Chapter IV: , VII (79)

The last definite survival of Roman sovereignty in Gaul
lingered until 486 in a district north of the Seine, between
the Marne and the Oise, which had Soissons for its capital. It
was maintained there, in the first instance, by Ægidius, a
Gallic noble whom Marjorian, one of the last of the emperors
at Rome, made Master-General of Gaul. The respect commanded by
Ægidius among the surrounding barbarians was so great that the
Salian Franks invited him to rule over them, in place of a
licentious young king, Childeric, whom they had driven into
exile. He was king of these Franks, according to Gregory of
Tours, for eight years (457-464), until he died. Childeric
then returned, was reinstated in his kingdom and became the
father of Clovis (or Chlodwig), the founder of the great Frank
monarchy. But a son of Ægidius, named Syagrius, was still the
inheritor of a kingdom, known as, the "Kingdom of Syagrius,"
embracing, as has been said, the country around Soissons,
between the Seine, the Marne and the Oise, and also including,
in the opinion of some writers, Troyes and Auxerre. The first
exploit of Clovis--the beginning of his career of
conquest--was the overthrow of this "king of the Romans," as
Syagrius was called, in a decisive battle fought at Soissons,
A. D. 486, and the incorporation of his kingdom into the Frank
dominions. Syagrius escaped to Toulouse, but was surrendered
to Clovis and put to death.

_P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
book 3, chapter 11._

ALSO IN:
_W. C. Perry,
The Franks,
chapter 2._

GAUL: A. D. 474.
Invasion of Ostrogoths.

See GOTHS (OSTROGOTHS): A. D. 473-474.

GAUL: A. D. 507-509.
Expulsion of the Visigoths.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 507-509.

GAUL: A. D. 540.
Formal relinquishment of the country to the Franks by
Justinian.

See FRANKS: A. D. 539-553.

GAULS.

"The Gauls, properly so called, the Galatæ of the Greeks, the
Galli of the Romans, and the Gael of modern history, formed
the van of the great Celtic migration which had poured
westward at various intervals during many hundred years. ...
Having overrun the south of Gaul and penetrated into Spain,
they lost a part of the territory thus acquired, and the
restoration of the Iberian fugitives to Aquitania placed a
barrier between the Celts in Spain and their brethren whom
they had left behind them in the north. In the time of the
Romans the Galli were found established in the centre and east
of the country denominated Gaul, forming for the most part a
great confederation, at the head of which stood the Arverni.
It was the policy of the Romans to raise the Ædui into
competition with this dominant tribe. ... The Arverni, whose
name is retained in the modern appellation of Auvergne,
occupied a large district in the middle and south of Gaul, and
were surrounded by tributary or dependent clans. The Ædui lay
more to the north and east, and the centre of their
possessions is marked by the position of their capital
Bibracte, the modern Autun, situated in the highlands which
separate the waters of the Loire, the Seine and the Saone. ...
{1416}
Other Gallic tribes stretched beyond the Saone: the Sequani,
who afterwards made an attempt to usurp this coveted
preeminence (the valley of the Doubs formed the centre of the
Sequanese territory, which reached to the Jura and the Rhine);
the Helvetii and other mountain races, whose scanty pastures
extended to the sources of the Rhine; the Allobroges, who
dwelt upon the Isere and Rhone, and who were the first of
their race to meet and the first to succumb before the prowess
of the Roman legions. According to the classification both of
Cæsar and Strabo, the Turones, Pictones and Santones must be
comprised under the same general denomination."

_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 5 (volume 1)._

See, also, CELTS.

GAUL: B. C. 390-347.
Invasions of Italy.
Destruction of Rome.

See ROME: B. C. 390-347.

GAUL: B. C. 295-191.
Roman conquest of the Cisalpine tribes.

See ROME: B. C. 295-191.

GAUL: B. C. 280-279.
Invasion of Greece.

In the year 280 B. C. the Gauls, who had long before passed
from northern Italy around the Adriatic to its eastern coast,
made their first appearance in Macedonia and northern Greece.
The Macedonian throne was occupied at the time by the infamous
usurper, Ptolemy Ceraunus (see MACEDONIA: B. C. 297-280), and
the Celtic savages did one good service to Greece by slaying
him, in the single battle that was fought. The whole open
country was abandoned to them, for a time, and they swept it,
as far southward as the valley of the Peneus, in Thessaly; but
the walled cities were safe. After ravaging the country for
some months the Gauls appear to have retired; but it was only
to return again the next year in more formidable numbers and
under a chief, Brennus, of more vigor and capability. On this
occasion the country suffered fearfully from the barbaric
swarm, but defended itself with something like the spirit of
the Greece of two centuries before. The Ætolians were
conspicuous in the struggle; the Peloponnesian states gave
little assistance. The policy of defense was much the same as
at the time of the Persian invasion, and the enemy was
confronted in force at the pass of Thermopylæ. Brennus made a
more desperate attempt to force the pass than Xerxes had done
and was beaten back with a tremendous slaughter of his Gauls.
But he found traitors, as Xerxes had done, to guide him over
the mountains, and the Greeks at Thermopylæ, surrounded by the
enemy, could only escape by sea. The Gauls marched on Delphi,
eager for the plunder of the great temple, and there they met
with some fatal disaster. Precisely what occurred is not
known. According to the Greeks, the god protected his
sanctuary, and the accounts they have left are full of
miracles and prodigies--of earthquakes, lightnings, tempests,
and disease. The only clear facts seem to be that Delphi was
successfully defended; that the Gauls retreated in disorder
and were destroyed in vast numbers before the remnant of them
got away from the country. Brennus is said to have killed
himself to escape the wrath of his people for the failure of
the expedition. One large body of the great army had separated
from the rest and gone eastward into Thrace, before the
catastrophe occurred. These subsequently passed over to Asia
and pursued there an adventurous career, leaving a historic
name in the country.

See GALATIA.

_C. Thirlwall,
History of Greece,
chapter 60._

----------GAUL: End----------

GAULS, Præfect of the.

See PRÆTORIAN PRÆFECTS.

GAUSARAPOS, OR GUUCHIES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PAMPAS TRIBES.

GAVELKIND, Irish.

"The Irish law of succession in landed property, known as that
of Irish gavelkind, was a logical consequence of the theory of
tribal ownership. If a member of the tribe died, his piece of
land did not descend by right to his eldest son, or even to
all his children equally. Originally, it reverted to its sole
absolute owner, the tribe, every member of which had a right
to use proportionate to his tribal status. This was
undoubtedly the essential principle of inheritance by
gavelkind."

_S. Bryant,
Celtic Ireland,
chapter 6._

ALSO IN:
_Sir H. Maine,
Early History of Institutions,
lecture 7._

GAVELKIND, Kentish.

See FEUDAL TENURES.

GAVEREN, Battle of (1453).

See GHENT: A. D. 1451-1453.

GAZA: Early history.

See PHILISTINES.

GAZA: B. C. 332.
Siege by Alexander.

In his march from Phœnicia to Egypt (see MACEDONIA, &c.: B. C.
334-330), Alexander the Great was compelled to pause for
several months and lay siege to the ancient Philistine city of
Gaza. It was defended for the Persian king by a brave eunuch
named Batis. In the course of the siege, Alexander received a
severe wound in the shoulder, which irritated his savage
temper. When the town was at length taken by storm, he gave no
quarter. Its male inhabitants were put to the sword and the
women and children sold to slavery. The eunuch Batis, being
captured alive, but wounded, was dragged by the feet at the
tail of a chariot, driven at full speed by Alexander himself.
The "greatest of conquerors" proved himself often enough, in
this way, to be the greatest of barbarians--in his age.

_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 93._

GAZA: B. C. 312.
Battle between Ptolemy and Demetrius.

See MACEDONIA: B. C. 315-310.

GAZA: B. C. 100.
Destruction by Alexander Jannæus.

Gaza having sided with the Egyptian king, in a war between
Alexander Jannæus, one of the Asmonean kings of the Jews, and
Ptolemy Lathyrus of Egypt and Cyprus, the former laid siege to
the city, about 100 B. C., and acquired possession of it after
several months, through treachery. He took his revenge by
massacring the inhabitants and reducing the city to ruins. It
was rebuilt not long afterwards by the Romans.

_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 3, chapter 9._

GAZA: A. D. 1516.
Defeat of the Mamelukes by the Turks.

See TURKS: A. D. 1481-1520.

----------GAZA: End----------

GAZACA.

See ECBATANA.

GAZARI, The.

See CATHARISTS.

GAZNEVIDES, OR GHAZNEVIDES.

See TURKS: A. D. 999-1183.

GEARY ACT, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1892.

GEDDES, Jenny, and her stool.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1637.

{1417}

GEDROSIANS, The.

"Close to the Indus, and beyond the bare, hot, treeless shores
of the ocean, the southern part of the plain [of eastern Iran]
consists of sandy flats, in which nothing grows but prickly
herbs and a few palms. The springs are a day's journey from
each other, and often more. This region was possessed by a
people whom Herodotus calls Sattagydæ and the companions of
Alexander of Macedonia, Gedrosians. ... Neighbours of the
Gandarians, who, as we know, dwelt on the right bank of the
Indus down to the Cabul, the Gedrosians led a wandering,
predatory life; under the Persian kings, they were united into
one satrapy with the Gandarians."

_M. Duncker,
History of Antiquity,
book 7, chapter 1 (volume 5)._

GEIZA II., King of Hungary, A. D. 1141-1160.

GELA, Founding of.

See SYRACUSE, FOUNDING OF.

GELASIUS II., Pope, A. D. 1118-1119.

GELEONTES.

See PHYLÆ.

GELHEIM, Battle of (1298).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1273-1308.

GELONI, The.

An ancient colony of Greeks intermixed with natives which
shared the country of the Budini, on the steppes between the
Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea.

_G. Grote, History of Greece,
part 2, volume 3, chapter 17._

GELVES, Battle of (1510).

See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1505-1510.

GEMARA, The.

See TALMUD.

GEMBLOURS, Battle of (1578).

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1577-1581.

GEMEINDE.--GEMEINDERATH.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1848-1890.

GEMOT.

A meeting, assembly, council, moot.

See WITENAGEMOT.

GENABUM, OR CENABUM.

The principal town of the Gallic tribe called the Carnutes;
identified by most archæologists with the modern city of
Orleans, France, though some think its site was at Gien.

See GAUL, CÆSAR'S CONQUEST OF.

GENAUNI, The.

See RHÆTIANS.

GENERAL PRIVILEGE OF ARAGON.

See CORTES, THE EARLY SPANISH.

GENERALS, Execution of the Athenian.

See GREECE: B. C. 406.

GENET, "Citizen," the mission of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1793.

GENEVA: Beginnings of the city.

See HELVETII, THE ARRESTED MIGRATION OF THE.

GENEVA: A. D. 500.
Under the Burgundians.

See BURGUNDIANS: A. D. 500.

GENEVA: 10th Century.
In the kingdom of Arles.

See BURGUNDY: A. D. 843-933.

GENEVA: A. D. 1401.
Acquisition of the Genevois, or County, by the House of Savoy.
The city surrounded.

See SAVOY: 11TH-15TH CENTURIES.

GENEVA: A. D. 1504-1535.
The emancipation of the city from the Vidomme and the
Prince-Bishop.
Triumph of the Reformation.

"Geneva was nominally a free city of the Empire, but had in
reality been governed for some centuries by its own bishop,
associated with a committee of lay-assessors, and controlled
by the general body of the citizens, in whose hands the
ultimate power of taxation, and of election of the magistrates
and regulation of the police, rested. The prince-bishop did
not exercise his temporal jurisdiction directly, but through
an officer called the Vidomme (vice-dominus), whose rights had
in the 15th century become hereditary in the dukes of Savoy.
These rights appear to have been exercised without any
considerable attempt at encroachment till the beginning of the
following century, when Charles III. succeeded to the ducal
crown (1504). To his ambition the bishop, John, a weak and
willing tool of the Savoy family, to which he was nearly
allied, ceded everything; and the result was a tyrannical
attempt to destroy the liberties of the Genevese. The Assembly
of the citizens rose in arms; a bitter and sanguinary contest
ensued between the Eidgenossen [Confederates] or Patriot party
on the one side, and the Mamelukes or monarchical party on the
other side. By the help of the free Helvetian states,
particularly Berne and Friburg, the Patriots triumphed, the
friends of Savoy were banished, the Vidommate abolished, and
its powers transferred to a board of magistrates. The conduct
of the bishops in this conflict ... helped greatly, as may be
imagined, to shake the old hierarchical authority in Geneva;
and when, in 1532, Farel first made his appearance in the
city, he found a party not indisposed to join him in his eager
and zealous projects of reform. He had a hard fight for it,
however, and was at first obliged to yield, and leave the city
for a time; and it was not till August 1535 that he and Viret
and Froment succeeded in abolishing the mass, and establishing
the Protestant faith."

_J. Tulloch,
Leaders of the Reformation,
pages 161-162._

ALSO IN:
_J. Planta,
History of the Helvetic Confederacy,
book 2, chapter 6 (volume 2)._

_I. Spon,
History of the City and State of Geneva,
book 2._

See, also, SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1531-1648.

GENEVA: A. D. 1536.
The coming of Calvin.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1521-1535.

GENEVA: A. D. 1536-1564.
Calvin's Ecclesiastical State.

"Humanly speaking, it was a mere accident which caused Calvin
to yield to the entreaties of his friends to remain in the
city where he was to begin his renowned efforts in the cause
of reform. Geneva had been from ancient times one of the most
flourishing imperial cities of the Burgundian territory; it
was situated on the frontiers of several countries where the
cross roads of various nationalities met. The city, which in
itself was remarkable, belonged originally to the German
empire; the language of its inhabitants was Romanic; it was
bounded on one side by Burgundy, on the other by German
Switzerland. ... Geneva was apparently in a state of
political, ecclesiastical, and moral decay. With the
puritanical strictness of Geneva, as it afterwards became,
before the mind's eye, it is difficult to picture the Geneva
of that day. An unbridled love of pleasure, a reckless
wantonness, a licentious frivolity had taken possession of
Genevan life, while the State was the plaything of intestine
and foreign feuds. ... Reformers had already appeared in the
city: Vinet, Farel, Theodore Beza; they were Frenchmen, Farel
a near neighbour of Geneva. These French Reformers are of
quite a different stamp from our Germans, who, according as
Luther or Melancthon is taken as their type, have either a
plebeian popular, or learned theological character. They are
either popular orators of great power and little polish, or
they belong to the learned circles, and keep strictly to this
character. In France they were mostly men belonging not to the
lower, but to the middle and higher ranks of society, refined
and cultivated; and in this fact lay the weakness of
Calvinism, which knew well how to rule the masses, but never
to gain their affection. ...
{1418}
His [Calvin's] greatness ... was shown in the fanatical zeal
with which he entered the city, ready to stake his life for
his cause. He began to teach, to found a school, to labour on
the structure which was the idea of his life, to introduce
reforms in doctrine, worship, the constitution and discipline
of the Church, and he preached with that powerful eloquence
only possessed by those in whom character and teaching are in
unison. The purified worship was to take place within bare,
unadorned walls; no picture of Christ, nor pomp of any kind,
was to disturb the aspirations of the soul. Life outside the
temple was also to be a service of God; games, swearing,
dancing, singing, worldly amusements, and pleasure were
regarded by him as sins, as much as real vice and crime. He
began to form little congregations, like those in the early
ages of the Church, and it need scarcely be said that even in
this worldly and pleasure-loving city the apparition of this
man, in the full vigour of life, all conviction and
determination, half prophet and half tribune, produced a
powerful impression. The number of his outward followers
increased, but they were outward followers only. Most of them
thought it would be well to make use of the bold Reformer to
oppose the bishop, and that he would find means of
establishing a new and independent Church, but they seemed to
regard freedom as libertinism. Calvin therefore regarded the
course things were taking with profound dissatisfaction. ...
So he delivered some extremely severe sermons, which half
frightened and half estranged his hearers; and at Easter,
1538, when the congregation came to partake of the Lord's
Supper, he took the unheard-of step of sending them all back
from the altar, saying, 'You are not worthy to partake of the
Lord's body; you are just what you were before; your
sentiments, your morals, and your conduct are unchanged.' This
was more than could be hazarded without peril to his life. The
effect was indescribable; his own friends disapproved of the
step. But that did not dismay him. He had barely time to flee
for his life, and he had to leave Geneva in a state of
transition--a chaos which justified a saying of his own, that
defection from one Church is not renovation by another. He was
now once more an exile. He wandered about on the frontiers of
his country, in the German cities of Strasburg, Basle, &c.,
and we several times meet with him in the religious
discussions between 1540 and 1550. ... But a time came when
they wished him back at Geneva. ... In September, 1541, he
returned and began his celebrated labours. Endowed with
supreme power, like Lycurgus at Sparta, he set to work to make
Geneva a city of the Lord--to found an ecclesiastical state in
which religion, public life, government, and the worship of
God were to be all of a piece, and an extraordinary task it
was. Calvinistic Geneva became the school of reform for
western Europe, and scattered far and wide the germs of
similar institutions. In times when Protestantism elsewhere
had become cool, this school carried on the conflict with the
mediæval Church. Calvin was implacable in his determination to
purify the worship of God of all needless adjuncts. All that
was calculated to charm and affect the senses was abolished;
spiritual worship should be independent of all earthly things,
and should consist of edification by the word, and simple
spiritual songs. All the traditional externals that Luther had
retained--altars, pictures, ceremonials, and decorations of
every kind--were dispensed with. ... Calvin next established a
system of Church discipline which controlled the individual in
every relation of life, and ruled him from the cradle to the
grave. He retained all the means by which ecclesiastical
authority enforced obedience on the faithful in the Middle
Ages--baptism, education up to confirmation, penance, penal
discipline, and excommunication. ... Calvin began his labours
late in the autumn of 1541, and he acquired and maintained
more power than was ever exercised by the most powerful popes.
He was indeed only the 'preacher of the word,' but through his
great influence he was the lawgiver, the administrator, the
dictator of the State of Geneva. There was nothing in the
commonwealth that had not been ordained by him, and this
indicates a remarkable aspect of his character. The
organization of the State of Geneva began with the ordinances
of the 2nd of January, 1542. There were four orders of
officials--pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons. The
Consistory was formed of the pastors and elders. ... It was
the special duty of the Consistory, which was composed of the
clergy and twelve laymen, to see that the ordinances were duly
observed, and it was the supreme tribunal of morals. The
twelve laymen were elected for a year, by the council of two
hundred, on the nomination by the clergy. The Consistory met
every Thursday to see that everything in the church was in
order. They had the power of excommunication, but this only
consisted in exclusion from the community of the faithful, and
the loss of the privilege of partaking of the Lord's Supper.
It also decided questions relating to marriage. The deacons
had the care of the poor and of almsgiving. Calvin himself was
the soul of the whole organization. But he was a cold, stiff,
almost gloomy being, and his character produces a very
different impression from the genial warmth of Luther, who
could be cheerful and merry with his family. Half Old
Testament prophet, half Republican demagogue, Calvin could do
anything in his State, but it was by means of his personal
influence, the authority of his words, 'the majesty of his
character,' as was said by a magistrate of Geneva after his
death. He was to the last the simple minister, whose frugal
mode of life appeared to his enemies like niggardliness. After
a reign of twenty-three years, he left behind him the
possessions of a mendicant monk. ... No other reformer
established so rigid a church discipline. ... All noisy games,
games of chance, dancing, singing of profane songs, cursing
and swearing, were forbidden, and ... church-going and
Sabbath-keeping were strictly enjoined. The moral police took
account of everything. Every citizen had to be at home by nine
o'clock, under heavy penalties. Adultery, which had previously
been punished by a few days' imprisonment and a small fine,
was now punished by death. ... At a time when Europe had no
solid results of reform to show, this little State of Geneva
stood up as a great power; year by year it sent forth apostles
into the world, who preached its doctrines everywhere, and it
became the most dreaded counterpoise to Rome, when Rome no
longer had any bulwark to defend her. ... It formed a weighty
counterpoise to the desperate efforts which the ancient Church
and monarchical power were making to crush the spirit of the
Reformation.
{1419}
It was impossible to oppose Caraffa, Philip II., and the
Stuarts, with Luther's passive resistance; men were wanted who
were ready to wage war to the knife, and such was the
Calvinistic school. It everywhere accepted the challenge;
throughout all the conflicts for political and religious
liberty, up to the time of the first emigration to America, in
France, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland, we recognise
the Genevan school. A little bit of the world's history was
enacted in Geneva, which forms the proudest portion of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."

_L. Häusser,
The Period of the Reformation,
chapter 18._

ALSO IN:
_P. Henry,
Life and Times of Calvin,
parts 2-3._

_J. H. Merle D'Aubigne,
History of the Reformation in the time of Calvin,
books 9 and 11._

_F. P. Guizot,
Calvin,
chapters 12-22._

_L. von Ranke,
Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, 16th-17th Centuries,
chapter 8._

GENEVA: A. D. 1570.
Treaty with the Duke of Savoy.
Agreement of non-molestation.

See SAVOY: A. D. 1559-1580.

GENEVA: A. D. 1602-1603.
The escalade of the Savoyards and its repulse.
Treaty of St. Julien.

Finding a pretext in some hostile manifestations which had
appeared among the Genevese during a conflict between the
French king and himself, Charles Emanuel I., duke of Savoy,
chose to consider himself at war with Geneva, and "determined
to fight out his quarrel without further notice. The night of
the 11th to the 12th of December, 1602.. is forever memorable
in the annals of Geneva. 4,000 Savoyards, aided by darkness,
attempted the escalade of its walls; an unforeseen accident
disconcerted them; the citizens exhibited the most heroic
presence of mind; the ladders by which the aggressors ascended
were shot down by a random cannon-ball; the troops outside
fell into confusion; those who had already entered the town
were either mowed down in fight or hung on the scaffold on the
morrow; thus the whole enterprise miscarried. It was in vain
that the Duke came forward with his whole host, and tried to
prevail by open force where stratagem had failed. He was
thwarted by the intervention of the French and Swiss, and
compelled by their threats to sign the Treaty of St. Julien
(July 21st, 1603), which secured the independence of the
Genevese. Charles nevertheless did not, to his last day, give
up his designs upon that city."

_A. Gallenga,
History of Piedmont,
volume 3, chapter 2._

GENEVA: A. D. 1798.
Forcibly united to the French Republic.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1792-1798.

GENEVA: A. D. 1814.
United with the Swiss Confederation.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1803-1848.

GENEVA: A. D. 1815.
United as a canton to the Swiss Confederation, by the Congress
of Vienna.

See VIENNA, THE CONGRESS OF.

----------GENEVA: End----------

GENEVA CONVENTION, The.

See RED CROSS.

GENEVA TRIBUNAL OF ARBITRATION.

See ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1871, and 1871-1872.

GENEVOIS, The.

See SAVOY AND PIEDMONT: 11TH-15TH CENTURIES.

GENGHIS KHAN, The conquests of.

See MONGOLS: A. D. 1153-1227.

GENOA:
Origin and rise of the city.

"Genoa, anciently Genua, was the chief maritime city of
Liguria, and afterwards a Roman municipium. Under the Lombards
the constant invasions of the Saracens united the professions
of trade and war, and its greatest merchants became also its
greatest generals, while its naval captains were also
merchants. The Crusades were of great advantage to Genoa [see
CRUSADES: A. D. 1104-1111] in enabling it to establish trading
settlements as far as the Black Sea; but the power of Pisa in
the East, as well as its possession of Corsica and Sardinia,
led to wars between it and Genoa, in which the Genoese took
Corsica [see CORSICA: EARLY HISTORY] and drove the Pisans out
of Sardinia. By land the Genoese territory was extended to
Nice on one side and to Spezia on the other."

_A. J. C. Hare,
Cities of Northern and Central Italy,
volume 1, page 30._

GENOA: A. D. 1256-1257.
Battles with the Venetians at Acre.

See VENICE: A. D. 1256-1257.

GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299.
The supplanting of Venice at Constantinople and in the Black
Sea trade.
Colonies in the Crimea.
Wars with Venice.
Victory at Curzola and favorable treaty of peace.

During the Latin dynasty in Constantinople the Genoese never
gained the first place in the commerce of the Black Sea. ...
It was Venice who held the key of all this commerce, at
Constantinople; when, after diverting the whole course of the
fourth Crusade, she induced Christendom to waste its energies
on subduing the Greek empire for her benefit [see BYZANTINE
EMPIRE: A.D. 1203-1204]. With the exiled Greek dynasty,
however, the Genoese were always on the best of terms, at
Trebizond, Nicea, and in Roumania; and recognizing that as
long as the Latins were all-powerful in Constantinople she
would have to relinquish the cream of the Black Sea commerce
to the Queen of the Adriatic, she at length determined to
strike a bold stroke and replace a Greek again on the throne."
This was accomplished in 1261, when Baldwin II. fled from the
Byzantine capital and Michael Paleologus took possession of
his throne and crown (see GREEK EMPIRE OF NICÆA: A. D.
1204-1261). For the assistance given in that revolution, the
Genoese obtained the treaty of Ninfeo, "which firmly
established their influence in the Black Sea. ... Thus did the
brave mariner-town of Genoa turn the scale of the vast, but
rotten, Eastern Empire; and her reward was manifold. The
grateful emperor gave her streets and quays in Constantinople,
immunity from tribute, and a free passage for her commerce.
... In addition to these excellent terms in the treaty of
Ninfeo, the emperor conceded to various Genoese private
families numerous islands in the Archipelago. ... But the
great nucleus of this power was the streets, churches, and
quays in Constantinople which were allotted to the Genoese,
and formed a vast emporium of strength and commerce, which
must have eventually led to entire possession of
Constantinople, had not the 'podesta,' or ruler of the Genoese
colony there, thought fit, from personal motives, or from large
offers made him by the Venetians, to attempt a restoration of
the Latin line. ... His conspiracy was discovered, and the
Genoese were sent away in a body to Eraclea. However, on
representation from home that it was none of their doing, and
that Guercio had been acting entirely on his own account, the
emperor yielded in perpetuity to the Genoese the town of Pera,
on the sole condition that the governors should do him homage
[see, also, CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1261-1453]. ...
{1420}
Thus were the Genoese established in this commanding position;
here they had a separate government of their own, from here
they ruled the road of commerce from China to Europe; and,
taking advantage of the weakness of the emperors, they were
able to do much as they wished about building fortresses and
palaces, with gardens to the water's edge; and thus from Pera,
with its citadel of Galata behind it, they were enabled to
dictate what terms they pleased to ships passing to and from
the Bosphorus." In the Black Sea, "from time immemorial, the
small tongue of land now known as the Crimea, then as the
Tauric Chersonese, was the mart towards which all the caravan
trade of Asia was directed by this northern road, and upon
this tongue of land sprang up a group of noble cities which,
until finally seized by the Turks, were without exception
Genoese property. Of these, Caffa was the chief. When this
city was built on the ruins of Theodosia, and by whom, is
somewhat shrouded in mystery. Certain it is that Genoa had a
colony here soon after the first Crusade. ... Second only to
Caffa in importance, and better known to us by name, was the
town of Crim, which gave its name eventually to the whole
peninsula, which originally it had got from the Crim Tatars.
... Prior to its cession to the Genoese, it had been the
residence of a Tatar emperor. ... Here, then, in this narrow
tongue of land, which we now call the Crimea, was the kernel
of Genoese prosperity. As long as she flourished here she
flourished at home. And when at length the Turkish scourge
swept over this peninsula and swallowed up her colonies, the
Ligurian Republic, by a process of slow decay, withered like a
sapless tree." The supplanting of the Venetians at
Constantinople by the Genoese, and the great advantages gained
by the latter in the commerce of the Black Sea, led
necessarily to war between the rival republics. "To maintain
her newly acquired influence in the East, Genoa sent forth a
fleet under the joint command of Pierino Grimaldi, a noble,
and Perchelto Mallone, the people's representative. They
encountered the Venetian squadron at Malvasia [1263] which was
greatly inferior to their own. But as the combatants were just
warming to their work, Mallone, actuated by party spirit,
withdrew his ships and sailed away. The Venetians could
scarcely believe what they saw; they anticipated some deep
laid stratagem, and withdrew for a while from the contest.
When however they beheld Mallone's galleys fairly under sail,
they wonderingly attacked Grimaldi and his 13 ships and
obtained an easy victory. Grimaldi fell at his post. ... This
fatal day of Malvasia [sometimes called the battle of Sette
Pozzi] might easily have secured Venice her lost place in the
Black Sea had she been able to follow up her victory, but with
inexplicable want of vigour she remained inactive." Genoa,
meantime, recovered from the disaster and sent out another
fleet which captured a rich squadron of Venetian merchant
ships in the Adriatic, taking large booty. "It surprises us
immensely to find how for the next thirty years Genoa was able
to keep up a desultory warfare with Venice, when she was at
the height of her struggle with Pisa; and it surprises us
still more that Venice raised not a hand to assist Pisa,
though she was on most friendly terms with her, and when by so
doing she could have ruined Genoa. ... After the fall of Pisa
at Meloria, in 1296 [1284], Genoa could transfer her attention
with all the greater vigour to her contest against Venice.
Four years after this victory men's minds were again bent on
war. Venice cared not to pay a tax to her rival on all ships
which went to Caffa, Genoa resented the treatment she had
received in Cyprus, and thus the rivals prepared for another
and more determined contest for supremacy." The Venetians sent
a fleet to operate in the Black Sea. "Fire was set to the
houses of Galata, irreparable damage was done to Caffa, and in
the Archipelago everything Genoese was burnt, and then off
they sailed for Cyprus, whilst the Genoese were squabbling
amongst themselves. With much trouble the many rulers of Genoa
succeeded at length in adjusting their difference, and a
goodly array of 76 galleys was entrusted to the care of Lamba
D'Oria to punish the Venetians for their depredations. ...
Much larger was the force Venice produced for the contest, and
when the combatants met off Curzola, amongst the Dalmatian
islands, the Genoese were anxious to come to terms, and sought
them, but the Venetians haughtily refused. ... This battle of
Curzola [September 8, 1298] was a sharp and vehement struggle,
and resulted in terrible loss to the Venetians, four of whose
galleys alone escaped to tell the tale. ... Had Lamba D'Oria
but driven the contest home, Venice was ill-prepared to meet
him; as it was, he determined to sail off to Genoa, taking
with him the Venetian admiral ... Dandolo. Chained to the mast
of his own vessel, and unable to sustain the effects of his
humiliation, there, as he stood, Dandolo dashed his head
against the mast and died. ... The natural result of such a
victory was a most favourable peace for Genoa, signed under
the direction of Matteo Visconti, lord of Milan, in 1299; and
thus the century closed on Genoa as without doubt the most
powerful state in Italy, and unquestionably the mistress of
the Mediterranean. ... The next outbreak of war between the
two Republics had its origin in the occupation of the island
of Chios, in 1349," and Genoa in that struggle encountered not
the Venetians alone, but the Greeks and Catalans in alliance
with them.

See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1348-1355.

_J. T. Bent,
Genoa: How the Republic rose and fell,
chapters 6 and 8._

ALSO IN:
_W. C. Hazlitt,
History of the Venetian Republic,
chapter 11 (volume 2)._

GENOA: A. D. 1282-1290.
War with Pisa.
The great victory of Meloria.
Capture of the chain of the Pisan harbor.

See PISA: A. D. 1063-1293.

GENOA: A. D. 1313.
Alliance with the Emperor Henry VII. against Naples.

See ITALY: A. D. 1310-1313.

GENOA: A. D. 1318-1319.
Feuds of the four great families.
Siege of the city by the exiles and the Lombard princes, and
its defense by the King of Naples.

See ITALY: A. D. 1313-1330.

GENOA: A. D. 1348-1355.
War with the Greeks, Venetians and Aragonese.

See CONSTANTINOPLE: AD. 1348-1355.

GENOA: A. D. 1353.
Annexed by the Visconti to their Milanese principality.

See MILAN: A. D. 1277-1447.

GENOA: A. D. 1378-1379.
Renewed war with Venice.
The victory at Pola.

See VENICE: A. D. 1378-1379.

{1421}

GENOA: A. D. 1379-1381.
The disastrous war of Chioggia.
Venice triumphant.

See VENICE: A. D. 1379-1381.

GENOA: A. D. 1381-1422.
A succession of foreign masters.
The King of France, the Marquis of Monferrat
and the Duke of Milan.

The history of Genoa for more than a century after the
disastrous War of Chioggia "is one long and melancholy tissue
of internal and external troubles, coming faster and faster
upon one another as the inherent vitality of the Republic grew
weaker. ... During this period we have a constant and
unhealthy craving for foreign masters, be they Marquises of
Monferrato, Dukes of Milan, or the more formidable subverters
of freedom, the kings of France. ... In 1396 ... Adorno [then
doge of Genoa], finding himself unable to tyrannize as he
wished, decided on handing over the government to Charles VI.
of France. In this he was ably backed up by many members of
the old nobility, as the signatures to the treaty testify. The
king was to be entitled 'Defender of the Commune and People,'
and was to respect in every way the existing order of things.
So on the 27th of November, in that year, the great bell in
the tower of the ducal palace was rung, the French standard
was raised by the side of the red cross of Genoa, and in the
great council hall, where her rulers had sat for centuries,
now sat enthroned the French ambassadors, whilst Antoniotto
Adorno handed over to them the sceptre and keys of the city.
These symbols of government were graciously restored to him,
with the admonition that he should no longer be styled 'doge,'
but 'governor' in the name of France. Thus did Adorno sell his
country for the love of power, preferring to be the head of
many slaves, rather than to live as a subordinate in a free
community. The first two governors sent by France after
Adorno's death were unable to cope with the seething mass of
corruption they found within the city walls, until the Marshal
Boucicault was sent, whose name was far famed for cruelty in
Spain against the Moors, in Bulgaria against the Turks, and in
France against the rebels." The government of Boucicault was
hard and cruel, and "his name is handed down by the Genoese as
the most hateful of her many tyrants." In 1409 they took
advantage of his absence from the city to bring in the Marquis
of Monferrato, who established himself in his place. "It was
but for a brief period that the Genoese submitted to the
Marquis of Monferrato; they preferred to return to their doges
and internal quarrels. ... Throughout the city nothing was
heard but the din of arms. Brother fought against brother,
father against son, and for the whole of an unusually chill
December, in 1414, there was not a by-path in Genoa which was
not paved with lances, battle-axes and dead bodies. ... Out of
this fiery trial Genoa at length emerged with Tommaso
Campofregoso as her doge, one of the few bright lights which
illumined Liguria during the early part of this century. ...
The Genoese arms during this time of quiescence again shone
forth with something of their ancient brilliancy. Corsica was
subdued, and a substantial league was formed with Henry V. of
England, ... 1421, by which perpetual friendship and peace by
land and sea was sworn. Short, however, was the period during
which Genoa could rest contented at home. Campofregoso was
driven from the dogeship, and Filippo Maria, Visconti of
Milan, was appointed protector of the Republic [1422], and
through this allegiance the Genoese were drawn into an
unprofitable war for the succession in Naples, in which the
Duke of Milan and the Pope supported the claims of Queen
Joanna and her adopted son, Louis of Anjou, against Alphonso
of Aragon."

_J. T. Bent,
Genoa,
chapter 9._

_The Universal History,
chapter 73, sections 3-4 (volume 25)._

GENOA: A. D. 1385-1386.
Residence of Pope Urban VI.

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1343-1389.

GENOA: A. D. 1407-1448.
The Bank of St. George.

"The Bank of St. George was founded in Genoa in the year 1407.
It was an immense success and a great support to the
government. It gradually became a republic within the
republic, more peaceful and better regulated than its
mistress." In 1448 the administration of Corsica and of the
Genoese colonies in the Levant was transferred to the Bank,
which thenceforward appointed governors and conducted colonial
affairs.

_G. B. Malleson,
Studies from Genoese History,
page 75._

ALSO IN:
_J. T. Bent,
Genoa,
chapter 11._

See, also,
CORSICA: EARLY HISTORY.

GENOA: A. D. 1421-1435.
Submission to the Duke of Milan, and recovery of the freedom
of the city.

See ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447.

GENOA: A. D. 1458-1464.
Renewed struggles of domestic faction and changes of foreign
masters.
Submission to the Dukes of Milan.

"Genoa, wearied with internal convulsions, which followed each
other incessantly, had lost all influence over the rest of
Italy; continually oppressed by faction, it no longer
preserved even the recollection of liberty. In 1458, it had
submitted to the king of France, then Charles VII.; and John
of Anjou, duke of Calabria, had come to exercise the functions
of governor in the king's name. He made it, at the same time,
his fortress, from whence to attack the kingdom of Naples.

See ITALY: A. D. 1447-1480.

But this war had worn out the patience of the Genoese; they
rose against the French; and, on the 17th of July, 1461,
destroyed the army sent to subdue them by René of Anjou. The
Genoese had no sooner thrown off a foreign yoke than they
became divided into two factions,--the Adorni and the Fregosi,
[severally partisans of two families of that name which
contended for the control of the republic]: both had at
different times, and more than once, given them a doge. The
more violent and tyrannical of these factious magistrates was
Paolo Fregoso, also archbishop of Genoa, who had returned to
his country, in 1462, as chief of banditti; and left it again,
two years afterwards, as chief of a band of pirates. The
Genoese, disgusted with their independence, which was
disgraced by so many crimes and disturbances, had, on the 13th
of April, 1464, yielded to Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan;
and afterwards remained subject to his son Galeazzo."

_J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapter 11._

ALSO IN:
_B. Duffy,
The Tuscan Republics,
chapter 23._

GENOA: A. D. 1475.
Loss of possessions in the Crimea.

See TURKS: A. D. 1451-1481.

{1422}

GENOA: A. D. 1500-1507.
Capitulation to Louis XII. of France, conqueror of Milan.
Revolt and subjugation.

By the conquest of Milan (see ITALY: A. D. 1499-1500), Louis
XII. of France acquired the signoria of Genoa, which had been
held by the deposed duke, Ludovico Sforza. "According to the
capitulation, one half of the magistrates of Genoa should be
noble, the other half plebeian. They were to be chosen by the
suffrages of their fellow-citizens; they were to retain the
government of the whole of Liguria, and the administration of
their own finances, with the reservation of a fixed sum
payable yearly to the king of France. But the French could
never comprehend that nobles were on an equality with
villains; that a king was bound by conditions imposed by his
subjects; or that money could be refused to him who had force.
All the capitulations of Genoa were successively violated; while
the Genoese nobles ranged themselves on the side of a king
against their country: they were known to carry insolently
about them a dagger, on which was inscribed, 'Chastise
villains'; so impatient were they to separate themselves from
the people, even by meanness and assassination. That people
could not support the double yoke of a foreign master and of
nobles who betrayed their country. On the 7th of February,
1507, they revolted, drove out the French, proclaimed the
republic, and named a new doge; but time failed them to
organize their defence. On the 3d of April, Louis advanced
from Grenoble with a powerful army. He soon arrived before
Genoa: the newly-raised militia, unable to withstand veteran
troops, were defeated. Louis entered Genoa on the 29th of
April; and immediately sent the doge and the greater number of
the generous citizens, who had signalized themselves in the
defence of their country, to the scaffold."

_J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapter 14._

ALSO IN:
_L. von Ranke,
History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations
from 1494 to 1514,
page 260._

GENOA: A. D. 1527-1528.
French dominion momentarily restored and then overthrown by
Andrew Doria.
The republic revived.

See ITALY: A. D. 1527-1529.

GENOA: A. D. 1528-1559.
The conspiracy of Fiesco and its failure.
Revolt and recovery of Corsica.

"Sustained by the ability of Doria, and protected by the arms
of Charles V., the Republic, during near nineteen years
subsequent to this auspicious revolution, continued in the
enjoyment of dignified independence and repose. But, the
memorable conspiracy of Louis Fiesco, Count of Lavagna, the
Catiline of Liguria, had nearly subverted Genoa, and reduced
it anew to the obedience of France, or exposed it once more to
all the misfortunes of anarchy. The massacre of Doria and his
family constituted one of the primary objects of the plot;
while the dissimulation, intrepidity, and capacity, which
marked its leader ... have rendered the attempt one of the
most extraordinary related in modern history. It was
accompanied with complete success till the moment of its
termination. Jeannetin Doria, the heir of that house, having
perished by the dagger, and Andrew, his uncle, being with
difficulty saved by his servants, who transported him out of
the city, the Genoese Senate was about to submit
unconditionally to Fiesco, when that nobleman, by a sudden and
accidental death, at once rendered abortive his own hopes and
those of his followers. The government, resuming courage,
expelled the surviving conspirators; and Doria, on his return
to the city, sullied the lustre of his high character, by
proceeding to acts of cruelty against the brothers and
adherents of the Count of Lavagna. Notwithstanding this
culpable and vindictive excess, he continued invariably firm
to the political principles which he had inculcated, for
maintaining the freedom of the Commonwealth. Philip, Prince of
Spain, son of Charles V., having visited Genoa in the
succeeding year, attempted to induce the senate, under
specious pretences of securing their safety, to consent to the
construction of a citadel, garrisoned by Spaniards. But he found
in that assembly, as well as in Doria, an insurmountable
opposition to the measure, which was rejected with unanimous
indignation. The island of Corsica, which had been subjected
for ages to Genoa, and which was oppressed by a tyrannical
administration, took up arms at this period [1558-1559]; and
the French having aided the insurgents, they maintained a long
and successful struggle against their oppressors. But the
peace concluded at Cateau between Philip, King of Spain, and
Henry II., in which the Spanish court dictated terms to
France, obliged that nation to evacuate their Corsican
acquisitions, and to restore the island to the Genoese.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1547-1559.

Soon afterwards [1559], at the very advanced age of ninety,
Andrew Doria expired in his own palace, surrounded by the
people on whom he had conferred freedom and tranquillity;
leaving the Commonwealth in domestic repose and undisturbed by
foreign war."

_Sir N. W. Wraxall,
History of France, 1574-1610,
volume 2, pages 43-44._

ALSO IN:
_G. B. Malleson,
Studies from Genoese History,
chapter 1-3._

GENOA: A. D. 1625-1626.
Unsuccessful attack by France and Savoy.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.

GENOA: A. D. 1745.
The republic sides with Spain and France in the War of the
Austrian Succession.

See ITALY: A. D. 1745.

GENOA: A. D. 1746-1747.
Surrendered to the Austrians.
Popular rising.
Expulsion of the Austrian garrison.
Long siege and deliverance of the city.

See ITALY: A. D. 1746-1747.

GENOA: A. D. 1748.
Territory secured by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

See AIX-LA-CHAPELLE: A. D. 1748.

GENOA: A. D. 1768.
Cession of Corsica to France.

See CORSICA: A. D. 1729-1769.

GENOA: A. D. 1796.
Treaty of peace with France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (OCTOBER).

GENOA: A. D. 1797.
Revolution forced by Bonaparte.
Creation of the Ligurian Republic.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1797 (MAY-OCTOBER).

GENOA: A. D. 1800.
Siege by the Austrians.
Masséna's defense.
Surrender of the city.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1800-1801 (MAY-FEBRUARY).

GENOA: A. D. 1805.
Surrender of independence.
Annexation to France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1804-1805.

GENOA: A. D. 1814.
Reduction of the forts by English troops.
Surrender of the French garrison.

See ITALY: A. D. 1814.

GENOA: A. D. 1814-1815.
Annexation to the kingdom of Sardinia.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (APRIL-JUNE);
and VIENNA, THE CONGRESS OF.

----------GENOA: End----------

GENOLA, Battle of (1799).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).

{1423}

GENS, GENTES, GENTILES.

"When Roman history begins, there were within the city, and
subordinate to the common city government, a large number of
smaller bodies, each of which preserved its individuality and
some semblance of governmental machinery. These were clans
[gens], and in prehistoric times each of them is taken to have
had an independent political existence, living apart, worshiping
its own gods, and ruled over by its own chieftain. This clan
organization is not supposed to have been peculiar at all to
Rome, but ancient society in general was composed of an
indefinite number of such bodies, which, at the outset,
treated with each other in a small way as nations might treat
with each other to-day. It needs to be noted, however, that,
at any rate, so far as Rome is concerned, this is a matter of
inference, not of historical proof. The earliest political
divisions in Latium of which we have any trace consisted of
such clans united into communities. If they ever existed,
separately, therefore their union must have been deliberate
and artificial, and the body thus formed was the canton
('civitas' or 'populus'). Each canton had a fixed common
stronghold ('capitolium,' 'height,' or 'arx'--cf. 'arceo'
--'citadel') situated on some central elevation. The clans
dwelt around in hamlets ('vici' or 'pagi') scattered through
the canton. Originally, the central stronghold was not a place
of residence like the 'pagi,' but a place of refuge ... and a
place of meeting. ... In all of this, therefore, the clan
seems to lie at the very foundation. ... Any clan in the
beginning, of course, must have been simply a family. When it
grew so large as to be divided into sections, the sections
were known as families ('familiæ') and their union was the
clan. In this view the family, as we find it existing in the
Roman state, was a subdivision of the clan. In other words,
historically, families did not unite to form clans, but the
clan was the primitive thing, and the families were its
branches. Men thus recognized kinship of a double character.
They were related to all the members of their clan as
'gentiles,' and again more closely to all the members of their
branch of the clan at once as 'gentiles' and also as 'agnati.'
As already stated, men belonged to the same family ('agnati')
when they could trace their descent through males from a
common ancestor who gave its name to the family, or, what is
the same thing, was its eponym. Between the members of a clan
the chief evidence of relationship in historical times was
tradition. ... We have thus outlined what is known as the
patriarchal theory of society, and hinted at its application
to certain facts in Roman history. It should be remembered,
however, that it is only a theory, and that it is open to some
apparent and to some real criticism."

_A. Tighe,
Development of the Roman Constitution,
chapter 2._

_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome, book 1,
chapter 5._

"The patricians were divided into certain private
associations, called Gentes, which we may translate Houses or
Clans. All the members of each Gens were called gentiles; and
they bore the same name, which always ended in -ius; as for
instance, every member of the Julian Gens was a Julius; every
member of the Cornelian Gens was a Cornelius, and so on. Now
in every Gens there were a number of Families which were
distinguished by a name added to the name of the Gens. Thus
the Scipios, Sullas, Cinnas, Cethegi, Lentuli, were all
families of the Cornelian Gens. Lastly, every person of every
Family was denoted by a name prefixed to the name of the Gens.
The name of the person was, in Latin, prænomen; that of the
Gens or House, nomen, that of the Family, cognomen. Thus Caius
Julius Cæsar was a person of the Cæsar Family in the Julian
Gens; Lucius Cornelius Scipio was a person of the Scipio
Family in the Cornelian Gens; and so forth."

_H. G. Liddell,
History of Rome,
book 1, chapter 3._

"There is no word in the English language which satisfactorily
renders the Latin word 'gens.' The term 'clan' is apt to
mislead; for the Scotch Highland clans were very different
from the Roman 'gentes.' The word 'House' is not quite
correct, for it always implies relationship, which was not
essential in the 'gens'; but for want of a better word we
shall use 'House' to express 'gens,' except where the spirit
of the language rejects the term and requires 'family'
instead. The German language has in the word 'Geschlecht' an
almost equivalent term for the Latin 'gens'."

_W. Ihne,
History of Rome,
book 1, chapter 13, foot-note._

ALSO IN:
_Fustel de Coulanges,
The Ancient City,
book 2, chapter 10._

On the Greek gens, see PHYLÆ.

GENSERIC AND THE VANDALS.

See VANDALS: A. D. 429-439.

GENTILES.

See GENS.

GENUCIAN LAW, The.