GIVET, a town of northern France, in the department of Ardennes, 40 m. N. by E. of Mézières on the Eastern railway between the town and Namur. Pop. (1906) town, 5110; commune, 7468. Givet lies on the Meuse about 1 m. from the Belgian frontier, and was formerly a fortress of considerable importance. It is divided into three portions—the citadel called Charlemont and Grand Givet on the left bank of the river, and on the opposite bank Petit Givet, connected with Grand Givet by a stone bridge of five arches. The fortress of Charlemont, situated at the top of a precipitous rock 705 ft. high, was founded by the emperor Charles V. in the 16th century, and further fortified by Vauban at the end of the 17th century; it is the only survival of the fortifications of the town, the rest of which were destroyed in 1892. In Grand Givet there are a church and a town-hall built by Vauban, and a statue of the composer Étienne Méhul stands in the fine square named after him. Petit Givet, the industrial quarter, is traversed by a small tributary of the Meuse, the Houille, which is bordered by tanneries and glue factories. Pencils and tobacco-pipes are also manufactured. The town has considerable river traffic, consisting chiefly of coal, copper and stone. There is a chamber of arts and manufactures.
GIVORS, a manufacturing town of south-eastern France, in the department of Rhône, on the railway between Lyons and St Étienne, 14 m. S. of Lyon. Pop. (1906) 11,444. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhone, here crossed by a suspension bridge, at its confluence with the Gier and the canal of Givors, which starts at Grand Croix on the Gier, some 13 m. distant. The chief industries are metal-working, engineering-construction and glass-working. There are coal mines in the vicinity. On the hill overlooking the town are the ruins of the château of St Gerald and of the convent of St Ferréol, remains of the old town destroyed in 1594.
GJALLAR, in Scandinavian mythology, the horn of Heimdall, the guardian of the rainbow bridge by which the gods pass and repass between earth and heaven. This horn had to be blown whenever a stranger approached the bridge.
GLABRIO. 1. Manius Acilius Glabrio, Roman statesman and general, member of a plebeian family. When consul in 191 B.C. he defeated Antiochus the Great of Syria at Thermopylae, and compelled him to leave Greece. He then turned his attention to the Aetolians, who had persuaded Antiochus to declare war against Rome, and was only prevented from crushing them by the intercession of T. Quinctius Flamininus. In 189 Glabrio was a candidate for the censorship, but was bitterly opposed by the nobles. He was accused by the tribunes of having concealed a portion of the Syrian spoils in his own house; his legate gave evidence against him, and he withdrew his candidature. It is probable that he was the author of the law which left it to the discretion of the pontiffs to insert or omit the intercalary month of the year.
Censorinus, De die natali, xx.; Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 13; index to Livy; Appian, Syr. 17-21.
2. Manius Acilius Glabrio, Roman statesman and general, grandson of the famous jurist P. Mucius Scaevola. When praetor urbanus (70 B.C.) he presided at the trial of Verres. According to Dio Cassius (xxxvi. 38), in conjunction with L. Calpurnius Piso, his colleague in the consulship (67), he brought forward a severe law (Lex Acilia Calpurnia) against illegal canvassing at elections. In the same year he was appointed to supersede L. Lucullus in the government of Cilicia and the command of the war against Mithradates, but as he did absolutely nothing and was unable to control the soldiery, he was in turn superseded by Pompey according to the provisions of the Manilian law. Little else is known of him except that he declared in favour of the death punishment for the Catilinarian conspirators.
Dio Cassius xxxvi. 14, 16. 24; Cicero, Pro lege Manilia, 2. 9; Appian, Mithrid. 90.