Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/409

 BENEVENTUM. The modern citj oi Beneoento is still a oonsider- able place with about 13,000 inhabitantp, and can- tains nomeroos vestiges of its azicient gnmdenr. The most oonspicootis of these is a trinmphal arch erected in honour of the emperor Tnyan in a. d. 1 14, whidi forms one of the gates of the modem tfty, now called Porta Aurea. It is adorned with bas-rdiefs representing the exploits of the Empenur, and is geneiallj admitted to be the finest monument of its dass existing in Italj; both from the original merit of its arehitectnre and sculpture, and fiom 1 its excellent state of preservation. Besides this there exist the ranains of an amphitheatre, portions of the Roman wdls, and an ancient bridge over the Calor; while numerous bas-reliefs and fragments of acnlpture (some of them of a very high order of merit), as well as Latin inscriptions in great num- -beiB are found in almost all porta of the citj. Some of these insciiptioDs notice the public buildings exist- ing in the city, among which was one called the the assemblies of the local senate; a Basilica, splen- did porticoes, and Thermae, which appear to have been erected by the Emperor Gommodus. Others contain much curious information concerning the rarioos '* Collegia " or corporations that existed in the city, and which appear to have been intended not mly for religious or conunercial objects, but in some instances for literary purposes. (De Vita, An- Uq. Bmev. ppi 159 — 174. 253 — ^289; Iiucr. Beneif, PL 1—^7; Oiell. Inter. 3164, 3763, 4124--4132, &c.) Benevoitum indeed seems to have been a place of much literaiy cultivation; it was the birth- place of Orbilius the gmmmaiian, who long con- tinned to teach in his native city before he removed to Rome, and was honoured with a statue by his leUow-townsmen; while existing inscriptions record similar honours paid to another grammatian, Butilius Aelianns, as well as to oratorB and poets, apparenUy only of local celebrity. (Suet. (rram. 9; De Vita, iL c. pp. 204—220; Orell. Iiucr. 1178, 1185.) The territory of Beocventum under the Roman empire was of very considerable extent. Towards the W., as already mentioned, it included that of Candium, with the exception of the town itself; to the N. it extended as fiir as the Tamarus {Ta$n- jnaro% including the village (^ Pi^Oj which, as we kam from an inscription, was andentiy called Pagus Yeianus ; on the NE. it comprised the town of Equus Tnticos {8. EleiOerio, near CatUi Franco), and on the £. and S. bordered on the territories of Aeeulanum and Abellinunu An inscription has preserved to us the names of several of the papi or Tillages dependent upon Beneventum, but their sites cannot be identified. (Henzen, Tab. AUmenL Bae- Inany pk 93 — 108; Mommsen, Topogr. degli Irpmif p. 168—171.) The Abdsini Caio*!, mentioned by several writers as the actual scene of the engagement between Pynbus and the Romans (Flor. i. 18; Frontin. StraL iv. 1. § 14; Oros. iv. 2), were probably the tract of plain country S. of the river Calor, called on Zannoin*s map Le CoiUmMy which commences within 2 miles of Beneventum itself, and was tra- veraed by the Via Appia. They are erroneously placed both by Floras and Orosius in Lucania; but all the best authorities place the scene of the action near Beneventum. Some writers would read ** Tau- nsini," fin* Arusini in the passages cited, bat there is no authority for this alteration. The AtwMwrfl^ eain, with the 4^nd denvbhtod beri<:nice. 391 (an old Latin form for Beneventcr-um), must have been struck after it became a Latin colony. Other coins with the legend " Malies,*' or " Maliesa," have been supposed to belong to the Samnite Maleventum. (Milliugen, Numismatique de VAnc ItcdU, p. 223; FiiedliiDder, Otk. Mimt. p. 67.) [£. H. B.] coin of bekeventuil BENI. [Behwa.] BENJANIN. [Palestina.] BENNA, or BENA (BcWa : Eth. Bttmuot, Steph. B.), a town in Thrace, from which one of the Epliesian tribes appears to have derived its name. (Guhl, Ephesiaca, p. 29.) Pliny (iv. 11. s. 18) speaks of a Thracian people of tho name of Beni. BENNA, soeins to have been a place in Phrygia Epictetus, between KuUueh and Azani, as is inferred from an inscripticm found by Keppel with the words rots Btwirais at Tatar-Bautrjek, (Cramer, Asia Minor, voL iL p. 17.) [G. L.] BERA. [Beer.) BERCORATES, a people of Aquitania (Plin. iv. 19), or Bercorcates in Harduin's text. The name appears to exist in that of the BercouaU, the inha- bitants of a place once named BarooUy now Jouanon, in the canton of Bornf in the department of Gironde. (Walekenaer, Geog. ^. vol. iL p. 241.) [G. L.] BEREBIS, BOREVIS and VEREIS iB(p€is a town in Lower Pannonia, identified by some with the modem village of jBrscs, and by others with a place near GySrgg, on the right bank of the Drave. (Ptol. ii. 16. § 6; Geogr. Rav. iv. 19; Itin. Ant p. 130; Itin. Hier. p.662; Tab.Peuting.) [L. S.] BERECYNTUS {htpitannosi Eth. Btp^Kitrrcu), a city of Phrygia, according to Stephanas (s. v.). But this town, and the Castellum Berecynthium of Vibins Sequester (p. 18, ed. Oberlin), on the Sanga- rins, are otherwise unknown. The Berecyntes (Strab. p. 469) were a Phrygian nation, who Worshipped the Magna Hater. A district named Berecys is men- tioned in a firagment of Aeschylus, quoted by Strabo (p. 680); but Aeschylus, after his fashion, confused the geography. Pliny (v. 29) mentions a " Bere- cyntius tractns " in Caria, which abounded in box- wood (xvi. 16); but he gives no precise indication of the position of this country. fG. L.l BERECYNTUS. -0^.] 7 feEREGRA (B4ptypa : Eth. Beregranus), a town ' of Picenum, mentioned both by Pliny and Ptolemy among the places in the interior of that province. The latter reckons it one of the towns of the Pxaetntii, but we have no clue to its precise position. Chiverius would place it at Cvritdla di TrontOy about 10 miles N. of Teromo, which is at kast a plausible conjecture. (Plin. iii. 13. s. 18 ; PtoL ill. 1. § 58; Cluver. Ital. p. 746.) The Liber Colo- niarum (p.259) mentions the ''Versgranus ager" among those of Picenum, a name evidectly corrupted from " Beregranus." [E. H. B.] BERENI'CE. 1. (Btptvlmi, Strab. xvi. p. 770, xvii. p. 815; Plin. vi. 23, 26, 29, 33; Steph. B. $. v.; Arrian. PtripL M. Bub.; Itin. Antonin. p. 173, f.; Kpiphan. llaeru. Ixvl 1: Eth. Btptvi- c c 4 '^V
 * Cacsareum " probably a kind of Curia or place for