GALLUS, Gmus CORNELIUS (s.c. 66-26). A Roman poet, orator, and general, born of a hum ble family at Forum Iulii (now Frejus) in South eastern Gaul. At an early age, like many provin cials, he went to Rome for an education, and attended the lectures of the Epicurean philoso pher Syron. Vergil and Yarns were his fellow pupils, and the three became firm friends. He had the fortune, also, to gain the good will and friendship of Asinius Pollio, one of the greatest Romans of the time; and when Octavius (after wards Augustus) returned to Italy from the East after the assassination of Julius Cmsar, Gallus heartily joined his party, and was given the important charge of assigning lands in North Italy to the veterans of Octavius's army. On this occasion he was able materially to help his friend Vergil, who was a native of Mantua. At the battle of Actium, Gallus commanded a divi sion of Octavius's forces, and afterwards was sent, as general, into Egypt, where he defeated the armies of Antonius, and captured Cleopatra, whom he kept as a prisoner in her palace. Upon
her death in B.C. 30, Egypt was turned into a Roman province, with Gallus as its first Gov ernor. He ruled in Egypt for four years, largely with success, but not without making enemies; and an unfortunate remark about Augustus was brought to the Emperor's notice, with many other charges. Gallus was accordingly deprived of his rank and estates, and ordered into exile; hut he preferred death, and committed suicide by falling upon his sword in B.C. 26. Gallus at tained great renown among his contemporaries as a poet and an orator. He was the author of four books of elegies, and Ovid claimed for him the first place among the Roman elegiac poets; but none of his writings has survived. It was at the request of Gallus that Vergil wrote his tenth Eclogue. In modern times he has been made the hero of a well-known antiquarian story, Gallus, by Becker, which was translated into English by Metcalf (London, 1886).