See C. Völker, De C. Galli vita et scriptis (1840-1844); A. Nicolas, De la vie et des ouvrages de C. Gallus (1851), an exhaustive monograph. An inscription found at Philae (published 1896) records the Egyptian exploits; see M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur, and Plessis, Poésie latine (1909).
GALLUS, GAIUS AELIUS, praefect of Egypt 26-24 B.C. By order of Augustus he undertook an expedition to Arabia Felix, with disastrous results. The troops suffered greatly from disease, heat, want of water and the obstinate resistance of the inhabitants. The treachery of a foreign guide also added to his difficulties. After six months Gallus was obliged to return to Alexandria, having lost the greater part of his force. He was a friend of the geographer Strabo, who gives an account of the expedition (xvi. pp. 780-782; see also Dio Cassius liii. 29; Pliny, Nat. Hist. vi. 32; C. Merivale, Hist. of the Romans under the Empire, ch. 34; H. Krüger, Der Feldzug des A. G. nach dem glücklichen Arabien, 1862). He has been identified with the Aelius Gallus frequently quoted by Galen, whose remedies are stated to have been used with success in an Arabian expedition.
GALLUS, GAIUS CESTIUS, governor of Syria during the reign of Nero. When the Jews in Jerusalem, stirred to revolt by the outrages of the Roman procurators, had seized the fortress of Masada and treacherously murdered the garrison of the palace of Herod, Gallus set out from Antioch to restore order. On the 17th of November A.D. 66 he arrived before Jerusalem. Having gained possession of the northern suburb, he attacked the temple mount; but, after five days’ fighting, just when (according to Josephus) success was within his grasp, he unaccountably withdrew his forces. During his retreat he was closely pursued by the Jews and surrounded in a ravine, and only succeeded in making good his escape to Antioch by sacrificing the greater part of his army and a large amount of war material. Soon after his return Gallus died (before the spring of 67), and was succeeded in the governorship by Licinius Mucianus, the prosecution of the war being entrusted to Vespasian.
See Tacitus, Hist. v. 10, 13; Suetonius, Vespasian, 4; Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 14-20; E. Schürer, Hist. of the Jewish People, div. i. vol. ii. p. 212 (Eng. tr., 1890).
GALLUS, GAIUS SULPICIUS, Roman general, statesman and orator. Under Lucius Aemilius Paulus, his intimate friend, he commanded the 2nd legion in the campaign against Perseus, king of Macedonia, and gained great reputation for having predicted an eclipse of the moon on the night before the battle of Pydna (168 B.C.). On his return from Macedonia he was elected consul (166), and in the same year reduced the Ligurians to submission. In 164 he was sent as ambassador to Greece and Asia, where he held a meeting at Sardis to investigate the charges brought against Eumenes of Pergamum by the representatives of various cities of Asia Minor. Gallus was a man of great learning, an excellent Greek scholar, and in his later years devoted himself to the study of astronomy, on which subject he is quoted as an authority by Pliny.
See Livy xliv. 37, Epit. 46; Polybius xxxi. 9, 10; Cicero, Brutus, 20, De officiis, i. 6, De senectute, 14; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 9.