Galante, Abraham ben-Mordecai, a Cabal- ist and Jewish commentator of the 16th century. He was a disciple of the new-school Cabalist, Moses Cor- dovero, and is best known by his mystical commen- tary on the Lamentations (3"'"irp TS'^p), published, with additions, by Ibn-Shoeb under the title D"^2i3 bip (Venice, 1589; 2d ed. Prague, 1621). Galante wrote also a commentary on the Sohar (or Zohar) (q. v.), en- titled "ip"^ Dj"*? extending over the Pentateuch, but of which only the first part, on Genesis, was printed under the title n^H iniTT (Venice, 1655), The MS. of the unpublished parts of this work remain unedited in the Oppenheim Library. Jost (p. 237) saj's that the name of Galante's father was originally Mordecai Angdo, but that he, on account of his beauty, was called Galante, or, rather, Galant'uomo, in Pome, where he lived. When his sons, Abraham and Mo- ses, afterwards emigrated to Palestine, they retained the new name of their father. — Jost, Gesch. cl. Jiiden- thums u. s. Sekten, iii, 150; Etheridgc, Introd. to Hebr. Lit. p. 360, 418 ; Furst, Bibl. Jud. i,^313. (J. H. W.)
Galante, Moses ben-Mordecai, brother of Abraham (see above), was president of the celebrated Jewish college for rabbins at Safed. His HFia'a ^tlTTrt, Index to Sohar {Zohar) (Venice, 1666 ; 2d ed. Frankf. a. 31. 1681), explains all the passages of the O. T. occurring in the Zohar (q. v.). This book ex- hibits the manner in which the Messianic passages of the Old Test, are treated in the Talmud and Cabba- la. Wc have also from him a coinmen'.,arv on Eccle-
GALATIA
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siastes (Sp"!' J"^rip> Safed, 1578), which is illustrated throughout with extracts from the Sohar. The time of his deatli is a matter of much dispute. Kobinson {BibUcul Jiesearches in Pule.iiiiie, ii, 430) and Furst give it 1G18 ; Steinschneider (Catul. lit. hehr. in Bib- Uoth. Bodhiana) \Aaccs it much earlier, hut Jost says that he was sixty-eight years old at the time of his death (Ki.S'.t), wliicli would be impossible, as Abraham Galante is said to liavc died about IGOO. — Kitto, Ency. clop, of Bib. Lit. ii, 52; Jost, Gesch. d. Judmthum.i u.s. SekUn, iii, '237 ; Furst, Bibl. Jud. i, 313. (J. H. W.)
Gala'tia (PaXaria, also [Acts xvi, G; xviii, 23] ?) VaXaTiid) xwgn), an important central district of Asia Minor (q. v.).
Galatia is literally the " Gallia" of the East. Ro- man writers call its inhabitants GalU, just as Greek ■writers call the inhabitants of ancient France raXarai (see Pritchard, Nat. Hist, of B I an, iii, 95). From the intermixture of Gauls and Greeks (Pausan. i, 4), Gala- tia was also called Gallo-Gracia (TaWoyouiKui, Stra- Ijo, xii, 5), and its inhabitants Gallo-Grteci. But even in Jerome's time they had not lost their native lan- guage (Prol. ad Comment, in £Jp. ad Gal. ; De Wette's Lehrbuch, p. 231). In 2 Tim. iv, 10, some commenta- tors suppose Western Gaul to be meant, and several MSS. have YaWiav instead of VaXariav. In 1 Mace, viii, 2, where Judas Maccabieus is hearing the storj' of the prowess of the Pomans in conquering the r«- Xarai, it is possible to interpret the passage either of the Eastern or Western Gauls ; for the subjugation of Spain bA' the Romans, and the defeat of Antiochus, king of Asia, are mentioned in the same context. Again, PaXarai is the same word with KfXrai ; and the Galatians were in their origin a stream of that great Celtic torrent (apparently Kymry, and not Gael) which poured into ^Macedonia about B.C. 280 (Strabo, iv, 187 ; xii, 566 ; Livy, xxxviii, 16 ; Flor. ii, 11 ; Jus- tin, XXV, 2 ; Appian, Sy?: xxxii, 42). Some of these invaders moved on into Thrace, and appeared on the shores of the Hellespont and Bosporus, when Kico- nicdes I, king of Bithynia, being then engaged in a civil w.n", invited them across into Asia Elinor to assist him against his brother, Zybcctas (Memnon, ap. Phot. Cod. 224, p. 374), B.C. cir. '270. Having accomplished this object, they were unwilling to retrace tlieir steps ; and, strengthened by the accession of fresh hordes from Europe, they overran Bithynia and the neighbor- ing countries, and supported themselves bj"- jiredator}- excursions, or by imposts exacted from the native chiefs. Antiochus I, king of Sj'ria, took his title of Soter in consequence of his victory over them. After the lapse of forty years, Attains I, king of Perganuis, succeeded in checking their nomadic habits, and con- fined them to a fixed territor}- within the general geo- graphical limits, to Avhich the name of Galatia was permanently given. The Galatians still found vent for their restlessness and love of war l)y hiring them- selves out as mercenary soldiers. Tiiis is doubtless the explanation of 2 Mace, viii, 20, which refers to some struggle of the Seleucid princes in which both Jews and Galatians were engaged. In Josephus ( War, i, 20, 3) we find some of the latter, who had been in Cleopatra's body-guai'd, acting in the same character for Herod the Great. INIeanwhile the wars had been taking place which brought all the countries round the east of the Mediterranean within tiie range of the Roman power. Tlie Galatians fought on the side of Antiochus at Magnesia. In the Mithridatic war they fought on both sides. Of the three principal tribes (Stral)o, xiii, 429). the Trocmi QV^wKpoi) settled in the eastern part of Galatia, near the banks of tlie Halys ; the Tectosages {TiK-uirayir) in the country round An- cyra ; and the Tolistobogii (ToXiaro/^i'iyioi) "in the south-western parts near Peesirius. They retained their independence till the year B.C. 189, when thej' were brought under the power of Rome by the pro-