BESA. nmflar speeiacleBf in which manjr of the captire Jews perisbed. (Joseph. B. J. vii. 3. § 1 ; eomp. 5. § 1.) Aftcnnuds Berytos became renowned as a school of Greek learning, particularly of law, to whidi scholais repaired from a distance. Its splen- dour may be compnted to have lasted from the third , , to the middle of the sixth oentniy. (MilmBn*s ^.^^*?C»bbop, ▼oLiiL p. 51. ) Ensebiis relates that the t(^ /Martyr Appian ren^ied here for some time to par- sae Greek eecolar learning (/)e MartPdhesL c. iv.), and Gregory Thaomatargns repaired to Beiytns to perfect himself in the cirii law. (Socrates, H. £L iv. 27.) A later Greek poet describes it in this respect as ** the nnrse of tranquil life." (Nonnns, 7^ DUm^. xli. fin.) Under the reign of Justinian it
was laid in ruins by an earthquake, and the school
^fY'^B™^^^ to Sidon, A. D. 551. (Milman's Gibbon, SififT^ TiL p. 420.) In the crusades, Beirut^ which ^vAr^ SmeHSm^led B<mrim (Alb. Aq. v. 40, n. 8), ^/was an object of great contenti<m between the Chris- tians and the Muslim, and fell successively into the haods of both. In a.d. 1110 it was captured by Baldwin I. (Wilken, Die Krem. vol. iL p. 212), and in A« D. 1 187 by Sahlh eddfn. (Wilken, toI. iii. pt ii. p. 295.) It was in the neighbourhood of Berytus that the scene of the combat between St. George (who was so highly honoured in Syria) and the Dragon is hud. Beir&i is now commercially the most im- portant place in Syria. The town is situated on a kind of shoulder slo|Hng towards the shore from the DNW. side of a triangular point, which runs more than two miles into the sea. The population amounts to nearly 15,000 souls. (Chesney, Eacped. Evphrat. -nLL p. 468. For ixiuB of Beiytus, both autono- I BMKis and imperial, ranging from Trajan to Anto- irinoB, Me Edchel, toI. iii. p. 356 ; Basche, Letc Hum. vol. L pi 1492.) -^ [E. B. J.] BETHABABA. a^s COIN OF BERYTUS. BESA or BESSA. [ Attioa, p. 33 1 , b.] BE'SBICUS (B4ir€acos : E^ Bw€iKriy6s), a small island in the Propontis, in the neighbouihood «f Cyzicus. (Steph. B. «. v. B«<r€ucof.) The my- thical story, quotol by Stephanns from Agathocles, fixes the island near the outlet of the Rhyndaeus. PHny (v. 32) places Beebicus opposite to the mouth of the Rhyndacos, and gives it a circuit of 18 Roman wakn. In another passage (ii. 88) he enumerates it among the islands which have been separated from the adjacent nsunbinds by earthquakes. The po- sition assigned to Beebicus by Pliny and Strabo (p. 576) corresponds with that of KahHmnOy a small inland which is about 10 miles N. cf the mouth of the Rfayndacns. [G. L.] BESE'DA (B4<ni9a: S. Jwm de la Badesaa), an inland city of the Gastellaui, in Hispania Tarraco- nensb. (itol. ii. 6. § 71 ; coins, ap. Sestini, p. 183; Ukert, Tol. ii. pt i. p. 426.) [P. S.] BESIPPO or BAESIPPO (Ba«f(inr«), a city of the Turdetani, <ri or near the S. coast of Hispanla Baetica, just ontside the Straits, E. of the Pr. Ju- nnnis (C. Trafulffar), and 12 M. P. W. of Belo. <7lm. AfU. p. 408 ; Mchi, iL 6 ; Plin. iii. 1. s. 3 ; Ptol. ►/CM^ .../ it. iv. § 14; Geog. Rav, iv. 43.) Sooie identify it with Bejer de la Frontera; but othecs argue that that place lies too far inhind to agree wi£ Pliny's statement that Besippo was a sea-port, and take the Boman ruins near Porto i?ar6aieo fiir its site. (Ukert, vol.ii. pt.i. p.343.) [?• S.] BESOR (BiiacAof), a br&ok in the south of Pa- lestine, between the town of Ziklag ^assigned to David bj Achish king of the Philistines), and the coantry of the Amalddtea. (I Sam, xxvii. 6, xss. 8, 9.) [G. W.] BESSA (Briffffai EOl Bf}(r(ra7os), a town in Locris, so called from its sitnation in a wooded glen, mentioned by Homer, but which had disappeared in the time of Strabo. (Horn. IL iL 532 ; Strab ix. p. 426; Steph. B. /.c.) BES^ (Bi)<r(roi), a Thracian tribe ooenpying thfi country about the rivers Axius, Strymon, and Ncslus. They appear to have been a very numerous peoploi and at different times to have occupied a more or less extensive coantry. According to Herodotus (vii. Ill), they belonged to the Satrae, a free Thra- cian people, aiki had the management of an oracle of Dionysus situated in the highest part cf the moun- tains. In the time of Strabo (vii. p. 8 18) the Bessi dwelt all along the southern slope of Mount Haemus, from the Euxine to the frantiera of the Dardanians in the west. In the second century of our era their territoiy might seem to have been greatly reduceds, as Ptolemy (iii. 11. § 9) mentions the Bco-atic^ among the smaller ffrpanfjlai of Thrace; but his "^L statement evidently refen only to the western por- / tion of the Bessi, occupying the conntry between the Axius and Strymon, and Pliny (iv. 11. 18) speaks of Bessi living about the Nestos and Mount Rho- dope. Looking at the country they occupied, and the character given them by Herodotus, there can be no doubt tibat they were the chief people of Thrace; they were warlike and independent, and were probably never subdued by tiie Macedonians; Uie Romans succeeded in conquering them only in their repeated wars against the Thraciaas It would seem that the whole nation of the Bessi waft divided into four cantons (Steph. Byz. s. r. Tcrpo- Xo^MTBu), of which the Diobessi mentioned by Pliny may have been one. In the time of Strabo the Bessi are said to have been the greatest robbers among the Thracians, who were themselves notorious as kvarai. That they were not, however, wholly uncivilised, is clear from the fact that they inhabited towns, the chief of which was called Uscudama (Kutrop vi. 10). Another town, Bessapara, b mentioned by Procopius and others. (Comp. Dion Cass. liv. 34, and Baehr on Herodotutt, I c.) [L. S.] BETA'SII, a people mentioned by Tacitus. In the WK with CivQis, Claudius Labeo, a Batavian, mustered a force of Nervii and Betasii (Hitt. iv. 56); and he opposed Civilis at a bridge over the Mosa with a hastily raised body of Betasii, Tungri, and Nervii {HiiL iv. 66). Pliny (iv. 17) mentions the Betasii, but he does not help us to fix their po- sitbn. It seems probable that the Betasii were the neighbours of the Nervii and Tungri, and it b con- jectured that the name is preser^'ed in that of BeeiZy on the left bank of the Geete, south of ITaalen, in South Brabant, [G. L.] BETHABARA (B»?Oo«BpA), mentioned in St. John's Gospel (i. 28) as the place of our Lord's Baptism. It is placed by the Evangelist " beyond Jordan," i. e. on the eastern side of the river (coinp. X. 40), perhaps identical with Beth-bam (Judgctf
