A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

GĂMĒLĬA (γαμηλία). The demes and phratries of Attica possessed various means to prevent intruders from assuming the rights of citizens. Among other regulations, it was ordained that every bride, previous to her marriage, should be introduced by her parents or guardians to the phratria of her husband. This introduction of the young women was accompanied by presents to their new phratores, which were called gamelia. The women were enrolled in the lists of the phratries, and this enrolment was also called gamelia.

GAUSĂPA, GAUSĂPE, or GAUSĂPUM, a kind of thick cloth, which was on one side very woolly, and was used to cover tables and beds, and by persons to wrap themselves up after taking a bath, or in general to protect themselves against rain and cold. It was worn by men as well as women. The word gausapa is also sometimes used to designate a thick wig, such as was made of the hair of Germans, and worn by the fashionable people at Rome at the time of the emperors.

GĔNĔSIA. [[Funus].]

GĔNOS (γένος). [[Tribus], Greek.]

GENS. According to the traditional accounts of the old Roman constitution, the Gentes were subdivisions of the curiae, just as the curiae were subdivisions of the three ancient tribes, the Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres. There were ten gentes in each curia, and consequently one hundred gentes in each tribe, and three hundred in the three tribes. Now if there is any truth in the tradition of this original distribution of the population into tribes, curiae, and gentes, it follows that there was no necessary kinship among those families which belonged to a gens, any more than among those families which belonged to one curia. The name of the gens was always characterised by the termination ia, as Julia, Cornelia, Valeria; and the gentiles, or members of a gens, all bore the name of the gens to which they belonged. As the gentes were subdivisions of the three ancient tribes, the populus (in the ancient sense) alone had gentes, so that to be a patrician and to have a gens were synonymous; and thus we find the expressions gens and patricii constantly united. Yet it appears that some gentes contained plebeian familiae, which it is conjectured had their origin in marriages between patricians and plebeians before there was connubium between them. A hundred new members were added to the senate by the first Tarquin. These were the representatives of the Luceres, the third and inferior tribe; which is indicated by the gentes of this tribe being called minores, by way of being distinguished from the older gentes, majores, of the Ramnes and Tities, a distinction which appears to have been more than nominal. [[Senatus].] There were certain sacred rites (sacra gentilitia) which belonged to a gens, to which all the members of a gens, as such, were bound. It was the duty of the pontifices to look after the due observance of these gentile sacra, and to see that they were not lost. Each gens seems to have had its peculiar place (sacellum) for the celebration of these sacra, which were performed at stated times. By the law of the Twelve Tables the property of a person who died intestate devolved upon the gens to which he belonged.

GĔŌMŎRI. [[Tribus], Greek.]

GĔROUSĬA (γερούσια), or assembly of elders, was the aristocratic element of the Spartan polity. It was not peculiar to Sparta only, but found in other Dorian states, just as a Boulé (βουλή) or democratical council was an element of most Ionian constitutions. The Gerousia at Sparta, including the two kings, its presidents, consisted of thirty members (γέροντες): a number which seems connected with the divisions of the Spartan people. Every Dorian state, in fact, was divided into three tribes: the Hylleis, the Dymanes, and the Pamphyli. The tribes at Sparta were again subdivided into obae (ὠβαί), which were, like the Gerontes, thirty in number, so that each oba was represented by its councillor: any inference which leads to the conclusion that two obae at least of the Hyllean tribe, must have belonged to the royal house of the Heracleids. No one was eligible to the council till he was sixty years of age, and the additional qualifications were strictly of an aristocratic nature. We are told, for instance, that the office of a councillor was the reward and prize of virtue, and that it was confined to men of distinguished character and station. The election was determined by vote, and the mode of conducting it was remarkable for its old-fashioned simplicity. The competitors presented themselves one after another to the assembly of electors; the latter testified their esteem by acclamations, which varied in intensity according to the popularity of the candidates for whom they were given. These manifestations of esteem were noted by persons in an adjoining building, who could judge of the shouting, but could not tell in whose favour it was given. The person whom these judges thought to have been most applauded was declared the successful candidate. The office lasted for life. The functions of the councillors were partly deliberative, partly judicial, and partly executive. In the discharge of the first, they prepared measures and passed preliminary decrees, which were to be laid before the popular assembly, so that the important privilege of initiating all changes in the government or laws was vested in them. As a criminal court, they could punish with death and civil degradation (ἀτιμία). They also appear to have exercised, like the Areiopagus at Athens, a general superintendence and inspection over the lives and manners of the citizens, and probably were allowed a kind of patriarchal authority, to enforce the observance of ancient usage and discipline. It is not, however, easy to define with exactness the original extent of their functions, especially as respects the last-mentioned duty, since the ephors not only encroached upon the prerogatives of the king and council, but also possessed, in very early times, a censorial power, and were not likely to permit any diminution of its extent.

GERRHA (γέῤῥα), in Latin, Gerrae, properly signified any thing made of wicker-work, and was especially used as the name of the Persian shields, which were made of wicker-work, and were smaller and shorter than the Greek shields.

GLĂDĬĀTŌRES (μονομάχοι) were men who fought with swords in the amphitheatre and other places, for the amusement of the Roman people. They are said to have been first exhibited by the Etrurians, and to have had their origin from the custom of killing slaves and captives at the funeral pyres of the deceased. [[Bustum]; [Funus].] A show of gladiators was called munus, and the person who exhibited (edebat) it, editor, munerator, or dominus, who was honoured during the day of exhibition, if a private person, with the official signs of a magistrate. Gladiators were first exhibited at Rome in B.C. 264, in the Forum Boarium, by Marcus and Decimus Brutus, at the funeral of their father. They were at first confined to public funerals, but afterwards fought at the funerals of most persons of consequence, and even at those of women. Combats of gladiators were also exhibited at entertainments, and especially at public festivals by the aediles and other magistrates, who sometimes exhibited immense numbers, with the view of pleasing the people. Under the empire the passion of the Romans for this amusement rose to its greatest height, and the number of gladiators who fought on some occasions appears almost incredible. After Trajan’s triumph over the Dacians, there were more than 10,000 exhibited. Gladiators consisted either of captives, slaves, and condemned malefactors, or of freeborn citizens who fought voluntarily. Freemen, who became gladiators for hire, were called auctorati, and their hire auctoramentum or gladiatorium. Even under the republic, free-born citizens fought as gladiators, but they appear to have belonged only to the lower orders. Under the empire, however, both knights and senators fought in the arena, and even women.—Gladiators were kept in schools (ludi), where they were trained by persons called lanistae. The whole body of gladiators under one lanista was frequently called familia. They sometimes were the property of the lanistae, who let them out to persons who wished to exhibit a show of gladiators; but at other times they belonged to citizens, who kept them for the purpose of exhibition, and engaged lanistae to instruct them. Thus we read of the ludus Aemilius at Rome, and of Caesar’s ludus at Capua. The gladiators fought in these ludi with wooden swords, called rudes. Great attention was paid to their diet, in order to increase the strength of their bodies.—Gladiators were sometimes exhibited at the funeral pyre, and sometimes in the forum, but more frequently in the amphitheatre. [[Amphitheatrum].]—The person who was to exhibit a show of gladiators, published some days before the exhibition bills (libelli), containing the number and frequently the names of those who were to fight. When the day came, they were led along the arena in procession, and matched by pairs; and their swords were examined by the editor to see if they were sufficiently sharp. At first there was a kind of sham battle, called praelusio, in which they fought with wooden swords, or the like, and afterwards at the sound of the trumpet the real battle began. When a gladiator was wounded, the people called out habet or hoc habet; and the one who was vanquished lowered his arms in token of submission. His fate, however, depended upon the people, who pressed down their thumbs if they wished him to be saved, but turned them up if they wished him to be killed, and ordered him to receive the sword (ferrum recipere), which gladiators usually did with the greatest firmness. If the life of a vanquished gladiator was spared, he obtained his discharge for that day, which was called missio; and hence in an exhibition of gladiators sine missione, the lives of the conquered were never spared. This kind of exhibition, however, was forbidden by Augustus. Palms were usually given to the victorious gladiators. Old gladiators, and sometimes those who had only fought for a short time, were discharged from the service by the editor, at the request of the people, who presented each of them with a rudis or wooden sword; whence those who were discharged were called Rudiarii.—Gladiators were divided into different classes, according to their arms and different mode of fighting, or other circumstances. The names of the most important of these classes are given in alphabetical order:—Andabatae wore helmets without any aperture for the eyes, so that they were obliged to fight blindfold, and thus excited the mirth of the spectators.—Catervarii was the name given to gladiators when they did not fight in pairs, but when several fought together.—Essedarii fought from chariots, like the Gauls and Britons. [[Esseda].]—Hoplomachi appear to have been those who fought in a complete suit of armour.—Laqueatores were those who used a noose to catch their adversaries.—Meridiani were those who fought in the middle of the day, after combats with wild beasts had taken place in the morning. These gladiators were very slightly armed.—Mirmillones are said to have been so called from their having the image of a fish (mormyr, μορμύρος) on their helmets. Their arms were like those of the Gauls, whence we find that they were also called Galli. They were usually matched with the Retiarii or Thracians.—Provocatores fought with the Samnites, but we do not know any thing respecting them except their name.—Retiarii carried only a three-pointed lance, called tridens or fuscina [[Fuscina]], and a net (rete), which they endeavoured to throw over their adversaries, and they then attacked them with the fuscina while they were entangled. The retiarius was dressed in a short tunic, and wore nothing on his head. If he missed his aim in throwing the net, he betook himself to flight, and endeavoured to prepare his net for a second cast, while his adversary followed him round the arena in order to kill him before he could make a second attempt. His adversary was usually a secutor or a mirmillo. In the following woodcut a combat is represented between a retiarius and a mirmillo; the former has thrown his net over the head of the latter, and is proceeding to attack him with the fuscina. The lanista stands behind the retiarius.—Samnites were so called, because they were armed in the same way as that people, and were particularly distinguished by the oblong scutum.—Secutores are supposed by some writers to be so called because the secutor in his combat with the retiarius pursued the latter when he failed in securing him by his net.