Gothenburg. The Göta river is 50 m. in length, and is navigable for large vessels, a series of locks surmounting the famous falls of Trollhättan (q.v.). Passing the abrupt wooded Halleberg and Hunneberg (royal shooting preserves) Lake Vener is reached at Venersborg. Several important ports lie on the north, east and south shores (see Vener). From Sjötorp, midway on the eastern shore, the western Göta canal leads S.E. to Karlsborg. Its course necessitates over twenty locks to raise it from the Vener level (144 ft.) to its extreme height of 300 ft., and lower it over the subsequent fall through the small lakes Viken and Botten to Lake Vetter (q.v.; 289 ft.), which the route crosses to Motala. The eastern canal continues eastward from this point, and a descent is followed through five locks to Lake Boren, after which the canal, carried still at a considerable elevation, overlooks a rich and beautiful plain. The picturesque Lake Roxen with its ruined castle of Stjernarp is next traversed. At Norsholm a branch canal connects Lake Glan to the north, giving access to the important manufacturing centre of Norrköping. Passing Lake Asplången, the canal follows a cut through steep rocks, and then resumes an elevated course to the old town of Söderköping, after which the Baltic is reached at Mem. Vessels plying to Stockholm run N.E. among the coastal island-fringe (skärgård), and then follow the Södertelge canal into Lake Mälar. The whole distance from Gothenburg to Stockholm is about 360 m., and the voyage takes about 212 days. The length of artificial work on the Göta canal proper is 54 m., and there are 58 locks. The scenery is not such as will bear adverse weather conditions; that of the western canal is without any interest save in the remarkable engineering work. The idea of a canal dates from 1516, but the construction was organized by Baron von Platten and engineered by Thomas Telford in 1810–1832. The falls of Trollhättan had already been locked successfully in 1800.
GOTARZES, or Goterzes, king of Parthia (c. A.D. 42–51). In an inscription at the foot of the rock of Behistun[1] he is called Γωτάρζης Γεόποθρος, i.e. “son of Gēw,” and seems to be designated as “satrap of satrap.” This inscription therefore probably dates from the reign of Artabanus II. (A.D. 10–40), to whose family Gotarzes must have belonged. From a very barbarous coin of Gotarzes with the inscription βασιλεως βασιλεων Αρσανοζ υος κεκαλουμενος Αρταβανου Γωτερζης (Wroth, Catalogue of the Coins of Parthia, p. 165; Numism. Chron., 1900, p. 95; the earlier readings of this inscription are wrong), which must be translated “king of kings Arsakes, named son of Artabanos, Gotarzes,” it appears that he was adopted by Artabanus. When the troublesome reign of Artabanus II. ended in A.D. 39 or 40, he was succeeded by Vardanes, probably his son; but against him in 41 rose Gotarzes (the dates are fixed by the coins). He soon made himself detested by his cruelty—among many other murders he even slew his brother Artabanus and his whole family (Tac. Ann. xi. 8)—and Vardanes regained the throne in 42; Gotarzes fled to Hyrcania and gathered an army from the Dahan nomads. The war between the two kings was at last ended by a treaty, as both were afraid of the conspiracies of their nobles. Gotarzes returned to Hyrcania. But when Vardanes was assassinated in 45, Gotarzes was acknowledged in the whole empire (Tac. Ann. xi. 9 ff.; Joseph. Antiq. xx. 3, 4, where Gotarzes is called Kotardes). He now takes on his coins the usual Parthian titles, “king of kings Arsaces the benefactor, the just, the illustrious (Epiphanes), the friend of the Greeks (Philhellen),” without mentioning his proper name. The discontent excited by his cruelty and luxury induced the hostile party to apply to the emperor Claudius and fetch from Rome an Arsacid prince Meherdates (i.e. Mithradates), who lived there as hostage. He crossed the Euphrates in 49, but was beaten and taken prisoner by Gotarzes, who cut off his ears (Tac. Ann. xii. 10 ff.). Soon after Gotarzes died, according to Tacitus, of an illness; Josephus says that he was murdered. His last coin is dated from June 51.
An earlier “Arsakes with the name Gotarzes,” mentioned on some astronomical tablets from Babylon (Strassmaier in Zeitschr. für Assyriologie, vi. 216; Mahler in Wiener Zeitschr. für Kunde des Morgenlands, xv. 63 ff.), appears to have reigned for some time in Babylonia about 87 B.C. (Ed. M.)
GOTHA, a town of Germany, alternately with Coburg the
residence of the dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, in a pleasant
situation on the Leine canal, 6 m. N. of the slope of the Thuringian
forest, 17 m. W. from Erfurt, on the railway to Bebra-Cassel.
Pop. (1905) 36,906. It consists of an old inner town and encircling
suburbs, and is dominated by the castle of Friedenstein, lying
on the Schlossberg at an elevation of 1100 ft. With the exception
of those in the older portion of the town, the streets are handsome
and spacious, and the beautiful gardens and promenades
between the suburbs and the castle add greatly to the town’s
attractiveness. To the south of the castle there is an extensive
and finely adorned park. To the north-west of the town the
Galberg—on which there is a public pleasure garden—and
to the south-west the Seeberg rise to a height of over 1300 ft.
and afford extensive views. The castle of Friedenstein, begun
by Ernest the Pious, duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, in 1643 and
completed in 1654, occupies the site of the old fortress of Grimmenstein.
It is a huge square building flanked with two wings,
having towers rising to the height of about 140 ft. It contains
the ducal cabinet of coins and the ducal library of nearly 200,000
volumes, among which are several rare editions and about
6900 manuscripts. The picture gallery, the cabinet of engravings,
the natural history museum, the Chinese museum, and the
cabinet of art, which includes a collection of Egyptian, Etruscan,
Roman and German antiquities, are now included in the new
museum, completed in 1878, which stands on a terrace to the
south of the castle. The principal other public buildings are
the church of St Margaret with a beautiful portal and a lofty
tower, founded in the 12th century, twice burnt down, and
rebuilt in its present form in 1652; the church of the Augustinian
convent, with an altar-piece by the painter Simon Jacobs;
the theatre; the fire insurance bank and the life insurance bank;
the ducal palace, in the Italian villa style, with a winter garden
and picture gallery; the buildings of the ducal legislature;
the hospital; the old town-hall, dating from the 11th century;
the old residence of the painter Lucas Cranach, now used as a
girls’ school; the ducal stable; and the Friedrichsthal palace,
now used as public offices. The educational establishments
include a gymnasium (founded in 1524, one of the most famous
in Germany), two training schools for teachers, conservatoires
of music and several scientific institutions. Gotha is remarkable
for its insurance societies and for the support it has given to
cremation. The crematorium was long regarded as a model
for such establishments.
Gotha is one of the most active commercial towns of Thuringia, its manufactures including sausages, for which it has a great reputation, porcelain, tobacco, sugar, machinery, mechanical and surgical instruments, musical instruments, shoes, lamps and toys. There are also a number of nurseries and market gardens. The book trade is represented by about a dozen firms, including that of the great geographical house of Justus Perthes, founded in 1785.
Gotha (in old chronicles called Gotegewe and later Gotaha) existed as a village in the time of Charlemagne. In 930 its lord Gothard abbot of Hersfeld surrounded it with walls. It was known as a town as early as 1200, about which time it came into the possession of the landgraves of Thuringia. On the extinction of that line Gotha came into the possession of the electors of Saxony, and it fell later to the Ernestine line of dukes. After the battle of Mühlberg in 1547 the castle of Grimmenstein was partly destroyed, but it was again restored in 1554. In 1567 the town was taken from Duke John Frederick by the elector Augustus of Saxony. After the death of John Frederick’s sons, it came into the possession of Duke Ernest the Pious, the founder of the line of the dukes of Gotha; and on the extinction of this family it was united in 1825 along with the dukedom to Coburg.
- ↑ Rawlinson, Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc. ix. 114; Flandin and Coste, La Perse ancienne, i. tab. 19; Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci inscr. 431.
