Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/536

Rh 518 liUSIRIS. plan into effect ; but Bnrrus refused to take any part in it, and declared that the praetorians were bound to afford their protection to the whole house of the Caesars. In the same manner Burrus op- posed Nero's design of murdering his wife Octavia. At length, however, Nero, who had already threat- ened to deprive Burrus of his post, resolved to get rid of his stern and virtuous officer, and accordingly had him killed by poison, a. d. 63. Tacitus, in- deed, states, that it was uncertain whether he died of illness or in consequence of poison, but the authority of other writers leaves no doubt that he was poisoned by the emperor. The death of Burrus was lamented by all who had felt the bene- ficial influence he had exercised, and the power which Seneca had hitherto possessed lost in Burrus its last supporter. (Tacit. Atm. xii. 42, 69, xiii. 2, 20, &c., xiv. 7, 51, 52; Dion Cass. lii. 13; Suet. Ner. 35.) [L. S.] BURSA, a surname of T. Munatius Phincus. [Plancus.] BU'RSIO, a cognomen of the Julia gens, which is known only from coins. There is a large num- ber, of which the following is a specimen, bearing on the reverse the inscription L. IVLI. bvrsio, with Victory in a four-horse chariot. The head on the obverse has occasioned great dispute among writers on coins : on account of its wings and the trident, it may perhaps be intended to represent Ocean. (Eckhel, v.p. 227,&c.) RUSA, an Apulian woman of noble birth .and great wealth, who supplied with food, clothing, and provisions for their journey, the Roman sol- diers who fled to Canusium after the battle of Cannae, B. c. 216. For this act of libenility thanks were afterwards retunied her by the senate. (Liv. xxii. 52, 54 ; Val. Max. iv. 8. § 2.) BUSI'RIS (Bouatpts), according to Apollodorus (ii. 1. $ 5), a son of Aegyptus, who was killed by the Danaid Automate ; but according to Diodorus (i. 17), he was the governor whom Osiris, on setting out on his expedition through the world, appointed over the north eastern portion of Egypt, which bordered on the sea and Phoenicia, In another place (i. 45) he speaks of Busiris as an Egyptian king, who followed after the 52 succes- sors of Menas, and states that Busiris was succeeded by eight kings, who descended from him, and the last of whom likewise bore the name of Busiris. This last Busiris is described as the founder of the city of Zeus, which the Greeks called Thebes. ApoUodonis, too (ii. 5. ^ 11), mentions an Egyp- tian king Busiris, and calls him a son of Poseidon and Lysianassa, the daughter of Epaphus. Con- cerning this Busiris the following remarkable story is told : — Egypt had been visited for nine years by iminterrupted scarcity, and at last there came a soothsayer from Cyprus of the name of Phrasius, who declared, that the scarcity would cease if the Egyptians would sacrifice a foreigner to Zeus every year. Busiris made the beginning with the pro- phet himself, and afterwards sacrificed all the BUTEO. foreigners that entered Egypt. Heracles on his arrival in Egypt was likewise seized and led to the altar, but he broke his chains and slew Busiris, together with his son Amphidamas or Iphidamas, and his herald Chalbes. (ApoUod. I.e.; Schol. ad Apollon. iv. 1396 ; comp. Herod, ii. 45 ; Cell. ii. 6 ; Macrob. Sat. vi. 7 ; Hygin. Fab. 31.) This story gave rise to various disputes in later times, when a friendly intercourse between Greece and Egj'pt was established, both nations being anxious to do away with the stigma it attached to the EgN'ptians. Herodotus (/. c.) expressly denies that the Egyptians ever offered human sacrifices, and I Socrates (Z?z«. 15) endeavours to upset the story by shewing, that Heracles must have lived at a much later time than Busiris. Others again said, that it was a tale invented to shew up the inhos- pitable character of the inhabitants of the town of Busiris, and that there never was a king of that name. (Strab. xvii. p. 802.) Diodorus (i. 88) relates on the authority of the Egyptians themselves that Busiris was not the name of a king, but signified tlie tomb of Osiris, and that in ancient times the kings used to sjicrifice at this grave men of red colour (the colour of Typhon), who were for the most part foreigners. Another story gives a Greek origin to the name Busiris, by saying that when Isis had collected the limbs of Osiris, who had been killed by Typhon, she put them together in a wooden cow (jSous), whence the name of the town of Busiris was derived (Diod. i. 85), which con- tained the principal sanctuary of Isis. (Herod, ii. 59.) If we may judge from the analogy of other cases, the name of the town of Busiris was not de- rived from a king of that name ; and indeed the dynasties of Manethon do not mention a king Bu- siris, so that the whole story may be a mere in- vention of the Greeks, from which we can scarcely infer anything else than that, in ancient times, the Egyptians were hostile towards all foreigners, and in some cases sacrificed them. Modern scholars, such as Creuzer and G. Hermann, find a deeper meaning in the mythus of Busiris than it can pos- sibly suggest. [L. S.] BUTAS (BouTos), a Greek poet of uncertain age, wrote in elegiac verse an account of early Roman history, from which Plutarch quotes the fabulous origin of the Lupercalia. it seems to have been called Airia, like a work of Callimachus, be- cause it gave the causes or origin of various fables, rites, and customs. (Plut. Rom. 21; Arnob. v. 18.) BU'TEO, the name of a family of the patrician Fabia gens. This name, which signifies a kind of hawk, was originally given to a member of this gens, because the bird had on one occasion settled upon his ship with a favourable omen. (Plin.^.A''. x. 8. s. 10.) We are not told which of the Fabii first obtained this surname, but it was probably one of the Fabii Ambusti. [Ambustus.] 1. N. Fabius M. f. M. n. Buteo, consul b. c. 247, in the first Punic war, was employed in the siege of Drepanum. In 224 he was magister equitum to the dictator L. Caecilius Metellus. (Zonar. viii. 16 ; Fast. Capit.) 2. M. Fabius M. f. M. n. Buteo, brother ap- parently of the preceding, was consul B. c. 245. Florus says (ii.2. §§ 30, 31), that he gained a naval victor}' over the Carthaginians and after- wards sufl"ered shipwreck ; but this is a mistake, as we know from Polybius, that the Romans had no fleet at that time. In 216 he was elected dictator