Meanings
- Of or pertaining to the gens Gabinia, a plebeian family of Ancient Rome.
- Ancient Romenot comparableOf or pertaining to Aulus Gabinius, tribune of the plebs in 139 BCE, who introduced a law in 139 BCE that permitted voting by ballot.
Cicero appears to have been of this opinion, as we find him in his dialogue on friendship, objecting to the Gabinian law, by which ballot was enacted in lieu of oral voting, on the ground that the populace would gain the ascendancy in elections; a degree of freedom to which he was averse.
1824, An Englishman [Isaac Candler], “The Government” (chapter XXVI), in A Summary View of America: Comprising a Description of the Face of the Country, and of Several of the Principal Cities […], London: Printed for T. Cadell […] and W. Blackwood […], pages 388–389 - Ancient Romenot comparableOf or pertaining to Aulus Gabinius, consul in 58 BCE, who introduced a law in 67 BCE that granted Pompey an extraordinary command in the war against the pirates.
Josephus says nothing of Samareitis, but the Samaritans had a council in the first century A.D., which was probably a survival of a Gabinian council: it probably sat at Shechem.
1971, A. H. M. Jones, “Syria” (chapter X), in The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 258
Origin
Cite this entry
Gabinian. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gabinian
“Gabinian.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gabinian. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Gabinian,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gabinian.
Source: Gabinian on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.