GAIUS. – A Roman jurist who lived during the age of the Antonines. Nothing is known of his life; but, on the basis of certain peculiarities in his works, some scholars believe that he may have been an easterner.
He is the author of the *Libri ex Quinto Mucio* (a work relating to civil law), a commentary on the edict of the urban praetor and on the provincial edict, and six books on the Twelve Tables (q.v.). He has also been attributed the *Libri aureorum*, or *rerum cotidianarum*, which, however, are most probably a post-classical free paraphrase of Gaius’s principal work. This is represented by the *Institutiones*, whose text, almost complete, was discovered in 1816 in the Biblioteca capitolare of Verona and supplemented by later fortunate finds. It provides an elementary exposition of classical Roman law. The *Institutiones* are divided into four books, which treat of persons (I), of *res* (things, acquisition of property, successions, obligations: II and III), and of *actiones* (legal procedure: IV). The most recent critical edition of the *Institutiones* is that edited by B. Kübler (Leipzig 1935); among recent Italian editions, mention should be made of that edited by G. Baviera in *Fontes iuris antieutismiani* (II, Florence 1940, pp. 5-192) and that edited by V. Arangio-Ruiz and A. Guarino in *Breviarum iuris Romani*, Milan 1943, pp. 3-194.
GAGUIN, ROBERT. –
Today el-Belqa, with its hills (850-1000 m.), is cut by various wadis that flow into the Yarmuk or the Jordan and has notable cultivable zones; but it is predominantly a land of pastures.
The name G. is sometimes used to designate both the “Aglan (Num. 32:39-40; Deut. 3:15; Josh. 17:6) and the Belga (Num. 32:1; Josh. 17:25). The mountain of G., where the final meeting between Jacob and Laban took place (Gen. 31:21-25), is all of Transjordan, and not merely the mountainous zone between es-Salt and the Jabbok, still today called Jebel Jil‘ad.
At the time of the Israelite invasion, the region occupied by Sihon and the Amorites, which passed from Og king of Bashan, became part of the territory of Gad in the south and of Manasseh in the north (Deut. 3:12-13; Josh. 13:24-31). G. formed the province of the Assida of Transjordan, while “Galaaditis” extended only into Bashan (1 Macc. 5:17-36).
2. Name of the son of Machir, descendant of Manasseh, and head of an Israelite clan (Num. 26:29; Josh. 17:1). Name of the father of Jephthah (Judg. 11:1 sqq.).