Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/399

 BASTARNAE. The Bastbrdimi of Plinyi mentioned bj him shortly afterwards among the " Calabrormn Mediter- xanei/' mnst certainly be the inhabitants of Basta, thoQgh the ethnic form is corioos. [E. H. B.] BASTARNAE (Bcurrdpycu) or BASTERNAE (Baarippcu), (me of the most powerful tribes of Sar- matia Eon^iaea, first became known to the Ro- mans in the wan with Philip and Perseus, kings of Macedoniaf to the latter of whom they furnished 20,000 mercenaries. Various accounts wore given of their origin; but they were generally supposed to be of the German race. Their first settlements in Sar- matia seem to have been in the highlands between the Tkeisa and Marck^ whence they pressed forward to the lower Danube, as &r as its month, where a portion of the people, settling in the island of Peuce, obtained the name of Peucini. They also extended to the S. side of the Danube, where they made pre- datory incursions into Thrace, and engaged in war with the governors of the Roman province of JA^tx- dcmia. They were driven back across the Danube by M. Crsssus, in b. c. 30. In the later geographers we find them settled between the Tyras (^Dniester) and Borysthenes (Z^nieper), the Peucini remaining at the mouth of the Danube. Other tribes of them are mentioned under the names of Atmoni and Si- dooes. They were a wild people, remarkable for their stature and their courage. They lived entirely by war; and carried their women and children with them on waggons. Their main force was their ca- valry, supported by a light infantry, trained to keep np, even at full speed, with the horsemen, each ol whom was accompanied by one of these foot-soldiers (vapa§<in}f). Their government was r^aL (Po- lyb. xxvi. 9; Strab. iL pp. 93, 118, vi. pp. 291, 294, vii. pu 305, et seq. ; Scymn. Fr. 50; Memnon, 29; Appian, MUhr, 69, 71, de Reb. Maced. 16 ; Dion Caas. zxxiv. 17, li. 23, et seq.; Plut. Aem. Paul. 12; Lit. xl. 5, 57, et seq., xliv. 26, et seq.; Tac. Ann, ii. 65, Germ. 46 ; Justin, xxxii. 3 ; Plin. iv. 12. s. 25; Ptol iii. 5. § 19 ; and many other passages of andent writers; Ukert, Georg. d, Griech, u, Rom. voL iii. pt. 2, pp. 427, 428.) [P. S.] BASTETA'NI, BASTITA'NI, BASTU'LI (Bar- nfTaifolj BoffTirayoij BturroQAoi), according to Steabo, were a people of Hispania Baetica, occupymg the whole of the & coast, fnmi Calpe on the W. to Barea on the £., which was called ^m them Bas- TBTAKIA (BaoTTTTOJ^/a). They also extended inland, on the £., along M. Orospeda. But Ptolemy dis> tinguishes the Bastuli from the Bastetani, placing the latter E. of the former, as far as the borders of the Oretani, and extending the Bastuli W. as fur as the month of the Baetis. They were a mixed race, partly Iberian and partly Phoenician, and hence Ptolemy speaks of them as BoorovAoi oi KaXovfiwol Uoiroly imd Appian calls them Ba(rroipolinK§s {Higp. 56). (Strab. iii. pp. 139, 155, 156, 162; MeU, iiL 1 ; Plin. iii. 1. s. 3 ; Ptol. u. 4. §§ 6, 9; Ukert, vol ii.pt. 1, pp.308, 309, 315, 406). [P.S.] BA'STIA. [Mbntesa Bastia.] BATA (Bctro), a village and harbour in Sarmatia Aftiatica, on the Euxine, 400 stadia S. of Sinda, and near the month of the river Psychms. (Strab. xL p. 496; Ptol. v. 9. § 8.) [P. S.] BATANA [ECBATANA.] BATANAEA (Barara/a), a district to the NE. of Palestine, situated between Gaulonitis (which bounded Galilee on the east, and extended from the Sea of Tiberias to the sources of the Jordan) and Itniaea or Auranitis, haNiiig Trachonitis on the BATAVI. 881 north. (Reland, Palaest. p. 108.) It was added t6 the kingdom of Herod the Great by Augustus (Joseph. AnL xv. 10. § 1), and afterwards compre- hended with Itaraea (or Aulonitis) and Trachonitis, in the tetrarchy of Philip (xvii. 13. § 4; comp. St Luke, iii. 1 ; Reland, pp. 108, 202.) It is reckoned to Syria by Ptolemy (v. 15. § 25). [G. W.] BATAVA CASTRA (Passau), also called BaU- Tinum oppidum, a town or rather a fort in Vinde> licia, at the point where the Aenus flows into the Danube, and opposite the town of Bdodumm. It derived its name from the fact that the ninth Bata- ▼ian cohort was stationed there. (Eugipp. ViL Sever. 22. and 27; NotU. Imper.) [L. S.] BA'TAVI, or BATAVI (Barovof, Bordowt), fat the Romans seem to have pronounced the name both ways (Juven. viiL 51 ; Lucan, i. 431), a people who are first mentioned by Caesar {B. G. iv. 10). The name is also written Vatavi in some MSS. of Caesar; and there are other varieties of the name. The Batavi were a branch, or part of the Chatti, a German people, who left their home in consequence of domestic broils, and occupied an island in the Rhine, where they became included in the Roman Empire, though they paid the Romans no taxes, and knew not what it was to be ground by the Publicani : they were only used as soldiers. (Tac Germ. i. 29, HieL iv. 12.) They occupied this island in Caesar's time. B. c. 55, but we do not know how long they had been there. The Batavi were good horsemen, and were employed as cavalry by the Romans in their campaigns on the Lower Rhine, and in Britain (Tac Hisi. iv. 12), and also as infantiy (^Agric. 36). In the time of Vitellios (a. d. 69) Claudius Civilis, a Batavian chief, who, or one of his ancestors, as we may infer from his name, had obtained the title of a Roman citizen, rose in arms against the Romans. After a desperate struggle he was defeated, and the Batavi were reduced to submission. (Tac Hist, iv. 12—37; 54—79, v. 14—26.) But as we learn from the passage of Tacitus already dted ((?erm. 29), they remained free from the visits of the Roman tax- gatherer; and they had the sounding titie of brothers and friends of the Roman people. Batavian cavalry are mentioned as employed by the emperor Hadrian, and they swam the Danube in fiill armour (Dion Cass. Ixix. 9 ; and note in the edition of Reimarus, p. 1482). During the Roman occupation of Britain, Batavi were often stationed in the island. The Batavi were employed in the Roman armies as late as the middle of the fourth century of the Christian aera; and they are mentioned on one occasion as being in garrison at Sirmium in Pan- nonia. (Zosim. iii. 35.) The Batavi were men of large size (Tac. IlisL iv. 14, V. 18), with light or red hair (Martial, xiv. 176; Auricomus Batavus, SaL iii. 608). The Batavi were included within the limits of Gallia, as Gallia is defined by Caesar (^B. G. iv. 10), who makes the Rhine its eastern boundary from its source in the Alps to its outlet in the Ocean. The names of the places within the limits of their settle- mcnt appear to show that this country was originally Gallic. The Batavi occupied an ishmd (Insula Ba- tavorum, Caesar, B. G. iv. 10). Caesar was in- formed, for he only knew it by hearsay, that the Mosa received a branch from the Rhine; this brancli was called Vahalis, or Vacalua, according to some of the best MSS. of Caesar, now the WaaL The meaning of the passage of Caesar, in which he dcscriba» Uie ** Insula Batavorum," appears to bo