Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/443

 BOSTRA.' 8. part of the district of Annmitis, the modern Haou- mn, of which it was the capital in the middle ages (Abalfeda), and is still one of its chief cities. Respecting Its earliest history, doabts have been thrown upon the identity of the Bozrah of the 0. T. with the Bostra of writers under the Soman empire, chiefly on the ground that the former was a principal city of the Edomltes, whose territory, it is urged, lay too fiu- S. to include the site of Bostra (J3en. xxxvi 33; Is. zzziy. 6, Iziii. 1; Jer, zlix. 13, 22; yltnos, i. 12), while, in one passage (Jer. zlviii. 24), aBoGcrah of the Moabites is mentioned; and hence, by a well-known expedient of hasty criticism, it has been inferred that there were two Bozrahs, the one belonging to Edom, and the other to Moab ; the latter ^mnesponding to Bostra in Auranitis, and the former occupying the site of the modem Biu»eyra^ in the mountains of Idumea. But, as the notices of Boz- nh in the 0. T. have all the appearance of referring to some one well-known place, and as the extent of the territories of the border peoples varied greatly at difierent times, it is at least equally pro^ble that the presessions of Edom extended as far as Bostra, and that, from being on the frontier of the Moabites, it had been taken by the latter when Jeremiah wrote. The notice of Bossora (Bdarco^ in the first book of Maccabees (I Mace. v. 26) confirms this view. (Cal- met, ad Jer. xlix. 13; Von Baumer, Paldst p. 165, and in Berghaus's Xtmo^ 1830, p. 564; Winer, BibL Reahoorterbuch, 8. v. ; Kitto, Pict. BibL n. on Jer. xlix. 13.) Cicero mentions an independent chieftain of Bostra {^Bottrenum: <id Q.F. ii. 12). The city was beau- tified by Trajan, who made it the capittd of the Ro- man province of Arabia, an event commemorated by the inscription NEA TPAiANH BOCTPA on its coins, and also by a local era, which dated from a. d. 105. {Chron. Patch, p. 253, ed. Paris, p. 472, ed. Bonn; Eckhel, Ihctr. Num. Vet vol. iii. p. 500, et seq. : John Malahi erroneously ascribes its elevation to Augustus, instead of Trajan, Chron. ix. p. 233, ed. Bonn.) Under Alexander Severus it was made a colony, and its coins bear the epigraph nova TRAJANA ALEXANDIUANA COL. BOSTRA. (Da- masc ap. Phot. Cod. 272 ; Eckhel, I c.) The em- peror Philip, who was a native of the city, conferred upon it the title of Metropolis, (Amm. Marc xiv. •8; Eckhel, p. 502 ) It is described at this period as a great, populous, and well fortified city (Amm. Marc /. c), lying 24 M. P. north-east of Adraa (^Edrei)j and four days* journey S. of Damascus. (Euseb. Onom. ; Hierocl. ; Not. Imp. Or.} Ptolemy uMUtions it, among the cities of Arabia Petraea, with the surname of Ae7W, in allusion to the Legio III. CyrenaTca, whose head-quartere were fixed here by Trajan. It is one of his points of recorded astrono- mical observation, having 14^ houra in its longest day and being distant about two-thirds of an hour £. of Alexandria. (Ptol v. 17. § 7, viii. 20. § 21.) Ecclesiastically, it was a place of considerable im- portance; being the seat, first of a bishopric, and afterwards of an archbishopric, ruling over twenty bishoprics, and fcmning apparently the head-quartera of the Nestorians. (^AcL Conctl. Nic. Ephes. Chal- ced, tfc) Its coins range from the Antonlnes to Caracalla. Several of them bear emblems referring to the wor- ship of the Syrian Dionysus, under the name of Du- 8 ires, a fact of importance in connection with the reference to the vineyards of Bozrali in the magnifi- cent prophecy of Isakh (Ixiu, 1 — 3). Some scholara BOVTANUM. 425 even derive its name from its vineyards. The verlvil root hotzar signifies to cut off^ and hence, on the one hand, to gather the ffintage^ and, on the other hand, U> make inaccessible; and hence some make Botzrah a place of vineyards^ othera an inaccessible fortress. (Eckhel, p. 502 ; Gesenius, Lexicon^ s. v.) The important ruins of the city are described by Burckhardt {TravelSy p. 226) and Robinson (Bibl. BesearcheSf vol iii. p. 125). The desolation ^ this great city, which, at the time of its capture by the Arabs, was called " the market-place of Syria, Irak, and the Hejaz," furnishes a striking commentary on the prophecy of Jeremiah (xlix. 13). [P. S.] BOSTRE'NUS (Bo<rrfni»6st Nahr eUAuly), the ^ graceful " river upon whose watera Sidon wai situated. (Dionys. Per. 913.) The stream rises in Mount Lebanon, NE. of Detr-^Kamr and Bted- €Unj from fountains an hour and a half beyond the village of EUBAruk ; it is at fint a wild torrent, and its couree nearly south-west (Burkhardt, Syriay p. 206; Robinson, Travels^ vol. iii. p. 429; Chesnev, Exped, EuphraL vol. i. p. 467.) [E. B. J.] BOTERDUM, a phice near Bilbilis, in Hispania Tarraconensis, only mentioned by Martial (xii. IS. 10—12): — " Hie pigri colimus labore dulci Boterdum Plateamque: Celtiberis Haec sunt nomina crassiora terris." [P. S.] BOTIAEIUM (BoricUiOF, Steph. s.v.: Eth. Bo- Tiacvs), a city of Phrygia, on a lake Attaea, which produces salt. As the lake is in Phrygia, and a salt lake, it is possible that this Attaea may be Strebo's Tattaea. [G. L.] BOTRYS(B<^rpwj; Botrys, Botrus, Petrf. Tab.: Boirrpvs^ Theophan. Chronogr. p. 193: Eth, BorpvTiySsy Steph. B. ; Hierocles; Plin. v. 20; Pomp. Mela i. 12. § 3 : Bdtrun a town of Phoe- nicia, upon the coast, 12 M. P. north of Bybla» (Tab. Pent), and a fortress of the robber tribes of Mt. Libanus (Strab. xvi. p. 755), which was, ac- cording to the historian Menander, as quoted by Josephus (Aniiq. viii. 3. § 2), founded by Ithobal, king of T^re. It was taken with other cities by Antiochus the Great in hb Phoenician campaign. (Polyb. V. 68.) Batrun is a small town, with a port and 300 or 400 houses, chiefly belonging to Ma- ronites, with a few which are occupied by Greek.^i and Turks. (Chesney, Exped. Evphrat. vol. i. p. 454.) [E. B. J.] BOTTIAEA. [Macedonia.] BOVIA'NUM (Botar6vj or Bovtwoy: Eth. Bo- vianensis : Bqjano), a city of Samnium, situated in the veiy heart of that country, close to the sources of the river Tifemus, and surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains. We learn from Livy (ix. 31) that it was the capital of the tribe of the Pentri, and a very wealUiy and powerful city. Hence it plays no unimportant part during the ware of the Romans with the Samnites. especially the second, during which the scene of the contest lay principally in the countiy of the Pentrians. It was firet besi^^, but without success, by the Roman consuls M. Poetelius and 0. Sulpidus in b. c. 314 ; but three years after- wards was taken by C. Junius Bubulcus, when a greater booty fell into the hands of the victon than from any other Samnite city. (Liv. ix. 28, 31.) The Romans, however, did not retain possession of it: and though it was again taken by their armies in b. c. 305, they appear to have evacuated it shortly after- wards: as at the commencement of the Third Sam- nite War, R.r. 298, it was a third time taken by