Gabes lies at the head of the shat country of Tunisia and is intimately connected with the scheme of Commandant Roudaire to create a Saharan sea by making a channel from the Mediterranean to these shats (large salt lakes below the level of the sea). Roudaire proposed to cut a canal through the belt of high ground between Gabes and the shats, and fixed on Wad Melah, a spot 10 m. N. of Gabes, for the sea end of the channel (see [Sahara]). The company formed to execute his project became simply an agricultural concern and by the sinking of artesian wells created an oasis of olive and palm trees.
The Gulf of Gabes, the Syrtis Minor of the ancients, is a semi-circular shallow indentation of the Mediterranean, about 50 m. across from the Kerkenna Islands, opposite Sfax on its northern shore, to Jerba Island, which lies at its southern end. The waters of the gulf abound in fish and sponge.
GABII, an ancient city of Latium, between 12 and 13 m. E. of Rome, on the Via Praenestina, which was in early times known as the Via Gabina. The part played by it in the story of the expulsion of the Tarquins is well known; but its importance in the earliest history of Rome rests upon other evidence—the continuance of certain ancient usages which imply a period of hostility between the two cities, such as the adoption of the cinctus Gabinus by the consul when war was to be declared. We hear of a treaty of alliance with Rome in the time of Tarquinius Superbus, the original text of which, written on a bullock’s skin, was said by Dionysius of Halicarnassus to be still extant in his day. Its subsequent history is obscure, and we only hear of it again in the 1st century B.C. as a small and insignificant place, though its desolation is no doubt exaggerated by the poets. From inscriptions we learn that from the time of Augustus or Tiberius onwards it enjoyed a municipal organization. Its baths were well known, and Hadrian, who was responsible for much of the renewed prosperity of the small towns of Latium, appears to have been a very liberal patron, building a senate-house (Curia Aelia Augusta) and an aqueduct. After the 3rd century Gabii practically disappears from history, though its bishops continue to be mentioned in ecclesiastical documents till the close of the 9th. The primitive city occupied the eastern bank of the lake, the citadel being now marked by the ruins of the medieval fortress of Castiglione, while the Roman town extended farther to the south. The most conspicuous relic of the latter is a ruined temple, generally attributed to Juno, which had six columns in the front and six on each side. The plan is interesting, but the style of architecture was apparently mixed. To the east of the temple lay the Forum, where excavations were made by Gavin Hamilton in 1792. All the objects found were placed in the Villa Borghese, but many of them were carried off to Paris by Napoleon, and still remain in the Louvre. The statues and busts are especially numerous and interesting; besides the deities Venus, Diana, Nemesis, &c., they comprise Agrippa, Tiberius, Germanicus, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Trajan and Plotina, Hadrian and Sabina, M. Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Geta, Gordianus Pius and others. The inscriptions relate mainly to local and municipal matters.
See E.Q. Visconti, Monumenti Gabini della Villa Pinciana (Rome, 1797, and Milan, 1835); T. Ashby in Papers of the British School at Rome, i. 180 seq.; G. Pinza in Bull. Com. (1903), 321 seq.
(T. As.)
GABINIUS, AULUS, Roman statesman and general, and supporter of Pompey, a prominent figure in the later days of the Roman republic. In 67 B.C., when tribune of the people, he brought forward the famous law (Lex Gabinia) conferring upon Pompey the command in the war against the Mediterranean pirates, with extensive powers which gave him absolute control over that sea and the coasts for 50 m. inland. By two other measures of Gabinius loans of money to foreign ambassadors in Rome were made non-actionable (as a check on the corruption of the senate) and the senate was ordered to give audience to foreign envoys on certain fixed days (1st of Feb.-1st of March). In 61 Gabinius, then praetor, endeavoured to win the public favour by providing games on a scale of unusual splendour, and in 58 managed to secure the consulship, not without suspicion of bribery. During his term of office he aided Publius Clodius in bringing about the exile of Cicero. In 57 Gabinius went as proconsul to Syria. On his arrival he reinstated Hyrcanus in the high-priesthood at Jerusalem, suppressed revolts, introduced important changes in the government of Judaea, and rebuilt several towns. During his absence in Egypt, whither he had been sent by Pompey, without the consent of the senate, to restore Ptolemy Auletes to his kingdom, Syria had been devastated by robbers, and Alexander, son of Aristobulus, had again taken up arms with the object of depriving Hyrcanus of the high-priesthood. With some difficulty Gabinius restored order, and in 54 handed over the province to his successor, M. Licinius Crassus. The knights, who as farmers of the taxes had suffered heavy losses during the disturbances in Syria, were greatly embittered against Gabinius, and, when he appeared in the senate to give an account of his governorship, he was brought to trial on three counts, all involving a capital offence. On the charge of majestas (high treason) incurred by having left his province for Egypt without the consent of the senate and in defiance of the Sibylline books, he was acquitted; it is said that the judges were bribed, and even Cicero, who had recently attacked Gabinius with the utmost virulence, was persuaded by Pompey to say as little as he could in his evidence to damage his former enemy. On the second charge, that of repetundae (extortion during the administration of his province), with especial reference to the 10,000 talents paid by Ptolemy for his restoration, he was found guilty, in spite of evidence offered on his behalf by Pompey and witnesses from Alexandria and the eloquence of Cicero, who had been induced to plead his cause. Nothing but Cicero’s wish to do a favour to Pompey could have induced him to take up what must have been a distasteful task; indeed, it is hinted that the half-heartedness of the defence materially contributed to Gabinius’s condemnation. The third charge, that of ambitus (illegalities committed during his canvass for the consulship), was consequently dropped; Gabinius went into exile, and his property was confiscated. After the outbreak of the civil war, he was recalled by Caesar in 49, and entered his service, but took no active part against his old patron Pompey. After the battle of Pharsalus, he was commissioned to transport some recently levied troops to Illyricum. On his way thither by land, he was attacked by the Dalmatians and with difficulty made his way to Salonae (Dalmatia). Here he bravely defended himself against the attacks of the Pompeian commander, Marcus Octavius, but in a few months died of illness (48 or the beginning of 47).
See Dio Cassius xxxvi. 23-36, xxxviii. 13. 30, xxxix. 55-63; Plutarch, Pompey, 25. 48; Josephus, Antiq. xiv. 4-6; Appian, Illyrica, 12, Bell. Civ. ii. 24. 59; Cicero, ad Att. vi. 2, ad Q. Fratrem, ii. 13, Post reditum in senatu, 4-8, Pro lege Manilia, 17, 18, 19; exhaustive article by Bähr in Ersch and Gruber’s Allgemeine Encyclopädie; and monograph by G. Stocchi, Aulo Gabinio e i suoi processi (1892).