Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/421

 BIS. straim, where It follows that coarse after cominp: from a long reach flowing more from the W. This town has often been confounded with the Birtha of ]*toleniy (r. 19 ; see below), but incorrectly. In fact, the name of Birtha occurs in no ancient writer. Zosimus (iii. 19) mentions that Julian, in his march to Maogamalcha, rested at a town called Bilhra (Bi9pa), where there was a palace of such vast di- mensions that it afforded quarters for his whole armj. (Comp. Le Beau, Iku Empire^ vol. iii. p. 93.) This town was no doubt the modem Bir or Birehjik of the Turks {AUnr€U, Abulf. Tab. Syr. pL 127). The castle of Bir rises on the left bank, so as to command the passage of the river ou the opposite side. The town contains about 1700 houses, and is surrounded by a substantial wall, which, like the castle, is partly of Turkish architecture, partly of that of the middle ages. Bir is one of the most frequented of all the passages into Mesopotamia. The bed of the river at thb place has been ascer- tained to be 628| feet above the level of the Medi- terranean Sea. (Buckingham, Mesopotamia^ vol. i. p. 49; Jovm. Geoff. Soc. vol. z. pp. 452, 517; Chesney, Exped. Evphrat. vol i. p. 46; Ritter, Erd- hmde^ voL z. p. 976.) 3. A town to the S£. of Thapsacus, which Ptolemy (v. 19) pkces in 73® 40' long., Zb^ 0' hit. This platea, the same as the Birtha of Hierocles, has been confoanded by geographers with the town in the Zeugma of Commagene, which lies much further to theN. (Ritter, frdltifufe, vol. z. p. 976.) [E.B.J.] BIS (BIt, Idd. Char. p. 8), a small town placed by Isidoms in a district oi Ariii, called by him Ana- bun CAi^tfo*r). It seems, however, more likely that it is a place at the confluence of the Arkand-Ab and the Helmend, now called Boft. Isidorus (/. c.) speaks of a place called Btur in this district, which 18 probably the same as he had previously called B(s ; atid Pliny (vi. 23) says of the firymanUius or HeU mend^ **■ Erymanthns praefluens Parabesten Arachosi- omm,'* a mistake, doubtless, of his transcriber (i. e. Hap* A€4i<mi¥ for Ilap^ B^(m)r). This is rendered more likely by our finding in the Tab. Peuting. Bestia, and in Gea Bav. (p. 39) Bestigia. (Wilson, ^rmiM, p. 158.) [V.] BISALTES. [Bkaltia.] BISA'LTIA (BuroArfa), a district in Macedonia, extending from the river Strymon and the lake Ger- cinitis, on the £., to Crestonica on the W. (Herod, vu. 115.) It is called Bisaltica by Livy (zlv. 29). The inliabitants, called Bisaltae (Bio-iiXrai), were a Tlirscian people. At the time of the invasion of Xerzes, b. c. 480, Bisaltia and Crestonica were go- verned by a Thracian prince, who was independent of Macedonia (Herod, viii. 116); but before the com- mencement of the Peloponnesian war, Bisaltia had been annexed to the Macedcmian kingdom. (Tlrac tL 99.) Some of the Bisaltae settled in the penin- suh of Mt. AtJios. (Thuc. iv. 109.) The most im- BITAXA. 408 COIN OF TIIE BISALTAB. portant town in Bisaltia was the Greek city of Ar- gilus. [Aagilus.] In this district there was a river Bisaltes (Bio-oAtijj), which Leake conjectures to be the river which joins the Strymon a little be- low the bridge of Neokhorio, or Amphipolis; wliile Tafel supposes it to be the same as the Kechius of Procopius {de Aedif. iv. 3), which discharges into the sea the waters oi the lake Bolbc. (Leake, Northern Greece^ vol. iii. p. 228; Tafel, in Pault/'s RmlencycL vol. i. p. 1 1 1 5.) The annezed coin, which is one of great antiquity, bears en the obverse the legend BI2AATIKON. BISANTHE (Bto-ayih;: Eth, BuTav0nv6si Bo- dasto^ or Rodoatshig)^ a great city in Thrace, on the coast of the Propontis, which had been founded by the Samians. (Steph. B. t. v. ; Herod, vii. 137; Pomp. Mela, ii. 2, 6; Ptol. iii. 11. § 6.) About B. c. 400. Bisanthe belonged to the kingdom of the Thracian prince Seuthes. (Xen. Anab, vii. 2. § 38.) At a later period its name was changed into Raedestum or Raedestus ('Patficorov or 'IfaiZw- Tot); but when this change took place is unknown. In the 6th century of our era, the emperor Justinian did much to restore the city, which seems to have fallen into decay (Procop. I)e Aedif. iv. 9); but after that time it was twice destroyed by the Bul- garians, first in A. D. 813 (Simeon Magister, Leon. Artnen. 9, p. 614, ed. Bonn), and a second time in 1206. (}i'vxt&8,Bald.Fland. 14; Georg. Acropolita, Annal. 13.) The further history of this city, which was of great importance to Byzantium, may be read in Georg. Pacliymeres and Cantacuzenus. It is generally believed that the town of Besistos or Resisto, mentioned by Pliny (iv. 18), and in the Antoninc Itinerary (p. 1 76), is the same as Bisanthe ; but Pliny (t e.) mentions Bisanthe and Besistos as distinct towns. (Eckliel, vol. ii. p. 25.) [L .S.] BISTONES (BiVtowj or Biffruyts, Steph. B. t. V. BioToyla), a Thracian people occupying the country about Abdera and Dicaea. (Plin. iv. 18; Strab. vii. p. 331; Herod, vii. 110.) From the fabulous genealogy in Stephanus B. about the founder of their race, it would seem that they ez- tended westward as far as the river Nestus. The Bistones continued to exist at tlie time when the Romans were masters of Thrace. (Herat Carm. ii. 19. 20; Plin. iv. 18.) It should however bo observed that the Roman poets sometimes use the names of the Bistones for that of the Thracians in general. (Senec. Agam, 673 ; Claudian, Proterp. ii. Praef. 8.) Pliny mentions one town of the Bis- tones, viz. Tirida; the other towns on their coast, Dicaea, Ismaron, Parthenion, Phalesina and Maro- nea, were Greek colonies. The Bistones worshipped Ares (Steph. B. L c), Dionvsus or Bacchus (Herat I c), and Minerva. (Ov. Ais. 379.) [L.S.] BI'STONIS (BiaropU X//xn?; Logos Bum), a great Thracian lake in the counby of tlie Bistones, from whom it derived its name. (Strab. i. pw 59, vii. p. 333; Ptol. iii. 11. § 7; Scymn. Chius, 673; Plin. iv. 18.) The water of the bke was brackish (whence it is called AifiyotfcUair<ra), and abounded in fish. (Aristot H. A. viii. 15.) The fourth part of its pnxlucc is said to have been granted by the emperor Arcadius to the convent of Vatopedi on Mount Athos. The river Cossinites emptied it- self into the lake Bistonis (Aelian, jET. A. zv. 25), which at one time overflowed the neighbouring country and swept away several Thracianji towns. (Strab. i. p. 59.) [L. S.] BITAXA (BcTiC^o, Ptol. vi. 17. § 4, viii. 25. § 4 D D 2