Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/504

Rh 436 BIANOR. of whom Scaurus contrived to be chosen. Many men of high rank were condemned, and Bestia among the rest, b. c. 110. The nature of Bestia's punish- ment is not mentioned ; but he was living at Rome in B. c. 90, in which j-ear lie went voluntarily into exile, after the passing of the Varia lex, by which all were to be brought to trial who had been en- gaged in exciting the Italians to revolt. Bestia possessed many good qualities ; he was prudent, active, and capable of enduring fatigue, not ignorant of warfare, and undismayed by danger ; but his greediness of gain spoilt all. (Cic. /. c. ; Sail. Juj. 27—29, 40, 65 ; Appian, B. C. i. 37 ; Val. Max. viii. 6. § 4.) 2. Ij. Calpurmus Bestia, probably a grand- son of the preceding, was one of the Catilinarian conspirators, and is mentioned by Sallust as tri- bune of the plebs in the year in which the con- spiracy was detected, b. c. 63. It appears, how- ever, that he was then only tribune designatus ; and that he held the office in the following year, B. c> 62, though he entered upon it, as usual, on the lOth of December, 63. It was agreed among the conspirators, that Bestia should make an attack upon Cicero in the popular assembly, and that this should be the signal for their rising in the follow- ing night. The vigilance of Cicero, however, as is well known, prevented this. (Sail. Ckit. 17, 43; Appian, B. C. ii. 3 ; Plut. Cic. 23 ; Schol. Bob. pro Sest. p. 294, pro Sail. p. 366, ed OrelU.) Bestia was aedile in b. c. 59, and was an un- successful candidate for the praetorship in 57, not- withstanding his bribery, for which he was brought to trial in the following year and condemned. He was defended by his former enemy, Cicero, who had now become reconciled to him, and speaks of him as his intimate friend in his oration for Caelius. (c. 1 1 .) After Caesar's death, Bestia attached himself to Antony, whom he accompanied to Mu- tina in b. c. 43, in hopes of obtiiining the consulship in the place of M. Brutus, although he had not been praetor. {Cic. Phil. xiii. 12, ad Qu. Fr. ii. 3, Phil. xi. 5, xii. 8, xiii. 2.) BETILIE'NUS or BETILLI'NUS. [Bassus, Bktilienus.] BETU'CIUS BARRUS. [Barrus.] BIA (Bi'a), the personification of mighty force, is described as the daughter of the Titan Pallas and Styx, and as a sister of Zelos, Cratos, and Nice. (Hesiod. T/ieoff. 385 ; Aeschyl. Prom. 12.) [L.S.] BIA'DICE (BiaSUv), or, as some MSS. call her, Demodice, the wife of Creteus, who on account of her love for Phrixus meeting with no return, accused him before Athamas. Athamas therefore wanted to kill his son, but he was saved by Ne- phele. (Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 20; Schol. ad Find. Pyth. iv. 288 ; comp. Athamas.) [L. S.] BIA'NOR, an ancient hero of the town of Man- tua, was a son of Tiberis and Manto, and was also called Ocnus or Aucnus. He is said to have built the town of Mantua, and to have called it after his mother. According to others, Ocnus was a son or brother of Auletes, the founder of Perusia, and emigrated to Gaul, where he built Oesena. (Serv. ad Viry. Ed. ix. 60, Aen. x. 198.) [L. S.] BIA'NOR (Bioi'co/)), a Bithj-nian, the author of twenty-one epigrams in the Greek Anthology, lived under the emperors Augustus and Tiberius. His epigrams were included by Philip of Thessalo- nica in his collection. (Jacobs, xiii. p. 868 ; Fabric. Uibl. Grace, iv. p. 467.) [P. S.] BIBACULUS. BIAS (Bias), son of Amythaon, and brother of the seer Molampus. He married Pero, daughter of Neleus, whom her father had refused to give to any one unless he brought him the oxen of Iphiclns. These Melampus obtained by his courage and skill, and so won the princess for his brother. (Schol. ad T/ieocrit. Idyll, iii. 43 ; Schol. ad Apoll. Rliod. i. 118; Paus. iv. 36; comp. Horn. Odyss. xi. 286, &c., XV. 231.) Through his brother also Bias is said to have gained a third of the kingdom of Argos, Melampus having insisted upon it in his behalf, as part of the condition on which alone he would cure the daughters of Proetus and the other Argive women of their madness. According to Pausanias, the Biantidae continued to rule in Argos for four generations. Apollonius Rhodius mentions three sons of Bias among the Argonauts, — Talaus, Areius, and Leodocus. (Herod, ix. 34; Pind. Nem. ix. 30 ; Schol. ad. loc. ; Diod. iv. 68 ; Paus. ii. 6, 18; Apoll. Rhod. i. 118.) Ac- cording to the received reading in Diod. iv. 68, " Bias " was also the name of a son of ^Melam- pus by Iphianeira, daughter of Megapenthes ; but it has been proposed to read " Abas," in ac- cordance with Paus. i. 43; Apoll. Rhod. i. 142 ; Apollod. i. 9. [E. E.] BIAS (Bias), of Priene in Ionia, is always reckoned among the Seven Sages, and is mention- ed by Dicaearchus («/>. Diog. La'c'rL i. 41) as one of the Four to whom alone that title was universally given — the remaining three being Thales, Pittacus, and Solon. We do not know the exact period at which Bias lived, but it appears from the reference made to him by the poet Hipponax, who flourish- ed about the. middle of the sixth century b. c, that he had by that time become distinguished for his skill as an advocate, and for his use of it in defence of the right. (Diog. Laert. i. 84, 88 ; Strab. xiv. p. 636.) Diogenes Laertius informs us, that he died at a very advanced age, immedi- ately after pleading successfully the cause of a friend : by the time the votes of the judges had been taken, he was found to have expired. Like the rest of the Seven Sages, with the exception of Thales, the fame of Bias was derived, not from philosophy, as the word is usually understood, but from a certain practical wisdom, mond and politi- cal, the fruit of experience. Many of his sayings and doings are recorded by Diogenes Laertius, in his rambling uncritical way, and by others. In particular, he suffers in character as the reputed author of the selfish maxim cpiKeiu cLs fiKT-^cTovras ; and there is a certain ungallant dilemma on the subject of marriage, which we find fathered upon him in Aulus Gellius. (Herod, i 27, 170 ; Aristot. PM. ii. 13. § 4 ; Cic. de Amic. 16, Parad. i. ; Diod. Exc. p. 552, ed. Wess ; Gell. V. 11; Diog. Laert. i. 82 — 88 ; comp. Herod, i. 20-22 ; Plut. Sol. 4.) [E. E.] BIBA'CULUS, the name of a family of the Furia gens. 1. L. FuRius Bibaculus, quaestor, fell in the battle of Cannae, B.C. 216. (Liv. xxii. 49.) 2. L. FuRius Bibaculus, a pious and religious man, who, when he was praetor, carried, at the command of his father, the magister of the college of the Salii, the ancilia v/ith his six lictors preced- ing him, although he was exempted from this duty by virtua of his praetorship. (Val. Max. i. 1. § 9; Lactant. i. 21.) 3. M. Fl'kils Bibaculus. See below.