Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/122

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112
GAU—GAU

cluding that the opinion, so prevalent not only in England but in France itself, that the physical and mental characteristics of the modern Frenchman are chiefly derived from the ancient Gauls, is only in part well founded. The Gauls, they say, like the Romans after them, were strong enough to impose their language on a race or races they had subjugated; but in the attempt to absorb them they themselves have suffered and continue to suffer so much that the day may yet come when the older race will all but regain its superiority. Slowly but surely, according to the researches of M. Roget, Baron de Belloguet, the blue-eyed, fair-haired, long-headed Celt has for many generations been giving place throughout France, in a direction proceeding from south to north, to a more ancient, dark-eyed, black-haired, round- headed man—a similar phenomenon being also noticeable

among the Germans.

Northern Italy, in consequence of an intrusion of Gauls at some early date, received from the Romans the name of Gallia Cisalpim or Citerior, to distinguish it from Gaul proper, called also Gallia Transalpina or Ulterior. Afterwards when the Roman element gained the upper hand, Togata was sometimes substituted for Cisalpina ; while in contradistinction, Gallia Braccata was applied to the Provincia from the braced? or trousers worn by the natives, and Gallia Comata t0 the rest of the country, from the inhabitants wearing their hair long. The Gaulish emigrations into Spain on the one hand, and into Britain on the other, scarcely come under the present article; still less can we refer here to the inroads of that restless race into various parts of eastern Europe and western Asia. But it may be remarked in passing that so extensive were the conquests of the Gauls that, in the beginning of the third century before our era, their empire, if much less compact, was scarcely less extensive than that of Rome in her palmiest days.

For some time after the death of Caesar little attention could be paid to Gaul by the ruling powers at Rome; but in 27 b.c. Augustus, now master of the Roman world, took measures to Romanize it thoroughly. The old division into four provinces was retained, and made subservient to administrative purposes. The Provincia, however, received the name of Gallia Narbonnensis, from the Roman town of Narbo (Narbonne); the boundaries of Aquitania were extended to the Liger; what remained of Caesar’s Gauls were constituted the province of Gallia Lugdunensis, so named from its capital, the new settlement of Lugdunum (Lyons); and the northern division was called Gallia Belgica. This arrangement remained nearly unchanged till the 4th century, when the four provinces were broken up into seventeen, each with a capital and a number of other towns of more or less importance, the names of which may be found in the larger geographical and historical works that treat of the period. While an integral part of the Roman empire Gaul often played no mean part in the contests that took place for the imperial purple; and it was during one of these that Claudius Civilis, a Romanized Gaul, made a gallant attempt to achieve the independence of his country. His efforts, however, were not supported by the mass of the people, and the movement was crushed by Vespasian. Perhaps the most noteworthy event of those centuries was the insurrection of the Bagaudae or peasant banditti, in the reign of Diocletian. Ruined and driven to despair by the exactions of the imperial treasury, men scoured the country in marauding bands, plundering wholesale. Though the revolt was suppressed, the lesson it ought to have taught Rome was unheeded, and thus the seeds of future troubles remained in the soil. In the declining days of the empire Gaul became a prey to the Visigoths in the south, the Burgundians in the east, and the Franks in the north-east. When order had arisen out of the confusion that ensued, the country was found to have taken under a new name a still more conspicuous place in the political system of Europe.

What is known of the ancient religion of the Gauls will be found under Druidism (vol. vii. p. 477), and brief notices of their institutions and customs, as well as some particulars regarding the introduction of Christianity among them, are given in the article France (vol. ix. p. 527).


See Dom Martin, La Religion dcs (I'dulois, Paris, 1727, 2 vols. 4to; l’ellouticr, Hist. dcs Cellos, Paris, 1771, 2 vols. 4to; D. Sehaapflinus, Vindicicc Ccllica', Strashurg, 1754, 4to; Amédée Thierry, Hist. dos Gaulois, Paris, 1628, 3 vols. Svo ; llcnri Martin, Hist. dc France, vol. i., Paris, 8vo; “'alekcnacr, Gc’ugraphic Ancicmw histm'quc cl comparéc (lcs Gaulcs Cisalpinc cl Ti-(msalpine, Paris, 1839, 3 vols. 8vo; Ukert, Geographic dcr (lr-irrlmi imd Romer, vol. ii., pt. ii., “'eimar, 1832; lloltzman, Kellen and G'crmancn, Heidelberg, 1855, SW; Article “ Gallia" (by G. Long), in Dr \V. Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, vol. i., London, 1869, 8vo; Roget, Baron dc Belloguet, Elli-nogénic Gauloisc, Paris, 1868-1875, 4 vols. 8vo; E. Desjardins, G’e‘ographic historiqu-c cl administrative dc la Gaulc Rmnainr, Paris, 1877, 4 vols. 8vo.

(j. m‘d.)

GAUNT, John of. See Lancaster, Duke of.

GAUR, or, more commonly, Gour, the name of a mediaeval city in Bengal, of which the scattered relics cover a large area in the district of Malda, commencing not far south of the modern civil station of that name.

The name Gaur is a form of the ancient Gain-la (meaning

the country “of sugar”), a term which was applied to a large part of modern Bengal, and specifically to that part in which these remains lie. We have the names of dynasties, and partial lists of the kings of these dynasties, which bore the title of Gaureslzara, lord of Gaur, or Gauda, before the first Mahometan invasion. The last of these dynasties, that of the Senas, or of the Vaidyas, superseded its predecessor, the dynasty of the Palas, about the middle of the 11th century. The most eminent of this dynasty, by name Lakshmanasena, who flourished at the end of the century, is alleged in inscriptions to have extended his conquests to Kanauj (in the Doab), to Nepaul, and to the shores of Orissa; and this king is said by tradition to have founded the royal city in Gauda which in later days reverted to a form of this ancient name (Gaur), but which the founder called after his own name Lakslmianavati, or as it sounded in the popular speech Lakhnaoti. The fifth from this king, according to Lassen’s (more or less imperfect) list, Laksh- maniya (c. 1160 1198), transferred the royal residence to Navadvipa, Izod. Nadiya (on the Hoogly river 70 miles above Calcutta), possibly from apprehension of the rising tide of the Mahonietan power; but here it overtook him. Nadiya was taken about 119899 (the precise date is disputed) by Mahommed Bakhtiyar Khilji, the general of the slave king Kutbuddin Aibak of Delhi, who became established as governor of Bengal, and fixed his capital at Lakhnaoti. Here he and his captains are said to have founded mosques, colleges, and monasteries. Lakhnaoti continued for the most part to be the seat of the rulers who governed Bengal and Behar, sometimes as confessed delegates of the Delhi, sovereigns, sometimes as practically independent kings, during the next 140 years. From about the year 1338, with the waning power of the Delhi dynasties, the kingdom of Bengal acquired a substantive independence which it retained for more than two centuries. One of the earliest of the kings during this period, by name Iliyas (Elias) Shah, whose descendants reigned in Bengal with brief interruptions for nearly 150 years, transferred the seat of government to Pandua (c. 1350), a place about 16 miles N. by E. of Gaur, and to the neighbouring fortress of Ekdala, a place often named in Mahometan notices of the history of Bengal down to the 16th century. At Pandua several kings in succession built mosques and

shrines, which still exhibit architecture of an importance