Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/478

 but its coins attest that it must have been in early times a place of some importance. They bear the Greek legend, and the types indicate a connexion with Tarentum. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 144; Millingen, Num. de l'Italie, p. 150.)

BUXENTUM, called by the Greeks PYXUS (: Ptolemy however writes the name : Eth., Baxentinus: Policastro), a city on the W. coast of Lucania, on the Gulf now known as the Golfo di Policastro, which appears to have been in ancient times called the Gulf of Laus. The Roman and Greek forms of the name are evidently related in the same manner as Acragas and Agrigentum, Selinus and Selinuntinm, &c. All authors agree in representing it as a Greek colony. According to the received account it was founded as late as B.C. 470 by a colony from Rhegium, sent out by Micythus, the successor of Anaxilaus. (Diod. xi. 59; Strab. vi. p.253; Steph. B. s. v. .) But from coins still extant, of a very ancient style of fabric, with the name of Pyxus on the one side, and that of Siris on the other, it is evident that there must have been a Greek city there at an earlier period, which was either a colony of Siris, or of kindred origin with it. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 151; Millingen, Numismatique de l'Italie, p. 41.) The colony of Micythus according to Strabo did not last long: and we hear no more of Pyxus until after the conquest of Lucania by the Romans, who in B.C. 197 selected it as the site of one of the colonies which they determined to establish in Southern Italy. The settlement was not however actually made till three years afterwards, and in B.C. 186 it was already reported to be deserted, and a fresh body of colonists was sent there. (Liv. xxxii. 29, xxxiv. 42, 45, xxxix. 22; Vell. Pat i. 15.) No subsequent mention of it is found in history, and it seems to have never been a plan of much importance, though its continued existence as a municipal town of Lucania is attested by the geographers as well as by the Liber Coloniarum, where the "ager Buxentinus" is erroneously included in the province of the Bruttii. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; Strab. i. p. 253; Mela u. 4; Ptol. iii. 1. § 8; Lib. Colon, p. 209.) It appears to have still been the see of a bishop as late as A.D. 501. (Romanelli, vol. i. p. 375.) Strabo tells us (l. c.) that besides the city there was a promontory and a river of the same name. The latter still retains its ancient name, the river which flows near the modern city of Policastro being still called the Busento. The promontory is probably the one now called Capo degli Infreschi, which bounds the Gulf of Policastro on the W. Cluverius speaks of the vestiges o£ an ancient city as still visible at Policastro: but no ruins appear to be now extant there: and the only ancient remains are two inscriptions of the reign of Tiberius. There is, however, little doubt that Policastro, the name of which dates from about the 11th century, occupies nearly, if not precisely, the site of Buxentum. (Cluver. Ital. p. 1261; Romanelli, vol. i. p. 373.) The coin of Pyxus above alluded to, is figured under.

 BU'ZARA. [.]

 BYBLOS (, Steph. B.;, Zosim. i. 58: Eth. , , LXX.; Ptol. v. 15; Plin. v. 20; Pomp. Mel. i. 12. § 3; Hierocl.; Geogr. Rav.: Jubeil), a city of Phoenicia, seated on a rising ground near the sea, at the foot of Lebanon, between Sidon and the Promontory Theoprosopon. (Strab. xvi. p. 755.) It was celebratedfor the birth and worship of Adonis or Syrian Thummuz. (Eustath. ad Dionys. v. 912 ; Nonnus, Dionys. iii. v. 109; Strab. l. c.) "The land of the Giblites," with all Lebanon, was assigned to the Israelites (Josh. xiii. 5), but they never got possession of it. The Giblites are mentioned as "stonesquarers" (1 Kings, v. 18), and supplied caulkers for the Tyrian fleet (Ezek. xxvii. 9). Enylus, king of Byblus, when he learnt that his town was in the possession of Alexander, came up with his vessels, and joined the Macedonian fleet. (Arrian, Anab. ii. 15. § 8, 20. § 1.) Byblus seems afterwards to have fallen into the hands of a petty despot, as Pompey is described as giving it freedom, by beheading the tyrant. (Strab. l. c.) This town, under the name of Giblah (Abulf. Tab. Syr. p. 94; Schulten's Index Vit. Salad. s. v. Sjiblia), after having been the see of a bishop, fell under Moslem rule. The name of the modern town is Jubeïl, which is enclosed by a wall of about a mile and a half in circumference, apparently of the time of the Crusades. (Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. i. p. 453.) It contains the remains of an ancient Roman theatre: the " cavea ** is nearly perfect, with its concentric ranks of seats, divided by their " praecinctiones," " cnnei," &c., quite distinguishable. (Thomson. BibL Sacra, vol. V. p. 259.) Many fragments of fine granite co- lumns are lying about. (Bnrkhardt, Syna, p. 1 80.) Byblus was the birthplace of Philon, who translated Sanchuniathon into Greek. The coins of Byblus have frequently the type of Astarte ; also of Isis, who came here in search of the body of Osiris. (Eckhel, vol. iii. p. 359.)

(Winer, Real Waribuch^s.v.; RosenmEUler, Bibl. Ah. vol. ii. pt. 1, p. 1 7 ; Mem. de FAoad. dee Inscr. vol. xxxiv. p. 252.)

 BYBLOS (Bv§Aof, Steph. B. s. v. ; Ctesias, ap. Phot. Bibl. ed. Bekker, p. 33 ; EOi. Byblites), a town of the Egyptian Delta, supposed by some to be the modern BaJbeL Bybloe was seated in the marshes, and, as its name imports, was in the centre of a tract where the Byblus or Papyrus plant — Cyperus ^n- pyrus of Linnaeus, the Cyperus Antiquorum of recent botanists — grew in abundance. The root of the byblus furnished a coarse article of food, which the Greeks ridiculed the Egyptians for eating. (AeschyL Siq^l. 768.) Its leaves and rind were manufactured into sandals and girdles for the in- ferior order of Egyptian priests, and into sailcloth for the Nile-barges (Theophr. HitL Phmt. iv. 8); while its fibres and pellicles were wrought into the celebrated papyrus, which, until it was superseded by cotton paper or parehment about the eleventh century a. d., formed a principal article of Egyptian export, and the writing material of the civilibed world. Pliny (xiii. 11. s. 12) has left an elaborate description of the manufacture, and Cassiodoms {EpisL xi. 38) a pompous panegyric of the Papynis or Byblus plant. Its history is also well described by Prosper Alpinus, in his work " de Medicina Aegyptioram."

 BYCE, BYCES. [.]

 BYLAZO'RA (EvKd^upa: Velesd, or Veleseo, the greatest city of Paeonia in Macedonia, was situated on the Upper Axius, and near the passes leading from the country of the Dardani into Macedonia. (Pol. v. 97; Liv. xliv. 26; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 470.) It was a different place from the residence of the Paeonian kings on the river Astycus. [.]

 BYLLIS. [.]

