Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/510

BEL BELIGH,, or , a Turkish poet, born at Bursa, who flourished in the seventeenth century. He composed many original works, and also made numerous compilations. Amongst the former is the "Gul Sadberg," or the Rose with a Hundred Leaves, being a poem of a hundred traditions of Mahomet. In the latter department he has left a work entitled "Wafiat Danishveran," in which he has collected the histories of all the learned men, poets, and sheiks of Bursa from the time of the Conquest to his own day.—J. F. W.  BELIGH,, a Turkish poet and professor, born at Constantinople, and died in 1705.  BELIN,, a French Benedictine, bishop of Bellay, was born in 1610, and died in 1677. He wrote against the alchemists.  BELIN DE BALLU,, one of the best Greek scholars of his age, was born at Paris on the 28th February, 1753. His works soon attracted general notice, and he was chosen a member of the academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres in 1787. The government placed him in the direction of the prytanee of St. Cyr, but he had no administrative talent, and the appointment was shortly after revoked. His talent for instruction, however, was too great to be overlooked, and the Emperor Alexander of Russia offered him the post of professor of Greek literature in the new university which he had just founded at Charkow in the Ukraine. This he accepted, and after a few years he removed to Moscow, where he remained till it was burned in 1812, when he went to St. Petersburg, where he remained till his death in 1815. He has left many works which are still held in estimation, the best of which is his "Critical History of Greek and Roman Eloquence."—J. F. W.  BELING,, a German poet, born at Schleswig in 1625; died 1646. He translated Virgil's Eclogues into German.  BELING,, an Irish writer of some distinction, was the son of Sir Henry Beling, knight, and a member of an ancient Roman catholic family in the county of Dublin. Richard was born at Belingstown, the family seat, in the year 1613. He received an excellent classical education in Dublin, was subsequently sent to England, and entered a student at Lincoln's Inn, and after a few years of study, he returned to his native land. There his military predilections, and his religious principles, induced him to take a part in the rebellion of 1641, and in his twenty-eighth year, he held high rank in the insurgent army, and commanded on several occasions. He subsequently was one of the most influential members of the supreme council of the Roman catholics assembled at Kilkenny, and became secretary to that body in 1645, by whom he was sent on an embassy to the pope and other Italian princes, for the purpose of soliciting their assistance. Upon his return, he was accompanied by Rinuccini as papal nuncio, who by his intrigues increased the troubles of the country, and impeded the establishment of peace. Beling was so dissatisfied with the conduct of the nuncio, that he withdrew from the party altogether, and attached himself to the Royalists, to whom, from that period, he continued faithfully attached. The duke of Ormond took him into his favour, and employed him in several important negotiations, in all of which he displayed both zeal and address. When the army of the king was defeated by the parliamentary forces, Beling left England and resided in France during the Protectorate. There he occupied himself with literature, and wrote some works upon the events in which he had been concerned. After the Restoration, he returned to his native land, and through the influence of the duke of Ormond, he was restored to his property there. He died in Dublin in the year 1677. He added a sixth book to Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia. His other works are, "Vindiciarum Catholicorum Hiberniæ Libri Duo;" "Annotations upon the Vindiciæ Eversæ of Ponticus," and some of less note. His style is remarkably easy and graceful.—J. F. W.  BELISARIUS, born about 505; died in 565. He was born at Germania, a city of Thrace, on the confines of Illyrium. Before Justinian had become emperor, Belisarius served among his personal guards. In 525 we find him in command of a squadron; and in 528 he is appointed general of the East. A long truce, rather than what could be called peace, existed between the Empire and Persia, when Cobad, the Persian king, invaded Mesopotamia. He was defeated by Belisarius. In the next year the Persians invaded Syria with better fortune. The death of Cobad now occurred; and a peace, which lasted for about ten years, was concluded.

Belisarius now married. Antonina, his wife, was the daughter of an actress, and a public charioteer; but by a former marriage had passed into respectable life, and now held the office of zōste or lady of the bedchamber to Theodora, the empress. Justinian was now preparing for an expedition against the Vandals of Africa, with the intention of recovering that important province to the empire, when an insurrection at Constantinople occurred. Party feeling existed in such strength as to seem like actual insanity; and that city was divided into opposing factions of blue and green, names taken from the colours worn by rival charioteers at the circus. The ringleaders of both factions were imprisoned. The factions united, released them from imprisonment, collected vagabonds from all quarters, set fire to the public buildings, declared the reign of Justinian at an end, and crowned a new emperor. Justinian meditated flight; and was only saved by the spirit which the empress displayed, who counselled resistance. The factions had already fallen out with each other, and were coming to blows, when Belisarius appeared with his guard, having made his way through the smoking ruins left by the conflagration. The new emperor was dragged from his throne with little resistance. Promiscuous slaughter followed, which Belisarius did not, or could not check. Thirty thousand were slain.

In the following year the African expedition was confided to Belisarius. About a century before, the Vandals of Spain had conquered the province of Africa. Their right was acknowledged and confirmed by treaties with the empire. The reigning monarch was Hilderic; but his advanced age and imbecility threw the government into the hands of Gelimer, whom the law of the country made his heir. Gelimer's impatient ambition made him seize the crown in the lifetime of the old man, whom he threw into prison. To assert Hilderic's right was the pretence on which Justinian interfered. Belisarius's army consisted of five thousand cavalry and ten thousand foot soldiers. His own guards, bound by an oath of fidelity to himself personally, were sheathed in complete steel, after the Persian model. His forces were legionaries from Thrace and Isauria, whose chief weapon was the Scythian bow; and confederates, among whom were four hundred Heruli, and eight hundred Huns. His fleet of five hundred transports, manned by two thousand mariners, was escorted by ninety-two light pinnaces, with one row of oars, and a deck over the rowers' heads, to protect them from the enemy's missiles. In June, 533, Belisarius embarked, accompanied by his wife and by Procopius, his secretary, whose narrative of the expedition is the chief authority for its details. The rear was commanded by Belisarius himself, who anticipated an attack—rightly, as the event showed—of Gelimer from the interior of the country. The high rocks of Hermæum (the modern Cape Bonn), now separated them from their ships. The proclamations of Belisarius representing the object of the Romans to be the restoration of Hilderic, led Gelimer to have that prince at once put to death. The crime was advantageous to the Romans, who now put forward the claim of the emperor to Africa as a Roman province. The Romans had advanced to within ten miles of Carthage, when they first met an enemy. Gelimer's plan of battle was this. Amatus, his brother, with such forces as he could collect at Carthage, was to attack the van; Gibamund, his nephew, with two thousand horse, to fall upon the left flank; while he himself, with the main body, was to charge the rear. The place selected was a defile, where it was impossible that the invaders could obtain aid from their fleet. The success of the plan depended on the simultaneity of the operations; and it was defeated by the ardour of Amatus, who, impatient to engage the enemy, left Carthage with a small troop three hours before the rest of his forces. He fell in the conflict, and his followers fled back to Carthage. In their flight they met, issuing from Carthage, the forces whom they had so rashly preceded, and infected them with their fears. They were pursued by the Roman van—John the Armenian's three hundred—who are said to have killed on that day the scarcely credible number of twenty thousand men. Gelimer's arrangements were destined to fail in everything. The left was to be attacked by his nephew with two thousand horse; but the left, as we have said, was protected by six hundred Huns. As the Vandals advanced a champion was seen riding alone between the lines. He was exercising the proud distinction inherited from his ancestors, of commencing the engagement by shooting the first arrow. The Vandals looked on in dumb amazement—they did not know what to make of the movement. Was this a proposal to decide the fate of the day by single combat?—was it some 