GELLIUS

gellius, aulus (c. a.d. 130-180), latin author and grammarian, probably born at rome. he studied grammar and rhetoric at rome and philosophy at athens, after which he returned to rome, where he held a judicial office. his teachers and friends included many distinguished men--sulpicius apollinaris, herodes atticus and fronto. his only work, the _noctes atticae_, takes its name from having been begun during the long nights of a winter which he spent in attica. he afterwards continued it at rome. it is compiled out of an adversaria, or commonplace book, in which he had jotted down everything of unusual interest that he heard in conversation or read in books, and it comprises notes on grammar, geometry, philosophy, history and almost every other branch of knowledge. the work, which is utterly devoid of sequence or arrangement, is divided into twenty books. all these have come down to us except the eighth, of which nothing remains but the index. the _noctes atticae_ is valuable for the insight it affords into the nature of the society and pursuits of those times, and for the numerous excerpts it contains from the works of lost ancient authors. editio princeps (rome, 1469); the best editions are those of gronovius (1706) and m. hertz (1883-1885; editio minor, 1886, revised by c. hosius, 1903, with bibliography). there is a translation in english by w. beloe (1795), and in french by various hands (1896). see sandys, _hist. class. schol._ i. (1906), 210. gellivara [gellivare], a mining town of sweden in the district (_lan_) of norrbotten, 815 m. n. by e. of stockholm by rail. it lies in the well-nigh uninhabited region of swedish lapland, 43 m. n. of the arctic circle. it owes its importance to the iron mines in the mountain malmberget 41⁄2 m. to the north, rising to 2024 ft. above sea-level (830 ft. above gellivara town). during the dark winter months work proceeds by the aid of electric light. in 1864 the mines were acquired by an english company, but abandoned in 1867. in 1884 another english company took them up and completed a provisional railway from malmberget to lulea at the head of the gulf of bothnia (127 m. s.s.e.), besides executing a considerable portion of the preliminary works for the continuation of the line on the norwegian side from ofoten fjord upwards (see narvik). but this company, after extracting some 150,000 tons of ore in 1888-1889, went into liquidation in the latter year. two years later the mines passed into the hands of a swedish company, and the railway was acquired by the swedish government. the output of ore was insignificant until 1892, when it stood at 178,000 tons; but in 1902 it amounted to 1,074,000 tons. three miles s.w. rises the hill gellivara dundret (2700 ft.), from which the sun is visible at midnight from june 5 to july 11. the population of the parish (about 6500 sq. m.) in 1900 was 11,745; the greater part of the population being congregated at the town of gellivara and at malmberget.