136 



GENS 



GENTIAN 



may be studied in the interiors and rustic subjects 

 of such Dutch figure -painters as Teniers, Ostade, De 

 Hooch, Jan Steen, and Terburg. In France the 

 most eminent c7ewre-painters were Watteau, Lan- 

 cret, Greuze, and Chardin ; while in England the 

 works of Hogarth, Wilkie, Mulready, and the elder 

 Leslie may be mentioned as belonging to this class. 



Gens. See FAMILY and TRIBE. 



Genseric (more correctly Gaiseric), king of 

 the Vandals, was an illegitimate son of Godigiselus, 

 who led the Vandals in their invasion of Gaul, and 

 perished with 20,000 of his followers in a defeat 

 by the Franks (407 A.D. ), who were only prevented 

 from completely destroying the Vandals by the 

 timely intervention of the Alans. In the year 

 409 the Vandals, with their friendly allies the 

 Suevi and the Alans, poured over the Pyrenees 

 into Spain, and shared its territory between them. 

 The Vandals were divided into two branches, the 

 Asdingi, who settled in Galicia, and the Silingi, 

 who occupied Boetica in the south. The latter, 

 after suffering crushing defeats from the Romans, 

 joined the former under their king Gunderic, son 

 of Godigiselus, whose nation soon became the most 

 powerful in the Peninsula. Gunderic died in 427, 

 and was succeeded by Genseric. Invited to the 

 invasion of Africa by Bonifacius, Count of Africa, 

 who had been goaded on to rebellion through the 

 machinations of his rival Aetius, the conqueror of 

 Attila, Genseric first crushed the Suevi, and, after 

 numbering his united Vandals and Alans on the 

 Andalusian shore, crossed over to Numidia in 428. 

 Only when it was too late did Bonifacius repent 

 his treacherous designs and attempt in vain to drive 

 back the Vandals. After a thirteen months' siege, 

 in the course of which the great St Augustine died, 

 the city of Hippo Regius fell (430), and was given 

 over to all the fury of wanton and brutal outrage. 

 With such ferocity did the Vandals lay waste and 

 destroy churches, fields, and cities as to leave their 

 name after fourteen centuries a synonym for de- 

 structive barbarism. All Africa west of Carthage 

 quickly fell into the hands of Genseric, who seized 

 that city itself in 439, and made it the capital of 

 his new dominions. He dated his reign, which 

 lasted thirty-seven years, from this conquest. 



With a capacity for adapting himself to new con- 

 ditions which shows his genius, he quickly built 

 up a formidable maritime power, and his fleets 

 scoured the Mediterranean and carried the terror 

 of his name to Sicily, the southern coasts of Italy, 

 Illyricum, and the Peloponnesus. He next por- 

 tioned out the soil of the province of Carthage 

 among his soldiers, and settled the succession. A 

 bigoted Arian in his theology, he persecuted the 

 orthodox Catholics in his dominions with ferocious 

 rapacity and cruelty. The murder of the great 

 Aetius (454), and of his murderer and master 

 Valentinian III., opened up a new field for his 

 ambition. Eudoxia, the widow of Valentinian, 

 eager for revenge upon her husband's murderer 

 Maximus, invited Genseric to Rome. The Vandal 

 fleet reached the mouth of the Tiber in June 455. 

 The wretched Maximus had already fallen, and 

 the city could offer no resistance ; all Pope Leo's en- 

 treaties did not save it fourteen days of devastat- 

 ing plunder. On leaving the city Genseric carried 

 with him the empress and her two daughters, one 

 of whom became the wife of his son Huneric. The 

 empire twice endeavoured to avenge the indig- 

 nities it had suffered, but without success. First 

 the Western emperor, Majorian, fitted out a fleet 

 against the Vandals in 457, which was destroyed 

 by Genseric in the bay of Carthagena ; next, the 

 Eastern emperor, Leo, sent an expedition under 

 the command of Heraclius and others in 468, 

 which was also destroyed off the city of Bona. 



Genseric died in 477, in the possession of all hi* 

 conquests, leaving behind him the reputation of 

 being the greatest of the Vandal kings. His 

 appearance was not imposing : Jordanes describes 

 him as of low stature, and lame on account of a 

 fall from his horse, deep in his designs, taciturn, 

 averse to pleasure, subject to transports of fury, 

 greedy of conquest, and cunning in sowing the 

 seeds of discord among nations, and exciting them 

 against each other. He was ruthless in his cruelty, 

 and seems to have found impulse in the fierce and 

 fanatical bigotry of his religion. Once, when leaving 

 the harbour of Carthage on an expedition, the 

 pilot asked him whither he was going. ' Against 

 all who have incurred the wrath of God,' said the 

 conqueror. 



Gentian ( Gentiana so called after the Illyrian 

 king Gentius, who is said by Pliny to have 

 introduced G. luiea into medicine), a genus of 

 Gentianaceoe. There are more than 100 species, 

 natives of north temperate regions, very often 

 growing in high mountain pastures and meadows, 

 which they cover with their beautiful blue or 

 yellow flowers. The roots of the Common Gentian 

 or Yellow Gentian ( G. lutea ) are collected by the 

 peasants of the Alps (along with the less valuable 

 roots of G. pannonica, pierpurea, and punctata) 

 to furnish the gentian root (radix gentiance) of 

 pharmacy, which is largely employed as an 

 excellent bitter and stomachic. The medicinal 

 properties are essentially due to the presence of a 

 bitter glycoside (gentiopicrin) ; pectin (see FRUIT) 

 and also sugar are present in quantity ; hence the 

 peasants of the Alps prepare alcoholic bitters 

 their Enziangeist by the fermentation of the fresh 

 roots. G. Catesbcei is used as gentian root in North 

 America, and G. Kurroo in the Himalayas. 



The florist recognises two main groups of these 

 beautiful hardy plants, the first strong and easily 

 grown in borders, of which the Willow Gentian ( G. 

 asdepiadea] and G. lutea are specially common. 

 The former can also be grown with good effect under 

 trees and among grass. The dwarf kinds require 

 more careful treatment, with the exception of the 

 Common Gentianella ( G. 

 acaulis), which readily 

 forms edgings and carpets. 

 The name Gentianella is 

 sometimes also applied to 

 the allied Cicendia filifor- 

 mis, a small, slender, and 

 graceful plant with yellow 

 flowers. G. verna (Vernal 

 Gentian ) can be grown well 

 in deep sandy loam, with 

 abundant moisture and sun- 

 shine. Bavarian Gentian 

 ( G. bavarica ) and Crested 

 Gentian (G. septemfida) of 

 the Caucasus require more 

 moisture. Other species 

 can be cultivated with care. 

 Of North American species 

 G. crinita is specially cele- 

 brated for the beauty of its 

 flowers ; the genus in fact 

 may fairly be allowed the 

 very first place among the 

 floral glories alike of Alpine 

 regions, in which they range 

 up to the snow-level, and 

 of the alpine garden. Seve- 

 ral species of Gentian are popularly called Bald- 

 money. See ALPINE PLANTS. . 



Gentianacece form an order of corollifloral dicoty- 

 ledons. The 500 species are almost exclusively 

 herbaceous, and are usually natives of temperate 

 and cold latitudes and altitudes. Many have 



Crested Gentian 

 (Gentiana septemfida). 



