Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/438

 420 BORA. his account of Cjpras, mentions this place along with Treta, as following Karion, and it has been identified with Bisur, on the road from Kurion to Paphos. Ptolemy (v. 1 4) fixes the position of a place which he calls the " Ox's Tail " (OupA Bo6s, in the Palat: KAfiSe; "Aic/xt), quite to the K£. of the island of Cjpnis. In Kiepert's map Boosura has this position. Unless there were two places of this name, it is impossible to reconcile Strabo and Ptolemj. (Encrel, Kyproi, vol. i. p. 120.) [E. B. J.] BORA. [Bermius.] BORBETOMAGUS( FromM),thechicf townof the Vangiones, who were on the left bank of the Rhine south of Maim. The position of Womit on the road between Maim and Strauhurg identifies it with the Borbetomagus of the Itineraries. The town was also designated, like most of the capital towns in Gallia, by the name of the people, as we see in the enumeration of Ammianus (xvi. 2) : " Argentoratam .... Ne- metas, et Vangionas et Moguntiacum civitates bar- baroB possidentes." The name Wormatia, which was in use in the middle ages, according to D'Anville, is evidently a corruption of Borbetomagus^^ f G. L.] r ., BORCOVICUS, ffotae-steeds, on the hne of the iJcK. "ift/i , Vallum in Britain, mentioned for the first time in p, n i'y, the NotUia Dignitatum. [R. G. L.] ^ BORE'UM, BORI'ON (B6pttov &Kpoy). ,{Itas T*n/onas)f a promontory on the W. coast of Cyrenaica, forming the £. headland of the Greater Syrtis, and the W. boundary of the Cyrenaic Pentapolis, being a little SW. of Hesperides or Berenice. (Strab. xvii. p. 836 ; Plin. V.4. ; Ptol. iv. 4. § 3 ; Stadiasm.^A47, where the error of 700 for 70 is obvious ; Barth, WanderungeUj Sec. p. 365). Adjacent to the promontory was a small port ; but there was a much more considerable sea-port town of the same name, further S., which was inhabited by a great number of Jews, who are said to have ascribed their temple in this place to S'tlomon. Justinian converted the temple into a Christian church, compelled the Jews to embrace Ghriiitianity, and fortified the place, as an important post against the attacks of the barbarians (/oy, Ptol. ii. 2), the most north-western promontory of Ireland, McUin Head. [R. G. L.] BORGODI, a tribe of Arabians, on the east of the Peninsula. (Pliny, vi. 28. § 32.) From their neighbourhood to the Catharrei — doubtless identical with the Cadara of Ptolemy (vi. 7), on the Persian Gulf, — they must have been situated between Ras Anfir&nd Ras Musaendom. Forster finds the name in the modem Godo. (^Aralna^ vol. ii.p. 222.) [G.W.] BORI'UM. [BoRKUM.] BORMANUM. [Dacia.] BORSIPPA (B6p<rnnra, Stcph. B.; Strab. xvi. p. 738; BSfKTtvwoSf Joseph, c. Apion. i. 20: £tk. Bop<rnnniv6sy, a town in Babylonia, according to Strabo, but according to Stephanus, a city of the Chaldaeans. There has been much doubt as to its exact situation, and it has been supposed, from the notice in Stephanus, that it must have been in the southern part of Babylonia. It is, however, more likely that it was near Babylon, as Berossus states that Nabonnedus (Belshazzar) fled thither, on the BORYSTHENES. capture of Babylon by Cyrus. (Joeeph. c. Apion. t. 20 ; Euseb. Praep. Evang. ix.) There can be little doubt that the Barsita (Bc(p<riTa) of Ptolemy (v. 20. § 6, viii. 20. § 28) represents the same place. Strabo (/. c.) states that B<»^ppa was sacred to Apollo and Diana; and that it abounded in a species of bat (vvicTepfs), which, when salted, was used for food. He mentions also a sect of Chaldaean astronomers who were called Borsippeni, probably because they resided in that to^n. According to Justin (xii. 13) Alexander, on his return from India, when warned by the Magi not to enter Babylon, retired to Bor- sippa, then a deserted place. It has been suspected in modem days that the ancient Borsippa is represented by the celebrated mound of the Birs-i^Nimriid, and Mr Rich (Mem. on Babylon^ p. 73) remarks that the word Birs has no meaning in Arabic (the common langnage of the country), while these ruins are called by the natives Boursa, which resembles the Borsippa of Strabo (ibid. p. 79). He adds, that the Chaldee word, Borsipj from which the Greeks took their name, is, according to the Talmud, the name of a place in Babel, near the Tower. (Rich, I. c.) On the black obelisk found by Mr. Layard at Nimrud, Col. Raw- linson reads the name Borsippa, where it is men- tioned as one of the cities of Shinar, remarking that in his opinion this name is undoubted ; as it occurs in every notice of Babylon, from the earliest time to the latest, being written indifferently, Bartsebah, Bartseleh, or Bartsira. (As. Jaum. xii. pt. 2, pp. 436-7.) [V.] BORY'STHENES (Bopwxe^iTjs), BORU'- STHENES (Inscr. ap. Grater, pp. 297, 458), after- wards DANAPRIS {Advanpis: Dnieper^ Dnyepr^ or Dn^)j the chief river of Scythia, according to the early writers, or, according .to the later nomen- clature, of Sarmatia Europaea, and, next to the Ister (Danube), the lai^est of the rivers flowing into the . Euxine, was known to the Greeks from a very early period, prohably about the middle of the seventh century n. c. (Eudoc p. 294; Tzetz. ad Hes. pp. 24, 25, Gaisf. ; Hermann, Opute. vol. ii. p. 300; Ukert, Geogr. &c. vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 17.) By means of the constant intercourse kept up with the Greek colonies on the north coast of the Euxine, and through the narratives of travellers, it was more familiar to the Greeks than even the Ister itself; and Aristotle reproaches the Athenians for spending whole days in the market place, listening to the wonderful stories of voyagers who had returned from the Phasis and the Borysthenes (ap. Ath. i. p. 6 ; comp. Ukert, pp. 36, 449). Herodotus, who had himself seen it, and who regarded it as the greatest and most valuable river of the earth (iv. 17, 18, 53) after the Nile, describes it as falling into the Pontus (^Black Sea) in the middle of the coast of Scythia; and, as known as far np as the district called Gerrhus, forty days* sail from its mouth (iv. 53 : respecting the difficulty which some have found in the number, see Baehr's note; but it should be observed that, as the mam object of Herodotus is not to describe how far it was navigablej but how far it was ibioim, he might be supposed to use the word wKoos in a loose sense, only, in c. 71, he distinctly says that the river is navi- gable^ irpo<nrcrr65, as far as the Gerrhi). Above this its course was unknown; but below Gerrhus it flowed from N. to S. through a country which was supposed to be desert, as far as the agricultural Scy- thians, who dwelt along its lower course through a distance of ten (or eleven) dnys* sail from its mouth.