Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/461

 BBIVATES PORTUS. BRIVATES PORTUS (Bpiowhns Xi/l^r), a place in Gallia, is fixed by Ptolemy (ii. 8. § 1) between the month of the Loire and a river which he calls the Herius, supposed by D'Anville to be the Vilaine, and by others to be the Riviire dAuraL Accordingly, some geographers place this port at Briwtin near Croisic, on the coast, in the department of Morbihan. The resemblance of the name Brivates to Bre$tj however, induces D*Anville to suppose that thi» large bay may be the Brivates of Ptolen^. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive that Ptolemy, with any tolerable materials at hand for the coast of Gallia, should not have found among them the position of Brest Walckenaer makes the Gesocribate of the Table to be BresL The Table gives a route iirom Juliomagus {Anger$)^ through Ntmtetf Duretie, Dartoritum, Sulim, and Vorgium, to Gesocribate. D'Anville supposes that G^ocri- bate ought to be Gesobrivate. The distance from Nantea to Gesocribate is 138 Gallic leagues or 207 H. P. There is no doubt that the harbour of BreH is the termination of this road, and as to the difficulty of reconciling all the distances, we cannot be sur- prised at this m a road along such a coast. Vor- ginm or Vorganium, the next station to Gesocri- bate, is placed by some geographers at Concar- neoai, on the present xxMid between Hennebon and Quimper. [G. L.] BRIVODU'RUM, a place on a river, as the name imports. The place is perhaps Briare^ on the right bank of the Ldre, near ChAiiUon-sur-Laire, The Antonine Itin. and the Table place Belca between Brivodurum and Genabum {Orleans) j and Oondate, Cosne (Massava in the Table), between Brivodurum and Nevimum {Nevers). There is the usual diffi- culty about the numbers. Walckenaer places Brivo- durum at La VUknesme near Bonny. The road evidently foUowed the right bank of the Loire^ sa it does now from Nevers to Orleans, [G. L.] BRIXELLUM or BRIXILLUM (Bpl^tWotf, Ptol. ; Bf)({iAAor, Pint.: i^<A. Brixillauus, Inscr. : Bres- eeUo)^ a town of Cisalpine Gaul, situated on the S. bank of the Padus, about 12 miles NE. of Parma, and 16 fVum Regium. Pliny calls it a colony (iiL 15. 8. 20), but we have no account of the time when it became such, nor does any other writer assign it that rank; but it was certainly one of the principal towns in this part of Italy. (Zumpt, de Colon, p. 348; Ptol. iii. 1. § 45; Plin. viL 49. s. 50.) It is chiefly celebrated as the phice to which the emperor Otho retired, when he quitted his army previous to the battle of Bedriacum, and where he put an end to liis life on learning the defeat of hb troops by the lieutenants of Vitellius. (Tac. Hist. ii. 33, 39, 51, 64 ; PluL 0th. , 1 5—1 7 ; Suet. 0th. 9.) He was buried on the spot, and his monument was seen there by Plutarch. (Tac. HisL^d, Pint. 0th. 18.) Its selection on that occasion iKems to prove that it was a place of strength ; and again, at a much later period, it appears as a strong fortress in the time of the Lombard kings. (P. Diac. iii. 17, iv. 29.) No other mention of it is found in history; but an in- scription attests its municipal condition in the reign of Julian, and it is noticed as a considerable town by Sidonius ApoUinaris in the account of his journey to Rome. (Ep. i. 5 ; Orell. Inscr. 37, 34.) The Itine- raries place it on the road from Cremona to Regium, which probably crossed the PaduH at this point; but the distance of 40 M. P. from thence to Kegium is certainly corrupt. (Uin. Ant. p. 283.) The mo- dem town of Brescelh was, at one time, a fortress of BRIXIA. 443 some consideration, but is now a poor place with only 2000 inhabitantB. [E. H. B.] BRI'XIA (Bpi^ia, Ptol.; Bfni^la, Strab.: Eth. Brixianns: Breseia)^ a city of Cisalpine Gaul, in the territory of the Cenomani, between Boigomum and Verona. It was situated on the small river Mela or Mella, at the very foot of the lowest underfalls of the Alps; and about 18 miles W. of the lake Benacus. Both Justin and Livy agree in describing it as one of the cities founded by the Cenomani, after they had passed the Alps and occnpied this part of Italy ; and the latter author expressly calls it thdr capital. (Justin. XX. 5; Liv. v. 35, xxxii. 30.) Pliny and Ptolemy also concur in assigning it to the Cencxnani : so that Strabo is clearly mistaken in reckoning it, as well as Mantua and Cremona, a city of the Insu- bres. (Strab. v. p. 213; Plin. iii. 19. s. 23; Ptol. iii. 1. § 31.) The '* Brixiani GaUi " are mentioned by Livy in b. c. 218, as assisting the Romans against the revolt of the Bdi (xxi. 25); and on a later occa- sion they appear to have held aloof, when the greater part of the Cenomani were in arms against Rome. (Id. xxxii. 30.) But this is all we hear of it pre- vious to the Roman conquest, and the incorporation of Gallia Transpadana with Italy. Under the Roman Empire we find Brixia a flourishing and opulent pro- vincial town. Strabo (/. c.) speaks of it as inferior to Mediolanum and Verona, but ranks it on a par wiUi Mantua and Comum. Pliny gives it the title of a colony, and this is confirmed by inscriptions : in one of these it is styled " ColoniaCivica Augusta,'* whence it appears that it was one of the colonies founded by Augustus, and settled with citizens, not soldiers. (Plin. L c. ; Orell. Inscr, 66 ; Gruter, Inscr. p. 464. 5; Douat./n«cr. p.210. 7; Zumpt,e2i6 Colon, p. 351.) Numerous other inscriptions record its local magis- trates, sacerdotal offices, corporations or " collegia " of various trades, and other circumstances that attest its flourishing municipal condition throughout the period of the Roman Empire. (Orell. Inscr. 2183, 3744, 3750, &c. ; Roesi, Memorie Bresciane^ p. 230 — 324.) It was plundered by the Huns under Attila in A. D. 452 (^BisL MisceU. xv. p. 549), but re- covered from tills disaster, and under the Lombard rule was one of the principal towns of this part of Italy, and the capital of one of the duchies into which their kingdom was divided. (P. Diac. ii. 32, v. 36.) Catullus terms Brixia the mother-city of Verona, a strong proof of the belief in its antiqui^. He de- scribes it as traversed by the river Mela (Flavus quam molli percurrit flumine Mela, Carm. jcvii. 33); but at the present day that river (still called the Mella) flows about a mUe to the W. of it; while Brescia itself is situated on a much smaller stream called the Garza. Eusting remains prove that the ancient city occupied the same site with the modem one; nw is it likely that the river has changed its course: and Philargyrius, writing in the fourth cen- tury, correctly describes it as Jhwing near Brixia. (PhiJarg. ad Georg. iv. 278.) The " Cycnea Spe- cula ^ mentioned by Catullus in the same passage, was probably a tower or mounument on one of the hills which rise immedlatelyabove^rcM^, and which are of moderate elevation, though immediately con- nected with more lofty ridges, and form one of the last offshoots of the AJps towards the plain of Lom- bardy. The remains of antiquity still extant at Brescia are of coasiderable importance. Of the buildings the most remarkable is that commonly called the temple of Hercules, though it is very doubtful whether it was