowledge, and bestowed great encomiums upon him. To the diligence, application, and experiments of these two celebrated physicians, the moderns are indebted for many useful discoveries; yet often their opinions are ill-grounded, their conclusions hasty, and their reasoning false. What remains of the works of Galen has been published, without a Latin translation, in 5 vols., folio, Basil. 1538. Galen was likewise edited, together with Hippocrates, by Charterius, 13 vols., folio, Paris, 1679, but very incorrect.
Galeolæ, certain prophets in Sicily. Cicero.
Galeria, one of the Roman tribes.——The wife of Vitellius. Cæsar.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 2, ch. 60.——Faustina, the wife of the emperor Antoninus Pius.
Gălērius, a native of Dacia, made emperor of Rome by Diocletian. See: [Maximianus].
Gălēsus, now Galeso, a river of Calabria, flowing into the bay of Tarentum. The poets have celebrated it for the shady groves in its neighbourhood, and the fine sheep which feed on its fertile banks, and whose fleeces were said to be rendered soft when they bathed in the stream. Martial, bk. 2, ltr. 43; bk. 4, ltr. 28.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 126.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 6, li. 10.——A rich person of Latium, killed as he attempted to make a reconciliation between the Trojans and Rutulians, when Ascanius had killed the favourite stag of Tyrrheus; which was the prelude to all the enmities between the hostile nations. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 335.
Galilæa, a celebrated country of Syria, often mentioned in Scripture.