Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/476

Rh 4j8 BALBUS. quity at Lanuvium, with the letters I. S. M. R. (that is, Junonis SospUae magnae reginae) and on the reverse L. THoaivs Baabvs, with a bull rush- ing forward. Eckhel (v. p. 324, &c.) thinks that the bull has an allusion to the name of Thorius, ■which the Romans might regard as the same as the Greek botipios, impetuous. 2. Sp. Thorius Balbus, tribune of the plebs about B. c. Ill, was a popular speaker, and intro- duced in his tribuneship an agrarian law, of which considerable fragments have been discovered on bronze tablets, and of which an account is given in the Did. of Ant. s. v. Thuria Lex. (Cic. Brut. 36, de Orat. ii. 70 ; Appian, B. C. i. 27.) BA'LBUS, JU'NIUS, a consular, husband of Metia Faustina, the daughter of the elder Gordian. (Capitolin. c. 4.) According to some historians, the third Gordian, who succeeded Balbinus and Pupienus Maximus, was the issue of this marriage, while others maintain that he was the son of Gor- dian the second. [Gordianus.] [W. R.] BALBUS, L. LUCI'LI US, a Roman jurist, one of the pupils of Q. Mucius Scaevola, and one of the legal instructors of the eminent lawyer and distin- guished friend of Cicero, Servius Sulpicius Rufus. He was probably the father of Lucilius, the com- panion of Appius Pulcher in Cilicia (Cic. ad Fam. iii. 4), and the brother of Q. Lucilius Balbus, the Stoic philosopher. [Balbus, No. VI IL] Cicero {de Orat. iii. 21 ) speaks of the duo Balbi as Stoics. By Heineccius {Hist. Jur. Rom. § 149) and others the jurist Lucius has been confounded with Quintus the Stoic philosopher. The jurist was occasionally quoted in the works of Sulpicius ; and, in the time of Pomponius, his writings did not exist in a sepa- rate form, or, at least, were in the hands of few. (Dig. i. tit. 2. 8. 42.) He was a man of much learning. In giving advice and pleading causes his manner was slow and deliberate. (Cic. Brut. 42, pro Quint. 16, 17.) [J. T. G.] BALBUS, L. {qu. P.) OCTA'VIUS, a Roman, contemporary with Cicero. He was remarkable for his skill in law, and for his attention to the duties of justice, morality, and religion. (Cic. pro Cluent. 38.) For these reasons he bore a high character as a jtidex in public as well as private trials. There is a passage in Cicero {in Ver. ii. 12) in relation to L. Octavius Balbus, which has been misinterpreted and corrupted by commentators and critics ignorant of the Roman forms of pleading. Cicero accuses Verres of having directed an issue of fact in such an improper form, that even L. Oc- tavius, if he had been appointed to try it, would have been obliged to adjudge the defendant in tlie cause either to give up an estate of his own to the plaintiff, or to pay pecuniary damages. The per- fect acquaintance with Roman law, and the know- ledge of his duty which Balbus possessed, would have compelled him to pass an unjust sentence. To understand the compliment, it is necessary to BALDUINUS. remark, that in the time of Cicero a judex in a pri- vate cause was appointed for the occasion merely, and that his functions rather resembled those of a modern English juryman than those of a judge. It was his duty to try a given question, and according to his finding on that question, to pronounce the sentence of condemnation or acquittal contained in the formula directed to him by the praetor. It was not his duty but the praetor's to determine whether the question was material, and whether the sen- tence was made to depend upon it in a manner consistent with justice. In the ordinary fonn of Roman action for the recovery of a thing, as in the English action of detinue, the judgment for the plaintiff was not directly that the thing should be restored, but the defendant was condemned, unless it were restored, to pay damages. The remainder of the chapter has been equally misinterpreted and corrupted. It accuses Verres of so shaping the formula of trial, that the judex was obliged to treat a Roman as a Sicilian, or a Sicilian as a Roman. The death of Octavius Balbus is related by Va- lerius Maximus (v. 7. § 3) as a memorable example of paternal affection. Proscribed by the triumvire Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus, b, c. 42, he had already made his escape from his house, when a false report reached his ears that the soldiers were massacring his son. Thereupon he returned to his house, and was consoled, by witnessing his son's safety, for the violent death to which he thus of- fered himself. The praenomen of Balbus is doubtful. In Cic. pro Cluent. 38 most of the MSS. have P. ; in Cic. in Verr. ii. 12 the common reading is L. [J.T.G.] BALDUI'NUS I. (BaA5ou?j/os), BALDWIN, the first Latin emperor of Constantinople, was the son of Baldwin, count of Haiiiaut, and Marguerite, countess of Flanders. He was born at Valenciennes in 1171, and after the death of his parents inherit- ed both the counties of Hainaut and Flanders. He was one of the most powerful among those warlike barons who took the cross in 1200, and arrived at Venice in 1202, whence they intended to sail to the Holy Land. They changed their plan at the supplication of prince Alexis Angehis, the son of the emperor Isaac II. Angelas, who was gone to Venice for the purpose of persuading the crusaders to attack Constantinople and release Isaac, who had been deposed, blinded, and im- prisoned by his brother Alexis Angelas, who reigned as Alexis III. from the year 1195. The crusaders listened to the promises of young Alexis, who was chiefly supported by Baldwin of Flanders, as he is gen.erally called ; and they left Venice with a powerful fleet, commanded by the doge of Venice, Dandolo, who was also commander-in-chief of the whole expedition. The various incidents and the final result of this bold undertaking are given under Alexis III., IV., and V. The usurper Alexis III. was driven out by the cru- saders ; prince Alexis and his father Isaac suc- ceeded him on the throne ; both perished by the usurper Alexis V. Ducas Murzuphlus; and Mur- zuphlus in his turn was driven out and put to death by the crusaders in 1204. During this remarkable war Baldwin distinguished himself by his military skill as v/ell as by his personal charac- ter, and the crusaders having resohed to choose one of their own body emperor of the East, their choice fell upon Baldwin. Baldwin was accordingly crowned emperor at