VOLUME XI, SLICE VII

Geoponici to Germany

ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:

GEOPONICI GÉRARD, ÉTIENNE MAURICE GEORGE, SAINT GÉRARD, FRANÇOIS GEORGE I. GÉRARD, JEAN IGNACE ISIDORE GEORGE II. GERARD, JOHN GEORGE III. GÉRARDMER GEORGE IV. GERASA GEORGE V. (of Great Britain) GÉRAULT-RICHARD, ALFRED LÉON GEORGE V. (of Hanover) GERBER, ERNST LUDWIG GEORGE I. (of the Hellenes) GERBERON, GABRIEL GEORGE (of Saxony) GERBERT, MARTIN GEORGE OF LAODICEA GERBIL GEORGE OF TREBIZOND GERENUK GEORGE THE MONK GERGOVIA GEORGE THE SYNCELLUS GERHARD, FRIEDRICH WILHELM EDUARD GEORGE, HENRY GERHARD, JOHANN GEORGE PISIDA GERHARDT, CHARLES FRÉDÉRIC GEORGE, LAKE GERHARDT, PAUL GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC GÉRICAULT, JEAN LOUIS ANDRÉ THÉODORE GEORGETOWN (British Guiana) GERIZIM GEORGETOWN (Washington, U.S.A.) GERLACHE, ÉTIENNE CONSTANTIN GEORGETOWN (Kentucky, U.S.A.) GERLE, CHRISTOPHE ANTOINE GEORGETOWN (South Car., U.S.A.) GERMAN BAPTIST BRETHREN GEORGETOWN (Texas, U.S.A.) GERMAN CATHOLICS GEORGIA (U.S.A.) GERMAN EAST AFRICA GEORGIA (Transcaucasia) GERMAN EVANGELICAL SYNOD OF N. AMERICA GEORGIAN BAY GERMANIC LAWS, EARLY GEORGSWALDE GERMANICUS CAESAR GEPHYREA GERMANIUM GERA GERMAN LANGUAGE GERALDTON GERMAN LITERATURE GÉRANDO, MARIE JOSEPH DE GERMAN REED ENTERTAINMENT GERANIACEAE GERMAN SILVER GERANIUM GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA GERARD (archbishop of York) GERMANTOWN GERARD (Tum, Tunc, Tenque) GERMANY (part) GERARD OF CREMONA

GEOPONICI,[1] or _Scriptores rei rusticae_, the Greek and Roman writers on husbandry and agriculture. On the whole the Greeks paid less attention than the Romans to the scientific study of these subjects, which in classical times they regarded as a branch of economics. Thus Xenophon's _Oeconomicus_ (see also _Memorabilia_, ii. 4) contains a eulogy of agriculture and its beneficial ethical effects, and much information is to be found in the writings of Aristotle and his pupil Theophrastus. About the same time as Xenophon, the philosopher Democritus of Abdera wrote a treatise [Greek: Peri Geôrgias], frequently quoted and much used by the later compilers of _Geoponica_ (agricultural treatises). Greater attention was given to the subject in the Alexandrian period; a long list of names is given by Varro and Columella, amongst them Hiero II. and Attalus III. Philometor. Later, Cassius Dionysius of Utica translated and abridged the great work of the Carthaginian Mago, which was still further condensed by Diophanes of Nicaea in Bithynia for the use of King Deïotarus. From these and similar works Cassianus Bassus (q.v.) compiled his _Geoponica_. Mention may also be made of a little work [Greek: Peri Geôrgikôn] by Michael Psellus (printed in Boissonade, _Anecdota Graeca_, i.).

The Romans, aware of the necessity of maintaining a numerous and thriving order of agriculturists, from very early times endeavoured to instil into their countrymen both a theoretical and a practical knowledge of the subject. The occupation of the farmer was regarded as next in importance to that of the soldier, and distinguished Romans did not disdain to practise it. In furtherance of this object, the great work of Mago was translated into Latin by order of the senate, and the elder Cato wrote his _De agri cultura_ (extant in a very corrupt state), a simple record in homely language of the rules observed by the old Roman landed proprietors rather than a theoretical treatise. He was followed by the two Sasernae (father and son) and Gnaeus Tremellius Scrofa, whose works are lost. The learned Marcus Terentius Varro of Reate, when eighty years of age, composed his _Rerum rusticarum, libri tres_, dealing with agriculture, the rearing of cattle, and the breeding of fishes. He was the first to systematize what had been written on the subject, and supplemented the labours of others by practical experience gained during his travels. In the Augustan age Julius Hyginus wrote on farming and bee-keeping, Sabinus Tiro on horticulture, and during the early empire Julius Graecinus and Julius Atticus on the culture of vines, and Cornelius Celsus (best known for his _De medicina_) on farming. The chief work of the kind, however, is that of Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (q.v.). About the middle of the 2nd century the two Quintilii, natives of Troja, wrote on the subject in Greek. It is remarkable that Columella's work exercised less influence in Rome and Italy than in southern Gaul and Spain, where agriculture became one of the principal subjects of instruction in the superior educational establishments that were springing up in those countries. One result of this was the preparation of manuals of a popular kind for use in the schools. In the 3rd century Gargilius Martialis of Mauretania compiled a _Geoponica_ in which medical botany and the veterinary art were included. The _De re rustica_ of Palladius (4th century), in fourteen books, which is almost entirely borrowed from Columella, is greatly inferior in style and knowledge of the subject. It is a kind of farmer's calendar, in which the different rural occupations are arranged in order of the months. The fourteenth book (on forestry) is written in elegiacs (85 distichs). The whole of Palladius and considerable fragments of Martialis are extant.

The best edition of the _Scriptores rei rusticae_ is by J.G. Schneider (1794-1797), and the whole subject is exhaustively treated by A. Magerstedt, _Bilder aus der römischen Landwirtschaft_ (1858-1863); see also Teuffel-Schwabe, _Hist. of Roman Literature_, 54; C.F. Bähr in Ersch and Gruber's _Allgemeine Encyklopädie_.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The latinized form of a non-existent [Greek: Geôponikoi], used for convenience.

GEORGE, SAINT (d. 303), the patron saint of England, Aragon and Portugal. According to the legend given by Metaphrastes the Byzantine hagiologist, and substantially repeated in the Roman _Acta sanctorum_ and in the Spanish breviary, he was born in Cappadocia of noble Christian parents, from whom he received a careful religious training. Other accounts place his birth at Lydda, but preserve his Cappadocian parentage. Having embraced the profession of a soldier, he rapidly rose under Diocletian to high military rank. In Persian Armenia he organized and energized the Christian community at Urmi (Urumiah), and even visited Britain on an imperial expedition. When Diocletian had begun to manifest a pronounced hostility towards Christianity, George sought a personal interview with him, in which he made deliberate profession of his faith, and, earnestly remonstrating against the persecution which had begun, resigned his commission. He was immediately laid under arrest, and after various tortures, finally put to death at Nicomedia (his body being afterwards taken to Lydda) on the 23rd of April 303. His festival is observed on that anniversary by the entire Roman Catholic Church as a semi-duplex, and by the Spanish Catholics as a duplex of the first class with an octave. The day is also celebrated as a principal feast in the Orthodox Eastern Church, where the saint is distinguished by the titles [Greek: megalomartyr] and [Greek: tropaiophoros].

The historical basis of the tradition is particularly unsound, there being two claimants to the name and honour. Eusebius, _Hist. eccl._