Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/426

 408 BLASTOPHOENICES. name Cette^ though the promontory is west of Cette. Blascon is Bresccm, a small island or rock about half a mile from the coast and off Agathe or Agde. It is mentioned bv Avienus f ^. Afar. v. 600. &c.) and by Pliny. Ptolemy has both an island Blascon, and an island Agathe, bat the island Agathe does not exist. (D'Anville, Notice^ &c.) [G. L.] BLASTOPHOENl'CES. [Bastktanl] BLATUM BULGIUM, in Britain, one of the stations of the Itinerary. Lying immediately north of Luguvallum {^Carlisle), it best agrees with Mid- dlebyy where Roman remains occur at the present time. [R G. L.] BLAUDUS (BAaCdos), a place in Phrygia, men- tioned by Stephanas («. r. BAaOSoy) and Strabo (p. 567). Speaking of the Galatian Ancyra, Strabo says : " They had a strong place, Ancyra, with the same name as the Phrygian small town near Blau- dos, towards Lydia." This docs not tell ns much. Forbiger thinks that Blaudos is very probably Bolatf mentioned by Hamilton (^Royal Geog. Jaum. vol. viii. p. 140). But the position of Bolat is not well fijced, nor b it near the place which Hamilton supposes to be the Phrygian Ancyra. [Ancyra.] [G.L.] BLAUNDUS (BAoCvSos), a place in Phrygia, pro- bably the Blaeandrus of Ptolemy. Hamilton (/2e- searches^ 4^. vol. i. p. 127, &c.) places Blaundos at Suleimanlif which is east of Philadelphia, near the KopU Suy a branch of the Maeander. He found at the neighbouring village of Gobekf an inscription, which, he was informed, was brought from Stdei- manli. It begins BkauvBtwy MoKc8ova;y, and speaks of the BouAij and Arifjuts. It belongs to the Roman period, as appears from the name KovoBparov (Qua- draU). Another inscription, given by Arundell, from a tomb, contains the name of L. Salvius Grispus, and a Greek translation (tovto to fivrifjifioy KkripovofAois ovK aKoov9ri<rtv) of the usual Roman monmnental formula, " hoc monumentiun heredes non sequitur.** From this it appears that Roman law had found a ibotiog at this place. Hamilton also copied a small fragment of two lioman inscriptions at Suleimanlif but he found no trace of the ancient name. There is an acropolis at Suleimanlif and near the foot of it the remains of' a theati-e. Thero are also the re- mains of a gateway, on each side of which is '* a nias.sive square tower, built of Hellenic blocks, which, as well as the connecting wall, were originally sur- mounted by a Doric frieze, with triglyphs, part of which is stijl remaining." Within the walls are the ruias of a beautiful temple, heaped together in great confusion. The ornaments on the architraves re- semble those of the Erechtheium at Athens and the temple of Jupiter at Azani. There are remains of many other buildings and temples, and the ruined arches of an aqueduct for the supply of the acropolis. This was evidently once a considerable place. Arundell {Discoveries in Asia Minor, vol. i. p. 80, &c.) has given a view of Suleimanlij and a plan of the place, lie obtained there two coins of Ephesus, one of Sebaste, and one of Blaundus, all unquestionably found on the spot. The Peutinger Table has, on the road between Dorylaeum and Philadelphia, a place Aludda, then another Clanudda, and then Phila- delphia ; and Arundell concludes that SuleimofUi is Clanudda, as the distances agree veiy well with the road. Arundell also mentions two medals, both of which he had seen, with the epigraph KXavuovZfwy. This name Clanudda occurs in no ancient writer, nor in the Notitiae, and Hamilton and others suppose Clanudda to have originated in a corruption of Blaun- BLEMYES. I dus and Aludda. Certainly, the name Aludda. in the Table, makes Clanudda somewhat suspicious. Hamilton says that he is informed that the medal of Clanudda which was in the possession of Mr. BcHrrell of Smyrna, is the same that Mr. Arundell speaks of as being in the possession q£ Lord Ashbumham. Mr. Arundell saw both, but it seems that he was not aware that Lord Ashbumham's was that which had been Mr. Borrell's. Lord Ashbamham*s is eaid to be lost. (Hamilton.) Mr. Hamilton has several autonomous coins of Blaundus, some of which he pro- cured at Gobek, and the name on these coins is always written Mlaundus. This interchange of M and B is curious, for it appears in the forms of other Greek words not proper names (/3poT<Js, /lo/rnif, for instance). He observes, that *^ nothing was mora easy than to mistake M for KA, supposing it to be written KA, which I cannot help thinking has been the case with the supposed coin of Clanudda." '^ Su- leimanlij* he adds, ** is nearly on the direct line of road between Pliiladelphia and KtUcJiiyah, and by which the caravans now travel." The question is curious, and perhaps not quite determined ; but the probability is in favour of Hamilton's conclusion, that Stdeimanli is Blaundus, and that Clanudda never existed. [G. L.] BLAVIA {Blaye on the right bank of the Garonne, and on the road^rom Burdigala (^Bordeaux) to Mediolanum of the Santones, or Scdntes. In the Antonine Itin. the name varies, according to the MSS., between Blavium and Bhivatum, but the Table has it Blavia, as it is in Ausonius. (Epist. 10)- Aut iteratarum qua glarea trita viarum Fert militarem ad Blaviam. The distances from Bordeaux do not agree either with the Itineraiy or the Table, but the site of Blavia cannot be doubtful. The Blabia of the Notitia is supposed by D'Anville and others to be at the mouth of the Blavei, in the department of Morbihan. [G. L.] BLE'MYES (BA^Mves, Steph. B. «. r.; Strab. xvii. p. 819; Blemyae, Plin. v. 8. § 8, § 44, 46; Soliu. iii. 4; Mela, i. 4. § 4, 8. § 10; Isidor. Orig. xi. 3. § 17; Blemyes, Avien. DtscripL Orb. V, 239; Blemyi, Prise. Perieg. 209; Claud. Nil v. 19), were an Aethiopian tribe, whose position varied considerably at different epochs of histoiy. Under the Macedonian kings of Egypt, and in the age of the Antonines, when Ptolemy the geographer was compiling his description of Africa, the Blemyes appear S. and £. of Egypt, in the wide and scarcely explored tract which lay between the rivera Astapus and Astaboras. But as a nomade race they were widely dispersed, and the more ancient geographers (Eratoeth. ap. Strabon. xvii. p. 786; Dionys. Perieg. V. 220) bring them as far westward as the region beyond the Libyan desert and into the neighbourhood of the oases. In the middle of the 2nd century A. D., the Blemyes had spread northward, and in- fested the Roman province of Egypt below Syene with such fonnidable inroads as to require for their suppression the presence of regular armies. They were doubtless one of the pastoral races of Nubia, which, like their descendants, the modern Barabra and Bisharee Arabs, shifted periodically Hith the rainy and the dry seasons from the upland pastures of the Arabian hills to the level grounds and banks of the feeders of the Nile. Their predatory habits, and strange and savage life, filled the guides and merchants of the caravan-traiSic with dread of