Babylon.

carried on by caravans with Bactria, Persia, and Media, perhaps as far as India, and by shipping on the Persian gulf with Arabia. B. was famous for its dyes, its cloths, and embroideries, especially for the manufacture of rich carpets with inwoven figures of strange animals and arabesques, such as we yet see on the Nineveh sculptures. The general prosperity was such, that B. and Assyria together were able to pay to Persia, in the time of Darius Hystaspes, a yearly tribute of 1000 talents (upwards of £280,000)—a sum greater than that contributed by any other province.

The Babylonians were notorious for their effeminacy, luxury, and licentiousness. Their religion was nearly allied to that of the Phenicians. The essential part of it was the worship of the powers of nature, as they are manifested in the larger heavenly bodies and in the fertility of the earth. At the head of their system of belief stood Baal (see BAAL), reverenced through the whole of Mesopotamia and Canaan, who represented, in a general way, the power of nature, without having any moral significance, and was specially identified with the sun. Along with him stood, as feminine complement, the goddess Baaltis, the receptive carth, with whose worship all manner of licentious rites were associated. She makes her appearance principally as Melyta or Mylitta-i.e., “the causer of generation." How nearly she is related to Ashtaroth (among the Greeks, Astarte), whose functions are so similar, it is not easy to determine. Education and reli gion were in the hands of the caste of the Chaldees, who occupied themselves at the same time with astronomy and astrology, and kept records, from the earliest times, of their astronomical observations, associating with them the chronicles of their kings. Their scientific acquirements must have been considerable. Engraved cylinders and gems, and the remains of their pottery, testify to their progress in these departments of art; and their architecture, according to the testimony of the ancients and the ruins still remaining, deserves to be ranked high.

Apart from canals, bridges, embankments, and sluices, the interest on the subject of Babylonian architecture is concentrated in the ruins of the capital, Babylon. The accounts that we find in the ancients of the origin, the greatness, and the structure of the city, are exceedingly confused. The god Belus is named as its founder, and also queen Semiramis; how we are to understand the two statements is not explained. Semiramis, according to the account of Diodorus, employed on it two millions of workmen, collected from all parts of her dominions. With the capital of the older kingdom, the accounts of the ancients known to us have, for the most part, nothing to do; they are all to be referred to the resuscitated and adorned residence of Nebuchadnezzar. Herodotus gives a description of the city, apparently from his own observation. It stood on both sides of the river, in the form of a square, the length of whose sides is variously given; by Herodotus it is stated at 120 stadia, making the whole circumference 60 miles. It must be remembered, however, that the walls, like those of most oriental towns, inclosed rather populous districts than cities, so that the whole mass of the population might easily find shelter within the space inclosed. It was surrounded by a wall 200 cubits high, and 50 cubits thick, and furnished with 100 brazen gates-the last number is raised by Diodorus to 250. The city was built with extreme regularity, with broad straight streets crossing one another at right angles; and the two parts were connected by a roofed bridge built of hewn stones, fastened together with iron clamps. Of this bridge, not a trace has yet been discovered. The western part of the city is undoubtedly the older, belonging to the early and properly Babylonish dynasty. Here stood, in the middle of the city, as it is described, the famous temple of Belus or Baal, called by the Arabs, Birs Nimrud. See BABEL, Tower of. The next important point on the w. side is the mass of ruins called Mujellibe, which was probably the royal citadel of the old Babylonian monarchy. On the e. side of the river stood the buildings of the Neo-Babylonian period, among which the " Hanging Gardens" of Semiramis are to be singled out as one of the wonders of the world. Of these gardens, Diodorus has left us a detailed description. Their ruins may be recognized in the mound called El-Kasr. The city suffered greatly from the Persian conquest. When it revolted under Darius I., and, after a siege of two years, was recaptured through the ingenuity of Zopyrus, the outer walls were demolished. Xerxes plundered the temple of Belus, which had been hitherto spared, and Herodotus found it empty. Although the Persian kings made B. their residence, nothing was done for the restoration of the city; and Alexander the great, who, on his entrance, in 331 B.C., had promised the inhabitants to rebuild the ruined temple, was unable even to clear away the rubbish, although he employed 10,000 workmen for two months. After his death in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and the foundation of Seleucia on the Tigris by Seleucus Nicator, B. went rapidly to decay. This was partly owing to the new city's being built of the materials of the old, and partly to the want of durable materials for monumental buildings. Stones of any size had to be brought from the mountains of Armenia; their place was mostly supplied by burned brick. As early as the time of Pausanius, there was little to be seen but the ruins of the walls. The older Arabian geographers know, indeed, of a village, Bâbil, but speak more of the great masses of ruins. Since the time of Della Valle, who erroneously looked upon the ruin Mujellibe as the tower of Belus (in which he is followed by Rennel), the site of B. has been the object of many travels and researches. The greater number of the explorers, among whom Rich is the most distinguished, consider the town of Hillah, with 7000 inhabitants, as the representative of the ancient

Babylon. The great masses of ruins, from which we must not, with Rennel, exclude the Birs Nimrúd, embrace, indeed, an enormous extent, but agree perfectly with the accounts of the ancients in being arranged in the form of a square. Some time ago, Rawlinson transferred the site of B. to Niffer; but before anything can be determined, researches must be made on the spot, which could hardly fail to lead at the same time to valuable results, like those of Botta and Layard in Assyria, and increase the collection of cuneiform inscriptions, which are yet only fragmentary. See Rich's Memoirs on the Ruins of Babylon, and his Personal Narrative of a Journey to England by Bussorah, Bagdad, the Ruins of Babylon; Rawlinson's Five Great Monarchies; Layard's Nineveh and Babylon; Lenormant's Langue Primitive de la Chaldée; Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology; Smith's Assyrian Discoveries; Sayce's Babylonia, in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

· BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. In the despotic policy of the east in ancient times, it was a rule to remove the rich and leading inhabitants of a conquered province to a distant part of the empire, where they were separated by nationality, language, customs, and religion from the great body of the population, and thus rendered politically harmless; while the people that remained behind were by this means deprived of influential leaders. The inhabitants of Judea underwent oftener than once à deportation of this kind, after they came into conflict with the powerful kingdom of Assyria. Thus, the kingdom of Israel was put an end to under king Hosea (722 B.C.), by the Assyrian mon archi Shalmaneser, who, after taking the capital, Samaria, carried the principal inhabitants into captivity in Assyria, and brought stranger tribes into the land of Israel in their stead; these, with the Israelites that remained, formed afterwards the mixed nation of the Samaritans. The most remarkable exile, however, befell the tribe of Judah under Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah, king of Judah, warned in vain by the prophet Jeremiah, allied himself with the king of Egypt against the sovereignty of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar soon appeared with a powerful army before Jerusalem, which he took (588 B.C.). King Zedekiah had his eyes put out, and he and the principal part of the inhabitants were carried captive to Babylon. It is this captivity, the duration of which is usually reckoned at 70 years, although, strictly speaking, it lasted only 56 years, that is called, by way of distinction, "the Babylonish captivity." The situation of the exiles was in other respects tolerable. Most of them settled down, and acquired property, and even riches; many were called to court, and even raised to high offices in the state. They were allowed to retain their organization by families, and lived by themselves essentially according to the Mosaic law. They had also their own chief, and were allowed the free exercise of their religion. Nor did they want consolation and encouragement; for Ezekiel raised among them his powerful prophetic voice, and the idea of the Messiah became more clearly developed. When Cyrus overthrew the Babylonian empire (538 B.C.), he allowed the Jews to return to their own country. Only the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi availed themselves of this permission: the other ten tribes disappear from history after the captivity. It is probable that they had become so mingled with the Babylonians, a people of kindred origin, that they had ceased to remember the country of their race. Vain attempts have, in recent times, been made to discover the ten lost tribes. Some learned men have sought for them in China and India, while others have declared the Afghans to be their descendants, and even the North American Indians. A more probable conjecture, perhaps, is that they were the ancestors of the Nestorians in the mountains of Kurdistan.

BABYLON, N. Y. See page 879.

BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY (ante), the carrying into captivity of 200,000 people of Jewish cities, about 713 B.C., by the officers of the king of Assyria. Before this, however, there was the "Assyrian captivity," the result of the invasion of the kingdom of Israel by three or more successive Assyrian kings. About 762 B.C., Pul imposed a tribute upon Menahem. About 738 B. C., Tiglath-Pileser carried away in large part the transJordanic tribes and the inhabitants of Galilee. Shalmaneser made two invasions, and, in 720, after a siege of three years, took Samaria and carried many Israelites away as captives, populating Samaria by Babylonians and other foreigners. It is supposed that TiglathPileser took the Israelites away to people his great city. His successor, Shalmaneser, made Hoshea, the king of Israel, a tributary, and when the tribute was not paid he took Samaria by way of punishment, and carried to Assyria the king and all the most desirable remaining population of the ten tribes. These were settled in distant cities, and their places were supplied by colonies from Babylon and Susis. As captives, the people were treated with no especial harshness. They were not bondmen, as one might suppose from the term "captive;" but even in Babylon their elders retained the power of life and death over their own people; and at a later period the Jews in the principal cities were governed by an officer of their own nation, as was the case in Egypt under the Ptolemies. The Jews in Assyria themselves held slaves; the book of "Daniel" tells of a Jew in high political station, and in "Esther" we find their power and consequence in the Persian empire celebrated. Doubtless their lot was more comfortable than that of other conquered nations among whom they dwelt. Much effort has been made to discover the ultimate condition or fate of the ten tribes. Josephus in his day thought that they dwelt in large communities somewhere beyond the Euphrates. Rabbinical tradition makes the same assertion, with many imaginative exemplifications. Christian

writers have traced them all over the world. Some find them among the Afghans; some tell of a Jewish colony at the foot of the Himalayas; the "Black Jews" of Malabar claim an affinity or descent from them; they have been supposed to be fathers of the Tartars, of the Nestorians, of the North American Indians, and by some recent scholars of the Anglo-Saxons. The best that can be done, in the light of established history, is to trace their footsteps in four directions. After the captivity, some returned and mixed with the Jews; some assimilated with the Samaritans and became enemies of the Jews; many remained in Syria, mixing there with other populations, and forming colonies throughout the east; but most of them probably apostatized in Assyria, adopting the idolatry of the nation around them, and were finally merged into the stronger and more numerous people.

The second, or "Babylonian captivity," consists of two distinct deportations. Nebuchadnezzar made several invasions of Judea, and finally destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, and carried the people to Babylon. The first principal deportation was in 598 B.C., when Jehoiachim, and all the nobles, soldiers, and artificers were carried away; the second great deportation followed the destruction of the temple and the capture of Zedekiah, 588 B.C. Although the number of persons carried away is in several instances set down, it is not probable that such numbers represent the whole deportation, for the sum total on record can be but a mere fraction of the Jewish people. The captives were treated not as slaves, but as colonists. There was nothing to hinder a Jew from rising to the highest eminence in the state or holding the most confidential office near the throne. They had no temple and offered no sacrifices; but the rite of circumcision was observed, and their genealogical tallies were kept so that they were usually able to tell who was the rightful heir to the throne of David. The first great event in the restoration of the Jews was the decree of Cyrus, 536 B.C., under which 42,360, with 7537 slaves and cattle and personal goods, left Babylon under Sheshbazzar. They laid the foundation of the second temple 53 years after the destruction of the first. The work was stopped almost immediately. But under Darius the Jews found favor, and under the guidance of Ezra, Nehemiah, and others Jerusalem was to some extent restored, and exiled families doubtless returned and occupied the country round about. Nevertheless, the great mass of the Jewish people remained in the countries over which they had been scattered. Before the captivity, many Jews had settled in Egypt; others in Sheba. Among those who returned to Judea, about 30,000 are said to have been of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi. Recent students conclude that about six times as many Jews preferred to remain in Assyria, where they kept up the national distinction, and were known to their brethren as "the dispersion," that is, Jewish people residing beyond the limits of Palestine. This dispersion was in three directions or countries: in Babylonia, in Egypt, and in Syria. A still later and more perfect "captivity" was that suffered by the people of Palestine under the Romans, when, after the massacre of untold myriads of their people, the Jews were reduced to abject bondage. Josephus says that 1,100,000 people were slain in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, and 97,000 were captured and distributed among the Roman provinces, butchered in amphitheaters, thrown to wild beasts, or sold to slavery in Egypt. Doubt is cast by some writers on the numbers given by Josephus. The last stand of the Jews for national existence was about 133 A.D., when the struggle resulted in the practical extirpation of the people from their chosen land; and since that event-the rebellion of Bar-chobab-the descendants of Abraham have been unable to present, anywhere on the earth, even the semblance of an organized nation.

BABYROUSSA, sus babyroussa, a species of hog (q.v.) inhabiting the forests of Java and the Molucca islands, remarkable for the extraordinary tusks of the upper jaw, which rise like horns through the bone and integument, are long, somewhat slender, and curved backwards; their use being probably similar to that of horns. The animal is sometimes called the horned hog. Its limbs are much more slender than those of the common hog. See illus., MAMMALIA, vol. IX., p. 416, fig. 13.

BACCALAUREATE SERMON. See page 879.

BACCHANA'LIA, or DIONYSIA, festivals in honor of Bacchus. Four were held at Athens. One was in Dec., after the vintage was over, when a nude and indecent procession was had, slaves were given brief liberty, and general drunkenness prevailed. One was in Jan., after the new wine had been pressed out, when the state bore the cost of a public banquet, a procession, and a dramatic entertainment. In Feb. came the flower festival, lasting three days; on the first the new wine was tasted, and candidates were initiated into the mysteries of Bacchus; on the second there were public games; on the third flowers were offered to Dionysius, presents were made between friends, and slaves were free for the time. The fourth, or great festival, came in Mar., and attracted strangers from all parts of the country. It was conducted by the chief archon, and paid for by the state. It included the giving of a prize for the best drama, a banquet, a procession, and theatrical performances. Like all others, this festival was a season of riotous and drunken indulgence. Bacchus was represented, accompanied by women frenzied with drink or excitement, carrying cymbals, dancing, and singing songs in honor of the god; and with them were men disguised as wild beasts, fauns, and satyrs. In Rome the excesses became so gross that the state forbade such celebrations altogether

BACCHAN'TES, women who took part in the secret Bacchic festivals; also males, when they were admitted. In the old universities a student in his first year was a B., and was made to pay for the drinks of his elders, and otherwise abused. There was also an order of B. whose members were idle or dissipated students, getting more of their living by begging and theft than by honest occupation. Modern "hazing" may be a reminiscence of the mediæval Bacchantes.

BACCHIGLIO NE, a river of northern Italy, having its source in the Alps, and its outlet in the Adriatic. It passes through the town of Vicenza, where it is crossed by a fine bridge of nine arches; flows through the plain of Padua, and enters the Adriatic about 3 m. s. of Chioggia. Its whole course is about 90 m., and it is navigable by large boats from Vicenza to the sea.

BACCHUS, the god of wine (called in Greek, Bakchos, Dionysos, and also, especially In the mysteries, lakchos), was the son of Zeus and Semele, the daughtor of Cadmus. Before his birth, Semele fell a victim to the insidious counsels of the jealous Here, who induced her to petition Zeus to visit her in his proper form and majesty-i.e., attended with thunder and lightning. The mother was of course consumed, but the six-monthsold B. was saved by being inclosed for some time in the thigh of Zeus. He was first consigned to the care of Ino, the sister of Semele, and her husband Athamas; but when Ino and Athamas were driven mad by Here, Zeus caused him to be carried to Nysa, in Thrace, and given in charge to the nymphs. It was here that B. taught the cultivation of the vine, and prepared intoxicating drink from the grapes. In order to impart his discovery to mankind, or, as some say, because Here smote him with madness, he wandered through many countries attended by the nymphs, who were crowned with ivy and vine-leaves, and bore in their hands the thyrsus, a pole bound round with leaves and fruit. This expedition, according to a later form of the myth, extended to Bactria and Media, to Egypt and India, where B. is said to have erected pillars as the eastern boundary of the world. Wherever he came in his wide progress, there is a Nysa to be found. The worship of the god, which came originally from the east, and was introduced into Greece by Melampus, was thus spread over nearly the whole of the then known earth, and at the same time the myth of B. was variously modified among the different peoples, so that it has become one of the most perplexed and difficult. B. was, besides, the protector of fruit-trees, and of fruits in general. His worship being thus extensively spread, and his festivals being held with music and song, he naturally received a great many surnames; for example, he was called Lenæos, from the wine-vat (lenos); Bromius, from shouting, (bromos); Euios (in Latin, Evius), from the exclamation Euoi, etc. The mythical march or expedition above spoken of, was suggested to the fancy by the bacchanalian festivals, at which bacchantes roved about in feigned madness, and made midnight processions to the mountains by torch-light. B. met with much opposition on his expeditions, many refusing to acknowledge his divinity. Thus, Lycurgus, king of the Edones, opposed him, and also Pentheus of Thebes, who was on that account torn to pieces by his own mother and her sisters. The daughters of Mynias (q. v.), who refused to celebrate his festivals, were punished by him with madness and metamorphosis. As he was crossing to Naxos, the Tyrrhenian sailors wished to carry him off to Italy, and, with this view, bound him; but the chains fell off, vines and ivy entwined the ship, and held it fast in the middle of the sea. B. changed himself into a lion, and the sailors from terror leaped into the sea, where they were transformed into dolphins. Those, on the contrary, who received him with hospitality and reverence, were rewarded; such as Midas (q.v.). In general, the character of B. is mild. In works of art, his type is that of a youth inclining to effeminacy. His peculiar ornament is the fillet. The long blonde hair is bound up in a knot behind, and only a few locks fall down on both sides over the shoulders; the hair is surrounded by a twig of vine or of ivy. His figure is neither stout nor slim. He is usually represented quite naked; sometimes with a wide robe negligently thrown over, which either covers a part of the shoulders and thighs, or, though more rarely, enwraps the greater part of the body. Frequently, a deer-skin hangs across the breast; at times, he wears shoes, more rarely, buskins. From this, the properly Grecian B., the bearded or Indian B. is completely distinct. This last appears in a more dignified, lofty, regal form; he is clad in a tunic reaching to the feet, over which he wears a wide and splendid mantle. As a warrior, he wears a short tunic girded round the waist, with buskins on the feet; a panther's skin serves him for a shield. In addition, he is to be seen at times with horns. After the institution of the Eleusinian mysteries, the service of B. was conjoined with these; accordingly, Pindar makes him the companion of Demeter. As the followers of Orpheus held him to be also Apollo, he is associated with the Delphic oracle.

The worship of B. consisted in noisy rites. Thebes, in Boeotia, held to be the birthplace of the god, was considered the chief seat of those rites in Greece, In Athens, the worship of the Lenæan B. was the most ancient, and may be traced back to ante-historic times. The chief offerings made to him were goats and oxen; the last, because he himself was conceived and represented under the form of an ox. The Bacchic festivals deserving special notice are-1. The Attic Dionysia, of which the minor, or country Dionysia, were celebrated in the country in the month Poseideon, at the time of the grape-gathering. Among the characteristic amusements of the occasion were the

Askolia, which consisted in smearing full wine-skins (asko) with oil, on which the young peasants attempted to leap with one foot, and by their frequent falls produced merriment. There were also dramatic entertainments. This festival was probably held at the approach of the wine-harvest, and that of the Haloa at its close. These were followed, in the month Gamelion, by the festival of the Lenea, which was peculiar to the city of Athens. The festivities on the occasion, besides theatrical representations, consisted in a great banquet, for which the state provided the meat, and in a procession through the city, attended with the jesting and raillery usual at Bacchic ceremonies. After the Lenæa came the Anthesteria, on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of the month Anthesterion, when the new wine was first drunk. On the second day of this festival, the chief solemnity consisted in a great public dinner, at which the guests, crowned with flowers, and to the music of trumpets, entered into regular contests in drinking, and in a private sacrifice for the prosperity of the state offered by the "king archon's" wife, who was at the same time symbolically married to the god. On the third day, a sacrifice was offered to the Chthonian Hermes and to the souls of the dead. Last came the great Dionysia, which were celebrated in the month Elaphebolion, and at which new comedies and tragedies were represented. 2. The Triateric Dionysia, which were celebrated every third year in the middle of winter. The performers were women and girls (called in Gr., Manades; in Lat., Baccha or Bacchantes), and the orgies were held at night, on the mountains, with blazing torches and the wildest enthusiasm. This mystic solemnity came from Thrace, and its institution is referred to Orpheus. When it was adopted in Greece, cannot be exactly determined. It is earliest met with in Boeotia, particularly at Thebes, where the Citharon was the scene of celebration. An important place in connection with it is also Parnassus, on the highest summit of which the women of Attica and Delphi celebrated nocturnal orgies in honor of B. and Apollo. The Mænades or Bacchantes were clad on the occasion in fawn-skins, swung about the "thyrsus," made a great noise with clapping of hands, and danced wildly with streaming hair. In this ecstatic solemnity, the god himself was represented by the victim sacred to him, the ox, which the Mænades in their fury tore in pieces. In the most ancient times, even human sacrifices were not uncommon. Descriptions of these wild and terrible rites are not unfrequent in the poets. 3. The Bacchanalia of later times, the foundation of which was laid in Athens during the Peloponnesian war, by the introduction of foreign rites. From Greece they were carried to Italy. As early as 496 B.C., the Greek worship of B. was introduced at Rome along with that of Ceres; and Ceres, Liber, and Libera were worshiped in a common temple. In honor of these deities, the Liberalia were celebrated on the 17th of Mar., and were of a yet simpler and ruder kind than the great Dionysia of Athens. Afterwards, however, these rites degenerated, and came to be celebrated with a licentiousness that threatened the destruction of morality and of society itself. They were made the occasion of the most unnatural excesses. At first, only women took part in these mysterious Bacchic rites, but latterly men also were admitted. When the evil had reached its greatest height, the government (186 B.C.) instituted an inquiry into it, and rooted out the Bacchanalia with the greatest severity. This was the Occasion of the well-known Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus. Mention of them, however, still occurs at a later period under the emperors. See illus., MYTHOLOGY, Vol. X., p. 352, figs. 10, 26, 28.

BACCIO DELLA PORTA, better known by the name of FRA Bartolomeo di San MARCO, one of the most distinguished masters of the Florentine school of painting, was b. at Savignano, in Tuscany, in 1469. His first teacher was Cosimo Roselli; but he owed his higher cultivation to the study of the works of Leonardo da Vinci. His subjects are mostly religious, and by far the greater part of his pieces belong to the later years of his life. He was a warm adherent of that bold reformer of church and state, Savonarola (q.v.), after whose tragical end he, 1500, took the habit of the cloister, and for a considerable time renounced art. The visit of the young Raphael to Florence in 1504 seems to have been instrumental in stimulating him to return to it. He imparted to Raphael his knowledge of coloring, and acquired from him a more perfect knowledge of perspective. The two remained constant friends-B., on one occasion, finishing certain of Raphael's unfinished works, Raphael performing a like kindness for him at another tinie. B. died at Florence, 1517. The greater number of his works are to be seen at Florence, in the gallery of the Pitti palace.

BACH, Baron ALEXANDER, an Austrian statesman, was b. Jan. 4, 1813, at Loosdorf, in lower Austria, where his father held a judicial office. The young B. received a careful education. At the age of 24, he was promoted to the rank of doctor of laws, and then entered the imperial service, in which he remained about 9 years. During this period also he traveled over the greater part of Europe and some of the countries of Asia. He was on terms of friendship with the members of the opposition of lower Aus tria, and belonged to that circle of young men who well understood the failings of the old system, and the inevitability of a change in the organization of Austria. He took an active part in founding the juridico-political reading club, and courageously defended it against the police. On the occurrence of the events of Mar., 1848, B. took a distinguished place as a mediator. He formed part of the provisional committee of the com