Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/410

 392 BERENICE. Kt6s and B9p€vau61i7iSj fem. Bcpcvticcia), a city upon the Red Sea, was founded, or certainly converted from a village into a city, by Ptolemy II. Phila- delpha», and named in honour of his mother, the daughter of Ptolemy Lagus and Antigone. It stood about lat. 23^ 56' N., and about long. 35° 34' E., and being in the same parallel with Syene, was ac* cordiiigly on tlie equinoctial lino. Berenice, as mo- dem survi^s (Moresby and Carless, 1830— -3) have ascertained, stood nearly at the bottom of the Sinus Immundus, or Foul Bay. A lofty range of moun- tains runs along this side of the African coast, and separates Berenice from Egypt. The emerald mines are in its neighbourhood. l*he harbour is indifferent, but was improved by art. Berenice stood upon a narrow rim of shore between the hills and the Red Sea. Its prosperity after the third centuiy b. o. was owing in great measure to Uiree causes: the favour of the Macedonian kings, its safe anchorage, and its being a terminus of the great road frun Ooptos, which rendered Berenice and Myos Hormos the two principal emporia of the trade between Aethiopia and Egypt on the one hand, and Syria and India (m. the other. The distance between Ooptos and Bepenice was 258 Roman miles, or eleven days* journey. The wells and halting places of the caravans are «iume- rated by Pliny (vi. 23. s. 26), and in tke Itineraries (Antonin. p. 172, f.). Belzoni {TraveU, vol. iL p. 35) found traces of several of these stations. Under the empire Berenice formed a district in itself, with its peculiar prefect, who was entitled " Praefectus Berenicidis," or P. montis Berenicidis. (Orelli, Itucr. Lat. no. 3880, £) The harbour of Berenice was sheltered from the NE. wind by the island Ophiodes (*O0ii^iIf p^icros, Strab. zvi. p. 770; Diod. iii. 39), which was rich in topases. A small temple of sand- stone and soft calcareous stone, in the Egyptian style, has been discovered at Berenioe. It is 102 feet long, and 43 wide. A portion of its walls is sculptured with well-executed basso relievos, of Gfeek work- manship, and hiereglypbics also occasionally occur on the walls. Belzoni confirmed D*Anville's original opinion of the true site of Benenice {Mimaires sur VEgypte Anoimne and says that the city measured 1,600 feet from N. to S., aad 2,000 from E. to W. He estimates the ancient population at 10,000. (i2e- searckes, vd. iL p. 73.) 2. Pakchkybos, a «ity near Sabae in the Regio Troglodytica, and on the W. coast of the Red Sea, between the 20th and 2 1st degrees of N. latitude. It obtained the appellation of '* all-golden " (wdMXpvcos, Steph. B. p. 164, «. v.; Strab. xvl. 771) from its vicinity to the gold mines oiJehd AUaH or OUakif from which the ancient Egyptians drew their prin- cipal supplies of that metal, and ioi the working of which they emplo^ oriminals and prisoners of war. (Plin. vi. 34.) 3. Epideirbs (^M Attfnjs^ Steph. B. t, v.; Strab. xvL pp. 769, 773; Mela, iii. 8; Plin. vi. 34; Ptol. vilL 16. § 12), cr Berenioe upon the Neck of Land, was a town on the W. shore of the Red Sea, near the Straits of Bmb-d-Mandeb. Its position on a sandy spit or promontory of land was the cause of its distinctive appellation. Some authorities, how- ever, attribute the name to the neighbourhood of a more considerable town named Deira; but the situ- ation of the latter is unknown. [W. B. D.l BERENI'CE. a Cilician city of this name is mentioned by Stephanus (s. v. Bcpeyfin}); and in the Stadiasmus a bay Berenice is menUoned. " As the t>tadiasmu8 does not mention any distance between BERGISTANL the Golf of Berenioe and Celenderis, there is reason to think that Berenice was the name of the bay to the eastward of the little port of Kelatderi" (Leake, Asia Minor, &c p. 202.) [G. L.] BERENI'CE, a town in Arabia, the name by which Ezion-Geber was called in the time of Josephus. {AnL viii. 6. § 4.) It was situated on the Ehmitic, or Eastern Gulf of the Red Sea, not fiur from Elath, Ailah, or Aelana. It is maitiooed in the wanderings of the children cf Israel {Numb. zxziii. 35); and is celebrated as the naval arsenal of Solomon and Jehoshaphat. (1 KingSy ix. 26, xxii. 48.) The Arabic historian Makrizi speaks of an ancient city 'Asyiln near Ailah. (Burdchardt*a 515^ p. 511.) [G.W.J BERENI'CE, in Cyrenaica. [Hbsperides.J BEREUM or BERAEUM {AriJdart), a town in Moesia (^Notit, Imp, 28; Geogr. Rav. iv. 5; Itin. Ant. 225). [L. S.] BERGA (B^Tn : Eth, Bcpya^f), a town of Macedonia, lying inland from the mouth of the Stiymon (Scynuius Oh. 654; PtoL iii. 13. § 31) only known as the birthpkce of the writer An- tiphanes, whose tales were so marvellous and incredible as to give rise to a verb fi^pyal^tw^ in the sense of telling falsehoods. (Strab. L p. 47, iL pp. 102, 104 ; Steph. B. j. r. ; DicL of Biogr. vuL i. p. 204.) Leake pbces Berga near the modem Takhyno^ upon the shore of the Strymonic lake. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iiL pu 229.) BE'RGIDUM. [AsTUBES.] BERGINTRUM, a place on the Gallic side of the pass of the Alpes Graiae, lying on the road marked in the Antonine Itin. betvwen Mediolanum (i/t/oo) and Vienna (Vimne). D'Anville (^Notice, &c.) places it, according to the Table, between Axima Aime) and Alpis Gnia. The distance from Ber- gintrum to Axima is marked viiii M. P. The Alpis Graia may be the watershed on the pass of the Little St. Bernard, which dirides the waters that flow to the Itere from those which flow to the Dora Baltea on the Italian side. This is the place which D*An- ville names lH4pilal, on the authority of a manu- script map of the country. D'Anville supposes that Bergintrum may be St. Maurice ; but he admits that xii, the distance in the Table between Ber- gintrum and Alpis Graia, does not fit the distance between ^S^. Maurice and lEopital, which is less. Walokenaer {Geog. &c vol. iii. p. 27) supposes that two routes between Arebrigium and Darantasia have been made into one in the Table, and he fixes Ber- gintrum at BelleiUre, He also attempts to show that in the Anton. Itin. between Arebrigium and Daran- tasia there has been confusion in the nunibera and the names of pUoes; and this appears to be the case. The position of Bergintrum cannot be considered as certain, though the limits between which we must look for it are pretty well defined. [G. L.] BERGISTA'NI, a small people of Hispania Tarm- conensis, who revolted from the Romans in the war about Emporiae, b. c. 195. (Liv. xxxiv. 16, 17.) They seem to have been neighbours of the Dergetes, in the mountains of Catalonia^ between Ber^ and Mcmreea. There can be no doubt that the place, afterwards mentioned by Livy (c. 21) as the strong- hold of the rebels, Bergium or Vergium castrwn^ was one of the seven fortresses of the Beigistanl, mentioned by him in the former passage, aiMi that from which they took their name. It is probably Berga. (Marca, Hiep. ii. 23, p. 197 ; Florez, Eep. S. xxiv. 38 ; Ukert, voL ii. pt, L pp. 3 18, 426.) [P. S.]