Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/181

 BOZRAH BOZZARIS 175 graduated at the university of Pennsylvania in 1783, studied law in London, and afterward practised in his native state, where for several years he was deputy 'attorney general. He wrote a " Historical and Philosophical Sketch of the Prime Causes of the Revolutionary War," in which he praised Washington and de- preciated Franklin; but it was suppressed. During the administrations of Washington and John Adams he wrote much in prose and verse for the press, and at a later period con- tributed to Dennie's "Port Folio." His prin- cipal work is his " History of Maryland, from the earliest Settlement in 1633 to the Resto- ration in 1660," the introduction published in 1811, and the complete work in 1837(2 vols., Baltimore), under the auspices of the state. BOZRAH, or Bostra, a ruined city of Syria, in an oasis on the S. E. border of the Hauran, 76 m. S. S. E. of Damascus, in lat. 32 30' N., Ion. 36 24' E. It was one of the chief cities of Bashan, and is about 5 m. in circuit, with Ruins of Bozrah. high walls 15 ft. thick, and a strong cas- tle. Among its ruins are temples, churches, mosques, baths, fountains, aqueducts, and tri- umphal arches. A straight street intersects the city lengthwise, and has a beautiful gate at each end; and other straight streets cross it. This city anciently contained 100,000 in- habitants ; now there are scarcely 20 families. The castle stands on the S. side of the city ; its outer walls and towers are still in good pres- ervation. In the centre of this structure, sup- ported on massive piers and arches, are the re- mains of a theatre 270 ft. in diameter. This fortress is supposed to have been built by the emperor Philip, who was a native of the city. The town, which the Greeks and Romans called Bostra, is supposed by some Biblical critics, and among them Gesenius, to be iden- tical with the Bozrah of Genesis and the proph- ets; but others, like Porter, distinguish be- 115 VOL. m. 12 tween the Bozrah mentioned as a town of Edom and the Bozrah of Moab, identifying the latter with the Bostra of the ancients, and the former with Busaireh between the Dead sea and Petra; while still others contend that none of the Scriptural Bozrahs correspond to the Bostra of Bashan. This city was enlarged and embellished by the Romans, and in the reign of Trajan it was made the capital of the province of Arabia and received the name of Nova Trajana Bostra. Under the emperor Philip it was the seat of a bishop, and after- ward of an archbishop. On the invasion of the Saracens it began to fall into decay, and in the reign of Baldwin IV. of Jerusalem (1180) it was ravaged by the Turks. BOZZARIS, Marco (MAKcos BOTZABIS), a Greek patriot, born about 1790, died near Missolonghi, Aug. 20, 1823. His father, Kitzos Bozzaris, his grandfather, uncles, and brothers, were all distinguished patriots and warriors. In 1803, after the fall of Suli, he escaped to the Ionian islands, where he united with other refugees against Turkey. When the treaty of Tilsit restored the Ionian islands to the French, and de- prived the Greeks of any hopes of imme- diate deliverance, he entered the French service as a sergeant in an Albanian regiment, in which his father and uncle served as majors. In 1813 he became a member of the Hetm- ria, the great central society of the patriots. When in 1820 Ali Pa- sha took arms against the Porte, Bozzaris with several hundred followers joined him in Epirus, having first obtained from him the restoration of the Suli mountains. When in 1821 the insurrection against Turkey be- came general, Bozzaris fought in western Hel- las, with varying success. In 1822 he lost the flower of his comrades in a desperate effort to relieve the Suliote stronghold of Kiapha, but continued bravely fighting, until the battle of Peta (July 16) destroyed the elite of the pa- triots. He then threw himself, with a number of Suliotes, into Missolonghi, and was one of its foremost defenders till the end of the cam- paign. On the reorganization of the national forces in 1823 he was appointed a general in the army of western Hellas. In the night of Aug. 19 he made with Tzavelas and others a combined night attack on the camp of the pasha of Scutari, who was advancing toward Missolonghi at the head of a considerable army. Marco, with 350 Suliotes, fought his way into