Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/419

 t BIBUACTE. ■aing the Helvetii (b. c. 58), who had crossed the Saone, he came within 18 M.P. of Bibracte, and uboat this distance from the place was fought the l^reat battle in which the Helvetii were defeated. Strabo, who follows Caesar in his description of Galiia, where he is not following Posidonias, has the name Bibracte (p^ 192) and no other. Mela (iii. 2) is the first extant writer, who names Augustodunum as the capital of the Acdui, and under this name it is menti<med by Tacitus and Ptolemy. A passage of the orator EumeniuSji who was a native of Augus- todtinam, shows that the town took the name, or wi.'ibed to take the name, of Flavia, to sliow its gratitude to the Flavii, for both Gonstantine and his fktber Constantius Chlorus had been benefactors to the place. In this passage the orator states that Bibracte was once called Julia, Polla, Florentia, and it has been used as a proof that Augustodunum is not Bibracte. But the name Julia, which was the adopted gentile name of Augustus, is equivalent to Augusta, and indeed a place was often caUed both Julia and Augusta. Two inscriptions also, which mention the goddess Bibracte, have been found at Augustodunum is mentioned in Tacitus (Ann. iii. 43) as Iiaving been seized by Sacronr, an Aeduan, a desperate fellow, who, with other insolvoits, saw no way of getting out of their dilBculties except by a revolution (a. d. 21). The town, at that time also as in Caesar's time, the chief city of the Aedui, wsus the place of education for all the noblest youths of the Galliae. It was besieged and taken by Tetricus. who assumed the imperial title in Gaul and Britain in the time of Gallieuus ; and the damage that was then done was repaired by Constantius Chlorus and his son Constantine. Finally the place is said to have been destroyed by Attila and his Huns. Avtun is on the Arroux^ a tributary of the Loire, I bat it occupies only a part of the site of Augusto- dunora. It contains many Roman remains. The walls are about 3^ English miles in circuit, and inclose an oblong space between the A rroux and a brook from 3font Jeu (Mons Jovis), which falls into the Ammx, after bounding two sides of the town. The walls are built, like the walls oiNimes, of stones well fitted together ; and they were flanked by nu- merous towers, 220 according to one French au- thority. The number of gates is uncertain ; but two still remain, the Porte dArroux and the Porte St. Andre. The Porte dArroux is above 50 ft high, and more tlian 60 in width, built of stone without cement. It contains two large arched ways for car- nages, and two smaller arched ways for foot pas- sengers. Above the entablature over the arches Is a second story, consisting of arches with Corinthian pilasters : seven arches still remain. The Port St. Andre is less ornamented than the Porte dArroux, and less regular. It is above 60 feet high, and more than 40 feet wide. It has also two largo arched passages; and there were two wings or pavilions on each side, but one is said to be destroyed. The town was intersected by two main streets, one leading from the Porte dArroux to the opposite side of the town, and the other from the Porte St. Andri to the side opposite to that gate. At the intersection of these streets, and in the centre of the town, is the Marchau, as it is called now. This place must have been the Fomm. Near to the Porte dArroux, and on the apposite l»ank of the river, is the Chaumar, evi- dently a corruption of Campus l^Iartius. There are within the walls the ruins^of a theatre, and traces 1) '^ ir;rP77./,,iyj^' BIEXNUS. 401 P > >> »■** ^2»^t^i^ C'U, of an amphitheatre; and in Uieir neighbourhood was a naumachia, a large basin, one diameter of which was above 400 feet. Outside of the town, and on the border of the Chaumar, are the remains of a temple of Janus, three sides of which still remain. (Guide du Voyageur, ^., par Richard et E. Hocquart.) They were constructed of stones cut of a small size. This seems to have been a magnificent building. There are other remains at Autvn.ScJSllidui^ J^^Mi.^ ii*K» On the hill of Montjeu, near Auttm, there are three large ponds which once supplied the aqueduct and the naumachia. The line of this aqueduct has been discovered in recent times. There are several^ remains near Autun which appear to be Celtic, andr i^ some of them may be of earlier date than the RomanJ conquest of GauL One of them is called the Pyrci^ mide or Pierre de Co u ktmd, built of stones, joined <Hd/ by very hard cement. It is about 60 feet high ; au- ' thorities differ very much as, to the dimensions of the four sides of the base. S4^ »P» JC ^ The most curious relic of antiquity found at Autim was an ancient chart or map, cut on marble, and since buried, it is said, under the foundations of a house. - Eumenius,i n one of his orations, speaks of such maps : ^ ^ )r ^ ^' "let the youth see in these porticoes, and let them daily, contemplate all lands and all seas — the sites of all *^*<^ ^-^ places with their names, spaces, intervals are marked^; •£• XX down ;" with more to the same effect, in a verbose, rhetorical style, but clearly showing that there were such maps or delineations for the use of the youths at Autun. (D'Anville, Notice, &c. ; Walckenaer, Geograpkie, &c. vol. i. p. 326.) [G. L.] BIBRAX, a town <^ the Remi, viii M. P. distant from the camp of Caesar, which was on the Axona (Aisne), and near a bridge. (B. G. ii. 5, 6.) The narrative shows that Bibrax was on the north side of the Aime, and D'Anville fixes it at Bievre, which is on the road from Pont-a- Vere on the Aisne to Loon ; and the distances agree. [G. L.] BIDA (B/8a KoKuvla, Ptol. iv. 2. § 28, VR. Bi}Ba, Bo^do; Syda Muncip., Tab. Peut.: Belidah, Ru.), an inland city of Mauretania Caesariensis, 40 M. P. W. of Tubusuptus. The Notitia Imperii mentions a Preteposiiue Umitis Bidensis. (Shaw, Travels, &c. c. 6, pp. 74, 75.) [P. S.] BIDIS (BtSof, Steph. B.: Eth. Bidmus), a small town of Sicily, mentioned by Cicero (^Verr. ii. 22), who relates at length the persecutions to which its principal citizen Epicrates was subjected by Verres. He calls it " oppidum tenue sane, non longe a Syracusis." But it appears from his account that, however small, it enjoyed full municipal rights: and we find the Bidini again mentioned in Pliny's list of the stipendiary towns of the interior of Sicily (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14). Stephanus calls it only a ippovpiov, or '' castellum." Its site is considered by Fazello and Cluverius to be marked by an ancient church, called S. Giovanni di Bidino, about 1 5 miles W. of Syracuse, where, according to the latter, the remains of an ancient town were still visible in his day. The name is written on modem maps Blbino, (FazcU. X. 2. p. 453 ; Cluver. SiciL p. 359 ; see however Amico, Not. ad Fazell. p. 456.) [E. H. B.] BIDUCE'SII, a Gallic people mentioned by Pto- lemy. Walckenaer affirms that D'Anville has im- properly confounded them with the Viducasses of Pliny. He places them in the diocese of Bidue, or St. Brieuc, on the north coast of Bretagne. [Vi- DUCASSEg.] [G. L.] BlENNUS(Bteyi'os: Eth. Eiftrvios: Vidnos), & Jet '^ioc/«:.#a<x-<^<y y.- /