Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/784

 BOTHRYS

708.

BOTTICELLI

(Gen., xxxvi, 33; Jer., xlix, 13, etc.), now Bouseira between Tafil^ and Shobaq. Perhaps it is the same as Bosor. or Bosora, taken by the Machabees (1 Mach., V, 26, 28, 36), an independent town in Periea. It was inchided in the Nabatean Kingdom (M. de VogUe, La Syrie centrale. Inscriptions, 1U3) and last held by the Romans. When the kingdom was destroyed by Cornelius Paima (105 or 106), a general of Trajan, Bostra became the metropolis of Arabia and was known as Nova Trajana Bostra. There the Third Legio Cyrcnaica held its garrison. In the same year began the era of Bostra. after which the numerous inscriptions in trans-Jordanic Palestine are reckoned. The city was already a very important one; it was there that the great Roman road began which ran to the Red Sea, as well as most of the other roads that crossed the country in every direction; the governor of the province had his residence there.

Under .\lexaader Severus (222-235) Bostra became a Roman colony. In the fourth century it is called "a great city ", by .\mmianus Marcellinus (Res gestse, XIV, 8, 3), and from the extent of its ruins G. Rind- fleisch has calculated that it must have had about 80,000 inhabitants (Zeitschrift des deutschen Paliis- tinavereins, xxi, 32). Remains of splendid monu- ments are yet visible, colonnades, triumphal arches, baths, a theatre, temples, churches, etc. Bostra, being an important trade centre for caravans, was visited by Mahomet; it was there that Bahira, a Nestorian monk, acknowledged liim as a prophet. The Crusaders tried vainly to take it. Its decline was the result of earthquakes, chiefly that of 1151, when the city was left in ruins. Under its present name of Bosra Eski-Sham (Bostra Old Damascus), it has hardly lOlK) wretched inhabitants and a little Turkish garrison.

The Christian religion, which soon penetrated the neighbouring Arabia, was not long in reaching Bostra. As metropolis of the province of Arabia it had nineteen or twenty suffragan sees. Lequien (Or. Chr., II, 853-860) enumerates a hst of sixteen bishops at Bostra; among the most celebrated are Beryllus, who fell into a Christologic heresy and was reclaimed by Origen at a council held between .\. D. 218 and 244 (Euseb., H. E., vi, 33); Titus, who suffered much under Juliun the Apostate, and who was an important writer, J. Sickenberger devoting a long essay to him (Titus von Bostra, Leipzig, 1901); St. Antipater, about 458; Stephen, at the beginning of the eighth century; and .\rsenius, who lived in 1365 (Miklosich and MiiUcr, .\cta patriarch. C. P., I, 465). The diocese t-xistcd till 1715 (Chrysanthus, Synodicon, 70). Subsequent to that it was suppressed by the Greeks, and its 6000 faithful are subjects of the Diocese of Damascus. The Catholic Greeks, or Melchites, however, have always maintained this see, under the title of Bostra and Hauran. Their metro- politan resides usually at Damascus and goes to Bostra only two or three times a year; liis diocese contains about 8000 Catholics, 12 priests, and 12 parishes. The Crusaders by a mistake ranked Bostra under the authority of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, instead of under that of Antioch.

Po-iTE:t, Five Years in Damascus (London, 1855), II, 142- 169; The Giant Cities of Bashan (London, 1872), 64-73; Rey, Voyage dans le Haouran (Paris, 1860), 179-199; Waddington, Erplicaiion des inscriptions recueillies. ^ . en Syrie, 454- 469; Vailhe, La province ecclesiastiquc d'Arabie in Echos dOrient, II, 166-179.

S. V.\ILHE.

Bothrys, a titular see situated in Phoenicia. Bothrys is the Greek name of a city founded by Ithobaal, King of Tyre and father of Jezabel (897- 866 B. c), on the seashore near Cape Lithoprosopon (Menander, in Josephus, "Ant. Jud.", VIII, 13, 2). It is mentioned by all the ancient geographers, Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, Stephanus Byzantius, Hierocles, etc. The city belonged to Pha'nicia

Prima, and became a suffragan of Tyre in the Patri- archate of Antioch. In 551 it was destroyed by an earthquake, on which occasion the cape cracked in the very middle so that quite a large harbour was opened (Malalas, Chronogr., XVIII, in P. G., XCVII, 704). Theophanes, relating the same event (ad an. 543), calls the city Bostrys, which form is also found elsewhere. Three Greek bishops are known: Por- phyrius in 451; EHas about 512; and Stephen in .553 (Lequien, II, S27). According to a Greek "Notitia episcopal uum", the see still existed in the tenth century and %vas then called Petrounion. Its present Arabic name is Batroun. There are 2,5(X) inhabitants (1,200 Maronites, 1,200 Greeks). It is the centre of a caza in the mutessarifllk of Lebanon and the seat of a Maronite diocese suffragan to the Maronite patriarchate. There are 60.000 Catholics, 50 churches or chapels, 30 priests, 1 seminary, 64 elementary schools, and 12 monasteries of Baladites, Aleppines, and monks of St. Isaiah in this Diocese.

S. V.ULHE.

Bothwell, J.\.MEs, E.\RL of. See Maky Queen op Scots.

Botri, Diocese of See Gib.\il and Botri.

Bottero, H. M. See Kumbakonam, Diocese of.

Botticelli, S.^ndro, a famous Florentine painter, b. at Florence about 1447; d. in the same city, 1510. Botticelli's name is properly Alessandro di llariano Filipepi, Mariano Filipepi being his father, but he is called after the Florentine painter and goldsmith, Botticelli, to whom he was first apprenticed. Later on he was a pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi and learned from tliis master to paint in the ideal manner of Fra AngeUco. Through the influence of Verroccliio and the brothers PollajuoU tliis idealism was com- bined with the naturahiess of Masaccio. These quahties explain Botticelh's great influence over later painters. Botticelh's Hfe was a retired one passed largely in very modest circumstances. We know, however, that he was in the employ of the Medici and other prominent Florentine famihes from about 1483 to 1500. Although never inclined to frivohty he was yet influenced by the worldly spirit of the age until Savonarola's powerful call to re- pentance aroused his moral nature and guided his powers, as it seems, into entirely new paths. He never knew how to take care of money and he died at last in need. Botticelh was too imassuming to sign and date liis works in most instances, so that the order in time of liis paintings has to be judged from the canvases themselves.

I. Madon?ias. — Botticelh enjoys, above all, a well- earned fame as a painter of the Madonna. In these pictures the fascination lies more in the expression of the Mother and Cliild and in the look on the faces of the half-grown boy-angels than in the imaffected simplicity of the pose and composition. Two of these pictures, circular in form (called tondo, roimd) have become very famous. Both are in Florence: one is the "Magnificat", and in the other the Cliild is holding a pomegranate. A circular canvas at Berhn which depicts the Madonna enthi'oned and surrounded by angels carrying candles is character- ized by deep religious feeling. A number of small pictures of the Madonna recall Fra FiUppo; others more severe in tone seem to show the influence of Verroccliio. The Child's expression is always sweet and winning, yet thoughtful as well, and at times the look is one of intense earnestness. The Mother in holy awe restrains her tenderness and seems to have a presentiment of future sorrow. This feeling of melancholy foreboding is also expressed in the attendant angels and saints. A painting of this enthroned Madonna with the two Jolins is at Berlin; two canvases at Florence depict the same Madonna surroimded by numerous saints. It is pb.in that the