Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/381

 BABYRSA. nit noticed very earlj in Hiatory that the En- phratee was distinguished from all other known riTen, in that it got smaller instead of bigger as it flowed on. Col Chesnej shows that this dif- ference of breadth is still very manifest Thos at - Billah, it is 200 jaxds broad; at Dimmiyaky 160; at Lamlumj 120; through the marshes, often not more than 60: below them and on to Koma, its original breadth of 200 jurds returns. Below Koma, there is reason to believe that the alluTinm brought down by the two rivers has produced a very considerable delta, and that the land now projects into the Persian Gulf foil fifty miles further than it did when Nebuchadnezzar foonded Teredon. [EUFHHATES.] On the whote, the acconnts of modem travellers eonfirm in all esiOTitial paints the narratives of ancient authors. Rich and Ker Porter, Colond Chesney, Mr. Ainsworth and Mr. Frazer, demon- strate that, allowing for the effect of centuries during whidi no settled popnlation have inhabited the country, the main features of Babylonia remain as Herodotus, Xenophon, and Arrian have recorded. Ker Porter speaks of the amazing fertility of the land on the subsiding of the annual inundations {Travels, vd. il. p. 259), and states that the name Nahr MaJka for one of the canals is still preserved among the people (Jbid. p. 269), (according to Chesney, now called the Aba-Hitti canal), adding that one great difficulty in identifying ancient de- SdiptioDs and modem works arises frnn this, that new canals are constantly being cut (one was in ope- ration when he was there in 1818), " dividing and subdividing the mined embankments again and a^in. like a sort of tangled net-work over Uie inter- minable ground" {ibid. p. 297). One great peculiarity of Babylonia are the vast mounds whidi still remain, attesting the extent of the former civilization of the district and the vast works andertaken by its rulers. Besides the great mounds of the Bin-i-Nmrud near Babylon, and those of ^/ Meimar and Akierkuf between it and Baghddd, CfA, Chesney*s survey of Euphrates and the inves- tigations of other modem travellers have brought to light the existence of a vast number of these works between the latitude of Baghdad and the Persian Golf. Of these the most imptniant seem to be those of Utngheier, Warha, Senhera, Tel Eide, Jebel So- fltfm (Teredon) Ukwiyah, Tel Siphr, Niffer^zMd Beth Takkara, Mr. L^tus has examined lately the monnd at Warka, and has found extracrdinary re- mains, leading him to suppose that it must have been the necropolis of the sunounding country. Some coffins beautifully glazed, the results of his excava- ikxti, are now in the British Museum. Of Umgheier or Mugeyer, " the place of Bitunen," Mr. Frazer, the only traveller who has, so far as we know, ex- imined the place thoroughly, has given a particular description (p. 149). It was noticed by Delia Valle as early as 1625, and was supposed by Bennell to be the same as Orchoe. (Bich, Babglon and PersepoUa ; BenneU, Gtogr. of HerodotuM ; Ker Porter, TraveU, vol. ii.; Ains- worth, Reaearchei in Assyria, ^.; Frazer, Mewp. and Assyria ; Chesney, Exped. for Survey of EftpkraUsf Bawlinson, Jour, Asiat. Soc, vol. xii.) [V.] BABYRSA (BdtiSvpoa, Strab. xi. p. 529), a mountain fortress of Armenia, at no great distance from Artaxata, where the treasures of Tigiancs and hia 809 Artanraades were kept.^'c.*-^ [£. B. J.] BACTRA. 363 BABTTACE (BoCM-ain) : Eth, BotflrramiWr, Steph. B. a. v.; Plin. vi 27), according to Stephanos a city of Persis, according to Pliny on the Tigris, 135 M. P. from Susa. The place appears to have been variously written in the MSS. of Pliny, but the moA recent editor (l^llig, 1851) retains the above reading. It appears, from Pliny's description, that he considered it to be a town of Susiana. He states that it was " in septentrionali Tigridis alveo." It has been conjectured by Forbiger (vol. ii. p. 586) that it is the same place as Badaca (Diod. xix. 19), but this place was probably much nearer to Susa. (Rawlmsott, Joum. Boy, Geogr. Soe, vol. ix. p. 91 ; see also Layard, ibid, vol. xvL p. 92.) [V.] BAG AS-CHAMIBI or BACASCAMI, one of the three towns of the Zamareni, a tribe of the interior of Arabia, mentioned by Pliny without any clue to their geographical position (vi. 28. s. 32). It 'is a probable conjecture of Fcwster that Chamari p(Hnts to Gebel Shatamar, a mountain to the nortli of the peninsula, and that the Zamareni are identical with the Beni Shatnmar of Bnrckhardt, wh<xn he further identifies with the Saraceni of Ptolemy. {Geog, of Arabia, vol. il p. 241.) [G. W.] BA'CASIS. [Jaccetaki.] BACGANAE or AD BACCANAS, a sUtion on the Via Cassia, still called Boccomo, It is placed by the Itineraries 21 M. P. from R(nne, and 12 from Sutrium (Itin. Ant. p. 286; Tab. Pent.), and must, therefore, have been about a mile farther on the road than the modem Baaxmo; the latter consuts only of an inn and a few houses, and the ancient " mutatio " was probably little more. It stands in a basin-shaped hollow, evidently the crater of an extinct volcano, and which must have foraied a small lake until artificially drained. (Nibby, Diniomi di Roma, vol. i. p. 281 ; Dennis's Etruria, voL i. p. 78.) [E. H. B.] BA'CCHIA, a town of Hispania Ulterior, men- tioned only by Orosius (v. 4, where the MSS. have Buccia and Buccina), Its position is unknown. (Freinsh. Supp, ad Liv, liv. 10; Ukert, vol ii. pt. 1. p. 464.) [P. S.] BAGCHIS (Ba«x'», Ptol. iv. 5. § 35), fine of the numerous towns or villages which lined the shores of the lake Moeris, and of which indiscrimi- nate mounds of niin alone attest the existence. Bacchis is supposed by modem travellers (Belzoni, vol. ii. p. 153) to have stood on the eastern bank of the lake, and to be now partially covered by the modem hamlet of Jfedmet-A^tmroud [W. B. D.] BACHILITAE, an inhind tribe of the Arabian peninsula (Plin. vL 28. s. 32), perhaps identical with the Anchitae {'Ayxirai) of Ptolemy (vi. 7. § 2S), whom he places on the Mens Climax next the Sabaei. They are supposed to be a branch of the Joctanite Arabs (Beni^Kahtan), described by Burckhardt as a large tribe, the strongest and most considerable between the Ate^ and BadramduL (Fonter, Geog. of Arab, vol. ii. p.283.) [G. W.] BACTAIALLA (BcurratoXAa, PtoL v. 15, Bac- taiali, Peut. Tab,), a town of Syria. According to the Pentinger Tables, 27 M. P. from Antioch. The phiin of Bectileth (Bauer ta4e, Judith ii. 21), which the Assyrian army reached in three days' journey from Nineveh, has been o)nnected with thu place. (Mannert, Geog, vi. pt. 1. p. 456; Winer, Bib. Real Won, s. V.) [E. B. J.] BACTRA (rh BJiicrpa, Strab. xi. pp. 513, 516, &c.; Bdm-pa BcuriXtioy, Ptol. vi. 11. § 9; Arrian, iv. 7. 15; Dion. Perieg. x. 734; Baierploy and fidic-