Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

GALERUS.

193

GEROUSIA.

peculiar form of which is supposed to have
been the avAuurt? rpv^xxkeia, i. e. the perfo-
rated heaver. The gladiators wore helmets
of this kind.

GALERUS or GALERUM, originally a
covering for the head worn by priests, espe-
cially by the flamen dialis. It appears to
have been a round cap made of leather, with
its top ending in an apex or point. [Apex.]
In course of time the name was applied to
any kind of cap fitting close to the head like
a helmet. Galerus and its diminutive Gale-
riculum are also used to signify a covering
for the head made of hair, and hence a wig.

GALLI, the priests of Cybele, whose wor-
ship was introduced at Rome from Phrygia.
The Galli were, according to an ancient cus-
tom, always castrated, and it would seem
that, impelled by religious fanaticism, they
performed this operation on themselves. In
their wild, enthusiastic, and boisterous rites
they resembled the Corybantes. They seem
to have been always chosen from a poor and
despised class of people, for, while no other
priests were allowed to beg, the Galli were
permitted to do so on certain days. The chief
priest among them was called archigallus.

GAMELIA (yaiM-qKia). The domes 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 gamclia.
The women were enrolled in the lists of the
phratries, and this enrolment was also called
gamelia.

GAUSAPA, GAUSAPE, or GAUSAPUM,
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 hath, 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.

GENESIA. [Funus.]

6ENOS (yeVos). [Titmrs, Greek.]

GENS. According to the traditional ac-
counts 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 expres-
sions 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 indi-
cated by the gentes of this tribe being called
minores, by way of being distinguished from
the older gentes, mnjores, 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 (sacel-
lum) 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.

GEOMORI. [Triuus, Greek.]

GEROUSIA (yepoi/o-ia), 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 Jloule (/3ouArj) or democratical council
was an element of most Ionian constitutions.
The Gerousia at Sparta, including the two
kings, its presidents, consisted of thirty
members (yepovrts) : 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 (wfiai),
which were, like the Gerontes, thirty in
number, so that each oba was represented by
its councillor : an inference which leads to
the conclusion that two obae at least of the

o