Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/427

 BLEMINA. the name of Blemyes; and travellers broup^ht back with them to Egypt and Sjria the most exaggerated rpporta of th^ appearance and ferocity. Hence the Blemyes are often represented in ancient cosmo- icraphy as one of those fabolons races, like the still less known Atlantic and Garamantid tribes, whose eyes and months were planted in their breasts, and who, like the Pygmaei, were midway between the ne(roes and the apes. (See Angustin, Civ. D. zvi 8.) According to Ptolemy, however (iv. 7),they were an Aethiopian people of a somewhat debased type. The Blemyes first came into collision with the Romans in the reign <tf the emperor Decins, A. d 250. They were then ravapiig the neighbourhood of Philae and Elephantine. (Chron. Pasch. p. 505, ed. Bonn.) They are mentioned by Vopiscus (^ureZton, 33) as walldn<; in the triumphal procession of Aurelian in A. D. 274, and bearing gifts to the conqueror. In the reign of Probus (a. d. 280) captive Blemyes excited the wonder of the Soman populace. The emperor Diocletian attempted to repress the inroads of the Blemyes by paying an annual tribute to their chiefs, and by ce^g to them the Roman possessions in Nubia. But even these con€es6ions do not appear to have entirely satisfied these barbarians, and almost down to the period of the Saracen invasion of the Nile valley, in the 7th century a. d., the Blemyes wasted the harvests and carried ofi^ captives from the Thebaid. (Prooop. B. Pen, u 19.) BLEMFNA. [Belemina.] BLE'NDIUM. [Cantabri.] BL£BA(BA^pa : Eth. Bleninus). a city of Etruria, mentioned both by Pliny and Strabo among those which were still existing in their time, but classed by the latter among the minor cities (irc^Aixi'cu) of the province. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 8 ; Strab. v. p. 226 ; Ptol. iii. 1. § 50.) The name is also found (though oormpted into Olera) in the Tabula, which places it apparently (for this part of it is very confiised) on the line of the Via Claudia between Forum Clodii and Tnscania {Totcandia): a position that coincides with the site of the modem village of Bieda^ about 12 miles SW. of Viterbo: a name which is evidently but a slight corruption of that of Blera. In docu- ments of the middle ages the inhabitants are called BkdanL No further information concerning Blera is to be found in ancient writers : but it derives considerable interest from the remains of Etruscan antiquity which have been of late years discovered at Bteda. The ancient town appears to have occupied the same site wiUi tiie present village, on a narrow tongue of land, iMTunded on each side by deep glens or ravines, with procipitons bonks of volcanic tufb. The soft rock of which these clifis are composed is excavated into numerous caverns, all decidedly of a sepulchral character, ranged in terraces one above the other, tmited by flights of steps carved out of the rock: while many of them are externally ornamented with architectural fafades, resembling in their general character those of Cattel dAsso [Axia], but pre- senting greater variety in their mouldings and other decorations. Others again are hewn out of detached masses of rock, fashioned into the forms of houses, as is seen also in the tombs at Suana. Besides this Necropolis, one of the most interesting in Etruria, there remain at Bieda only some slight fragments of the ancient walls, and two bridges, one of a single arch, supposed to be Etruscan, the other of three arches, and certainly of R<xnan construction. (A complete description of the ancient remains BOEBE. 409 found at Bieda is given in Dennis's Etruria^ vol. i. pp.260— 272.) [E. H. B.] BLE'STIUM, in Britain, the next station in the Itinerary to Burrium (JJsk and probably near Monmouth or Old Town. [R. G. L.] BLETISA. [Vettones,] BLU'CIUM (BAoiWiov), a place in Galatia, in the division of the Tolistobogii. It was the resi- dence of the Gallic king Deiotanis (Strab. p. 567) in defence oi whom Cicero made an oration, addressed to the Dictator Caesar. In the text of Cicero (j^ro Reg. DeioL 6, 7), the name is read Luceium (ed. Orelli), and, accordingly, Groskurd (Transl. Strab. vol. ii. p. 512) corrects Strabo by writing Aovkcioi'. But the name is as likely to be correct in Strabo's text as in Cicero's. The site of the place is un- known. [G. L.] BOACTES (Bo<£KTiyf, Ptol. iii. 1. § 3), a river of Liguria, mentioned only by Ptolemy, who describes it as a confluent of the JVIacra or Magra : hence it may safely be identified with the Varoj the only con- siderable tributary of that stream, which rises in tiie mountains at the back of Chiavuri^ and flows through a transverse valley of the Apennines till it joins the Magra about 10 miles from its mouth. [E. H. B.] BOAE. [Bavo.] BOAGRIUS. [LocRis.] BOCANI. [Taprobane.] BO'CANU>I HE'MERUM (BoKoa^hv Vp^Of mentioned by Ptolemy (iv. 1. § 15) among the m- land cities of Mauretania Tingitana, SE. vi Dorath, and NE. of Vala, in 9° 20' long., and 29^° N. laL, is supposed by some geographers to answer to the position of Morocco, where ancient ruins are found: but the identification is very uncertain. (Graberg, Specchio Geografico ei Statistico delF Itnpero di AJaroccOy p. 37.) [P. S.] BO'CARCS. [Saiamis.] BODENCU& [Padus.] BODERIA [BoDOTRiA.] BODINCOMAGUS. [Industria.] BODIONTICI, a Gallic people described by Pliny (iiL 4) under Gallia Narbonenisis. He observes that the Avantici and Bodiontii, Inalpine tribes, were added to Narbonensis by the emperor Galba. Their chief place was Dinia {Digne). The two tribes were comprised within the lunits of the diocese of JHgne. [Avantici ] [G. L.] BODO'TRIA, the FMi of Forth, in Scotland. (Tac. Agr. 23, 25.) [R. G. L.] BODU'NI. [DoBUNi.] BOEAE (BoiflU: Eth. Boidrris), a town in the south of Laconia, situated between the promontories Malea and Onugnathos, in the bay called after it Boeaticns Sinus (Botarucds K6Xrros). The town is said to have been founded by Boeus, one of the Hera- clidae, who led thither colonists from the neighbour- . ing towns of Ejis. Aphrodisias, and Side. (Paus. iii. 22. § 1 1 .) It'afteiiirards belonged to the Eleuthero- Lacones, and was visited by Pausanias, who men- tions a temple of Apollo in the forum, and temples of Aesculapius and of Sarapis and Isis elsewhere. At the distance of seven stadia from the town there were ruins of a temple of Aesculapius and Hygieia. The remains of Boeae may be seen at the head of the gulf, now called Vatika. (Paus. i. 27. § 5, iii. 21. § 7, iii. 22. § 11, seq. ; Scylax, p. 17 ; Strab, viii. p. 364; Polyb. v. 19; PUn. iv. 5. s. 9 ; Boblaye, Becherches, Sec p. 98.) I BOEBE (BolSfi, Steph. B.), a town in Crete, of which we only know that it was in the Gortynian