Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/506

488 of Caesar and Pompey, and prevented the latter in 56 from restoring in person Ptolemy Auletes to Egypt. When, however, a coolness began to arise between Caesar and Pompey, Bibulus supported tlie latter, and it was upon his proposal, that Pompey was elected sole consul in 52, when the republic was almost in a stiite of anarchy through the tumults following the death of Clodius. In the following year, 51, Bibulus obtained a province in consequence of a law of Pompey 's, which provided that no future consul or praetor should have a pro- vince till five years after the expiration of his magistracy. As the magistrates for the time being were thus excluded, it was provided that all men of consular or praetorian rank who had not held provinces, should now draw lots for the vacant ones. In consequence of this measure Bibulus went to Syria as proconsul about the same time as Cicero went to Cilicia. The eastern provinces of the Ro- man empire were then in the greatest alarm, as the Parthians had crossed the Euphrates, but they were driven back shortly before the arrival of Bibulus by C Cassius, the proquaestor. Cicero was very jealous of this victory which had been gained in a neighbouring province, and took good care to let his friends know that Bibulus had no share in it. When Bibulus obtJiined a thanks- giving of twenty days in consequence of the vic- tory, Cicero complained bitterly, to his friends, that Bibulus had made false representations to the senate. Although great fears were entertained, that the invasion would be repeated, the Parthians did not appear for the next year. Bibulus left the province with the reputation of having administered its internal affairs with integrity and zeal.

On his return to the west in 49, Bibulus was appointed by Pompey commander of his fleet in the Ionian sea to prevent Caesar from crossing over into Greece. Caesar, however, contrived to elude his vigilance ; and Bibulus fell in with only thirty ships returning to Italy after landing some troops. Enraged at his disappointment, he burnt these ships with their crews. This was in the winti>r ; and his own men suffered much from cold and want of fuel and water, as Caesar was now in possession of the eastern coast and pre- vented his crews from landing. Sickness broke out among his men ; Bibulus himself fell ill, and died in the beginning of the year 48, near Corcyra, before the battle of Dvrrhachium. (Caes. B. C. iii. 5—18 ; Dion Cass. xli. 48 ; Plut. Brut. 13 ; Oros. vi.l5; Ck.Bi-ut.77.)

Bibulus was not a man of much ability, and is chiefly indebted for his celebrity to the fact of his being one of Caesar's principal, though not most formidable, opponents. He married Porcia, the daughter of M. Porcius Cato Uticensis, by whom he had three sons mentioned below. (Orelli, Ono- mast. TuU. p. 119, &c. ; Drumann's Gesch. Roms^ ii. p. 97, &c.)

2. 3. Calpurnii Bibuli, two sons of the pre- ceding, whose praenomens are unknown, were murdered in Egypt, b. c. 50, by the soldiers of Gabinius. Their father bore his loss with fortitude though he deeply felt it ; and when the murderers of his children were subsequently delivered up to him by Cleopatra, he sent them back, saying that their punishment was not his duty but that of the senate. Bibulus had probably sent his sons into Egypt to solicit aid against the Parthians ; and they may have been murdered by the soldiers of Gabi- nius, because it was known that their father had been opposed to the expedition of Gabinius, which had been undertaken at the instigation of Pompey. (Caes. B. a iii. 110 ; Val. Max.iv. 1. § 15 ; comp. Cic. adAtt. vi. 5, ad Fam. ii. 17.)

4. L. Calpurnius Bibuhjs, the youngest son of No. 1, was quite a youth at his father's death (Plut. Brut. 13), after which he lived at Rome with M. Brutus, who married his mother Porcia. He went to Athens in B. c. 45 to prosecute his studies (Cic. ad Att. xii. 32), and appears to have joined his step-father Brutus after the death of Cae- sar in 44, in consequence of which he was proscribed by the triumvirs. He was present at the battle of Philippi in 42, and shortly after surrendered him- self to Antony, who pardoned him and promoted him to the command of his fleet, whence we find on some of the coins of Antony the inscription L. Bibulus Praef. Clas. (Eckhel, v. p. 161, vi. p. 57.) He was frequently employed by Antony in the negotiations between himself and Augustus, and was finally promoted by the former to the go- vernment of Syria, where he died shortly before the battle of Actium. (Appian, B. C. iv. 38, 104, 136, v. 132.) Bibulus wrote the Memorabilia of his step-father, a small work which Plutarch made use of in writing the life of Brutus. (Pkit. Brut. 1 3, 23.)

 C. BrBULUS, an aedile mentioned by Tacitus {Ann. iii. 52) in the reign of Tiberius, a. d. 22, appears to be the same as the L. Publiciiis Bibulus, a plebeian aedile, to whom the senate granted a burial-place both for himself and his posterity. (Orelli, Inscr. n.4G98.)

 BILIENIS. [Bellienus.]

 BION. 1. Of Proconnesus, a contemporary of Pherecydes of Syros, who consequently lived about B. C. 560. He is mentioned by Diogenes Laërtius (iv. 58) as the author of two works which he does not specify; but we must infer from Clemens of Alexandria (Strom. vi. p. 267), that one of these was an abridgement of the work of the ancient historian, Cadmus of Miletus.

2. A mathematician of Abdera, and a pupil of Democritus. He wrote both in the Ionic and Attic dialects, and was the first who said that there were some parts of the earth in which it was night for six months, while the remaining six months were one uninterrupted day. (Diog. Laërt. iv. 58.) He is probably the same as the one whom Strabo (i. p. 29) calls an astrologer.

3. Of Soli, is mentioned by Diogenes Laërtius (iv. 58) as the author of a work on Aethiopia, of which a few fragments are preserved in Pliny (vi. 35), Athenaeus (xiii. p. 566), and in Cramer's Anecdota (iii. p. 415). Whether he is the same as the one from whom Plutarch (Thes. 26) quotes a tradition respecting the Amazons, and from whom Agathias (ii. 25; comp. Syncellus, p. 676, ed. Dindorf) quotes a statement respecting the history of Assyria, is uncertain. Varro (De Re Rust. i. 1) mentions Bion of Soli among the writers on agriculture; and Pliny refers to the same or similar works, in the Elenchi to several books. (Lib. 8, 10, 14, 15, 17, 18.) Some think that Bion of Soli is the same as Caecilius Bion. [.]

4. Of Smyrna, or rather of the small place of Phlossa on the river Meles, near Smyrna. (Suid. s. v. .) AH that we know about him is the little that can be inferred from the third Idyl 