Gellius

• name of a Roman gens; so the historians, Gellii, Cic. Div. 1, 26, 55; id. Leg. 1, 2, 6: L. Gellius, a friend of Cicero, id. ib. 1, 20, 53; id. Balb. 8, 19; 14, 33; and esp.: Aulus Gellius (on account of the abbreviation A. Gellius, formerly falsely called Agellius), a grammarian of the first half of the second century of the Christian era, author of the Noctes Atticae: vir elegantissimi eloquii et multae ac facundae scientiae (Gellius), Aug. Civ. Dei, 9, 4.—
• II Deriv.: Gellĭānus, i, m., a slave of one Gellius, Labeo ap. Gell. 13, 12, 4.

not Agellius as Lipsius and others have imagined, a Latin grammarian, with regard to whose history we possess no source of information except his own book. From this we gather that he was of good family and connections, a native probably of Rome; that he had travelled much, especially in Greece, and had resided for a considerable period at Athens; that he had studied rhetoric under T. Castricius and Sulpicius Apollinaris, philosophy under Calvisius Taurus and Peregrinus Proteus, enjoying also the friendship and instructions of Favorinus, Herodes Atticus, and Cornelius Fronto; that while yet a youth he had been appointed by the praetor to act as an umpire in civil causes; and that subsequently much of the time which he would gladly have devoted to literary pursuits had been occupied by judicial duties of a similar description. The precise date of his birth, as of his death, is unknown; but from the names of his preceptors and companions we conclude that he must have lived under Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and M. Aurelius, A. D. 117-180. Works Noctes Atticae,

His well-known work entitled Noctes Atticae, because it was composed in a country-house near Athens during the long nights of winter, is a sort of miscellany, containing numerous extracts from Greek and Roman writers, on a great variety of topics connected with history, antiquities, philosophy, and philology, interspersed with original remarks, dissertations, and discussions, the whole thrown together into twenty books, without any attempt at order or arrangement. We here find preserved a multitude of curious and interesting passages from authors whose works have perished, and a vast fund of information elucidating questions which must otherwise have remained obscure; but the style is deformed by that species of affectation which was pushed to extravagant excess by Apuleius--the frequent introduction of obsolete words and phrases derived for the most part from the ancient comic dramatists. The eighth book is entirely lost with the exception of the index, and a few lines at the beginning of the sixth were long wanting, until the deficiency was supplied from the Epitome of the Divine Institutions of Lactantius (100.28), first published in a complete form in 1712, by Pfaff, from a MS. in the loyal Library at Turin. [Lactantius.] It is not probable that any portion of the Noctes Atticae was moulded into shape before A. D. 143, since, in the second chapter of the first book, Herodes Atticus is spoken of as " consulari honore praeditus," and the seventeenth chapter of the thirteenth book contains an allusion to the second consulship of Erucius Clarus, which belongs to A. D. 146. Editions

The Editio Princeps of A. Gellius was printed at Rome, fol. 1469, by Sweynheym and Pannartz, with a prefatory epistle by Andrew, afterwards bishop of Aleria, to Pope Paul II.; was reprinted at the same place by the same typographers in 1472, followed or preceded by the beautiful impression of Jenson, fol. Ven. 1472; and at least seven other editions of less note came forth in Italy, chiefly at Venice, before the close of the fifteenth century. The first which can advance any claim to a critical revision of the text founded on the collation of MSS. is that published at Paris, 8vo. 1585, under the superintendence of Henry Stephens and Louis Carrio, which served as the standard until superseded by the accurate labours of J. F. Gronovius, 12mo. Amst., L. Elzev., 1651, and D. Elzev., 1665, of which the latter is the superior. The Octavo Variorums (Lug. Bat. 1666, 1687) exhibit the text of J. F. Gronovius, with some additional matter by Thysius and Oiselius; but these are not equal in value to the Quarto Variorum of Jac. Gronovius, Lug. Bat. 1706 (reprinted, with some dissertations, by Conradi, 8vo. Leips. 1762), which must be regarded as the best edition, for the most recent, that of Lion, 2 vols. 8vo. Gotting. 1824, 1825, is a slovenly and incorrect performance. Translations

We have translations into English by Beloe, 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1795; into French by the Abbé de Verteuil, 3 vols. 12mo. Par. 1776, 1789, and by Victor Verger, 3 vols. Par. 1820, 1830; into German (of those portions only which illustrate ancient history and philosophy) by A. H. W. von Walterstern, 8vo. Lemgo, 1785. [W.R]

a contemporary of the Gracchi, was the author of a history of Rome from the earliest epoch, extending, as we gather from Censorinus, down to the year B. C. 145 at least. We know that the Rape of the Sabines was commeemorated in the second book; the reign of Titus Tatius in the third; the death of Postumius during the second Punic war, and the purpose to which his skull was applied by the Boii (Liv. 23.24), in the thirty-third; and we find a quotation in Chorisius from the ninety-seventh, if we can trust the number. Hence it is manifest that a considerable space was devoted to the legends connected with the origin of the nation; and that if these books were in general equal in length to the similar divisions in Livy, the compilation of Gellius must have been exceedingly voluminous, and the details more ample than those contained in the great work of his successor, by whom, as well as by Plutarch, he seems to have been altogether neglected, although occasionally cited by Dionysius, and apparently both all accurate chronologer and a diligent investigator of ancient usages.

Krause, in his Vitae et Fragmenta Historicorum Romanorum, has enumerated no less than three Gellii, Cnaeus, Sextus, and Aulus; but although " Gellius" is frequently named as an annalist without any distinguishing praenomen, the two latter personages are in all probability imaginary. The only direct testimony to the existence of Sextus is contained in the tract De Origine gentis Romanae (100.16), which is a modern forgery; the argument derived from the use of the plural Γέλλιοι by Dionysius (1.7) will be found, upon consulting the passage, to be altogether inconclusive (Niebuhr, Rom. Hist. vol. ii. note 11); and the word Gellii adduced from Cicero (de Leg. 1.2) is a conjectural emendation. As to Aulus, we find in Nonius, it is true (s. v. Bubo), a reference to " A. Gellius historiarum libr. primo ;" and in Vopiscus (Prob. sub init.) some MSS. have " M. Cato Agellius quoque," instead of the received reading, " M. Cato et Gellius historici ;" but it is clear that such evidence cannot be admitted with any confidence. (Cic. de Divin. 1.26; comp. de Leg. 1.2; Dionys. A. R. 1.7, 2.31, 72, 76, 4.6, 6.11, 7.1; Plin. Nat. 7.56; Solin. Polyh. 2, where one of the best MSS. has Gellius for Caelius ; Gel. 13.22, 18.12; Censorin. de Die Nat. 17; Macr. 1.8, 16, 2.13; Charisius, pp. 39, 40, 50, 55 ; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. 4.390, 8.638; Marius Victorin. p. 2468.) [W.R]

[Egnatius, No. 1.]

[Fuscus.]

a jurist, one of the disciples of Servius Sulpicius. [T. Caesius.] From the unusual combination of two apparently gentile names, conjectural alterations of the passage in the Digest where Publicius Gellius is mentioned by Pomponius (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2.44) have been attempted by several critics. Rutilius (Vithe ICtorum, 100.45) reads Publius (aecilius, and Hotomann reads Publicola Gellius. Accordingly, the jurist has been attempted to be identified with the L. Gellius Publicola who is spoken of by Cicero (Cic. Brut. 47) as a second-rate orator, contemporary with L. Crassus and M. Antonius ; but the disciple of Servius must have been of rather later date. Maiansius makes Publicius and Gellius distinct jurists, and alters the text of Pomponius by reading duodecim instead of decem, as the number of the disciples of Servius. There is no necessity for alteration, for Publicius is used as a fictitious praenomen by Paulus, in Dig. 36. tit. 2. s. 24; and the jurist Publicius is cited, along with Africanus, by Ulpian (Dig. 38. tit. 17. s. 2. §. 8); and is also cited by Modestinus (Dig. 35. tit. 1. s. 51.1), and by Marcellus (Dig. 31. s. 50.2).

There was a praetor Publicius, who introduced into the edict a celebrated clause (Dig. 6. tit. 2. s. 1. pr.), which gave origin to the Publiciana in rem actio. By this action a bona fide possessor was enabled, by the fiction of usucaption, to recover the lost possession of a thing, although he was not dominus ex jure Quirilium. (Inst. 4. tit. 6.45.) It is not unlikely that this Publicius was the jurist cited in the Digest; and there is some ground for identifying him with Q. Publicius, who was praetor peregrines in B. C. 69. (Cic. Clu. 45).

(Bertrandus, de Jurisp. 2.16; Guil. Grotius, Vitae Jurisc. 1.11.15-18; Maiansius, ad xxx ICtorum Frag. Comment, vol. ii. p. 154-161 ; Zimmern, R. R. G. vol. 1.79; Hugo, R. R. G. ed. 1832, p. 535.) [J.T.G]

[GELLIA GENS.]

(1) Cn. An early Roman historian, a contemporary of the Gracchi. His history of Rome, though lost, is frequently quoted by the later writers.

(2) Aulus. A Latin grammarian, born at Rome in the early part of the second century, and who died at the beginning of the reign of Marcus Aurelius. We have but few particulars of his life, though it is known that he studied rhetoric under Antonius Iulianus and Sulpicius Apollinaris at Rome, and philosophy under Favorinus at Athens, and that, on his return to Rome, while still at an early age, he was made one of the centumviri or judges in civil causes (Noct. Att. xiv. 2). Gellius has left behind him one work, entitled Noctes Atticae, “Attic Nights.” It was written, as he informs us in the preface, during the winter evenings in Attica, to amuse his children in their hours of relaxation. It appears from his own account that he had been accustomed to keep a commonplace book, in which he entered whatever he heard in conversation, or met with in his private reading, that appeared worthy of remembrance. In composing his Noctes Atticae, he seems merely to have copied the contents of his commonplace book, with a little alteration in the language, but without any attempt at classification or arrangement. It is, in fact, a huge scrap-book containing anecdotes and arguments, bits of history and pieces of poetry, and dissertations on various points in philosophy, geometry, and grammar. Amid much that is trifling and puerile, it gives information on many subjects relating to antiquity of which we must otherwise have been ignorant. It is divided into twenty books, which are still extant, excepting the eighth and the first part of the preface to the whole. Of the eighth book, the table of contents has come down. He mentions, in the conclusion of his preface, his intention of continuing the work, which purpose he probably, however, never carried into effect. The style of Aulus Gellius is in general unfit for imitation. In his fondness for archaisms, he is often carried too far, and introduces too many forms of expression from the earlier comic poets, whom he seems most anxious to take for his models in this respect. That he invented, however, any new terms himself seems hardly probable. His language, in fact, belongs to the so-called African style of Latinity, with a mingling of archaic forms and those that are characteristic of the plebeian speech. (See African Period of Latinity; Sermo Plebeius.) The standard editions of Aulus Gellius are those of Carrio (Paris, 1585); Gronovius (Leyden, 1706; revised by Conradi, 1762); Lion (Göttingen, 1824); and M. Hertz (Berlin, 1883; smaller ed. Leipzig, 1886). The Noctes Atticae has been translated into English by Beloe (London, 1800); into French by De Chaumont, Flambart, and Buisson (Paris, 1862); and into German by Weiss (Leipzig, 1875). For a valuable analysis of the Noctes Atticae, and a critical estimate of Gellius, see Prof. Nettleship's Essays in Latin Literature (Oxford, 1885). On the language, see Gorges, De Quibusdam Sermonis Gell. Proprietatibus (Halle, 1883); and Cooper, Sermo Plebeius (N. Y. 1895).