Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

BENDIDEIA. DBENEFICIUM. 201
which the portions of the palm-leaf are interlaced racter, those celebrated in honour of Dionysus
with great neatness and regularity, the sewing and (Strab. x. p. 470), though Plato (I. c. p. 354) menbinding being effected by fibres of papyrus. The tions only feasting; but the principall solemnities
three holes may be observed for the passage of the seem to have consisted ill a procession held by the
band and ligature already mentioned. [J. Y.] Thracians settled in Peiraeeus, and another held
by the Peiraeans themselves, which, according to
Plato (De Re Publ. init.), were held with great
decorum and propriety, and a torch race on horseback in the evening. The Athenians identified
Bendis with their own Artemis (Hesych. s. v.
BE'J&s), but the temple of Belldis (Bevaiireov) at
Peiraeeus was near that of Artemis, whence it is
clear that the two divinities must have been distinct. (Xenoph. Hellen. ii. 4. ~ 11; comnp. Liv.
xxxviii. 41; Ruhnken, ad Tims. Gloss. p. 62; Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. p. 402, 3d edit.) [L. S.]
BENEFICIUM ABSTINENDI. [HJEas.]
BENEFI/CIUM, BENEFICIAIRIUS. The
4nk~x,,/>4 Yword beneficium is equivalent to feodum or fief, in
the writers on the feudal law, and is an interest
in land, or things inseparable from the land, or
BEBAIO'SEOS DIKE' (,seralerEws iKtrl), things immovable. (Feud. lib. 2. tit. 1.) The
an action to compel the vendor to make a good beneficiarius is he who has a beneficium. The
title, was had recourse to when the right or pos- word beneficium often occurs in French historical
session of the purchaser was impugned or disturbed documents from the fifth to the ninth century, and
by a third person. A claimant under these cir- denotes the same condition of landed property,
cumstances, unless the present owner were inclined which at the end of the ninth century is denoted
to fight the battle himself (aVToiUaexei'), was re- by feodumn. From the end of the ninth century the
ferred to the vendor as the proper defendant in the two words are often used indifferently. (Guizot,
Cause (EtS rpav7,pa,'VdyeLv). If the vendor were Histoire de la Civilisation en France, vol. iii. p. 247.)
then unwilling to appear, the action in question The term benefice is also applied to an ecclesiastical
was the legal remedy against him, and might be preferment. (Ducange, Gloss.)
resorted to by the purchaser even when the earnest The term benieficium is of frequent occurrence in
only had been paid. (Harpocrat. s. v. AVro/aX~ev', the Roman law, in the sense of some special priviBeai[ooars.) From the passages in the oration of lege or favour granted to a person in respect of age,
Demosthenes against Pantaenetus that bear upon sex, or condition. But the word was also used in
the subject, it is concluded by Heraldus (Animad. other senses, and the meaning of the term, as it
in Sbalm. iv. 3. 6) that the liability to be so called appears in the feudal law, is clearly derivable from
upon was inherent in the character of a vendor, the signification of the term among the Romans of
and therefore not the subject of specific warranty the later republican and earlier imperial times. In
or covenants for title. The same critic also con- the time of Cicero it was usual for a general, or a
cludes, from the glosses of Hesychius and Suidas, governor of a province, to report to the treasury the
that this action might in like manner be brought names of those under his command who had done
against a fraudulent mortgager. (Animad. in Sl/sz. good service to the state: those who were included
iv. 3. in fin.) If the claimant had established his in such report were said in beseficiis ad aerariuma
right, and been by the decision of the dicasts put in deferiri. (Cic. P2ro Arc/i. c. 5, Ad Framn. v. 20, and
legal possession of the property, whether movable the note of Manutius.) It was required by a
or otherwise, as appears from the case in the Lex Julia that the names should be given in within
speech against Pantaenetuts, the ejected purchaser thirty days after the accounts of the general or
was entitled to sue for reimbursement from the governor. In beneficiis in these passages may mean
vendor by the action in question. (Pollhtx, viii. that the persons so reported were considered as
6.) The cause is classed by Meier (Att. Process. persons who had deserved well of the state, and so
p. 526) among the icKat?rprs T'ra, or civil actions the word beneficium may have reference to the
that fell within the cognizance of the thesmo- services of the individuals; but as the object for
thetae. [J. S. M.] which their services were reported, was the benefit
BEMA (Btua), the platform from which the of the individuals, it seems that the term had reorators spoke in the Athenian ecKcXofI'a, is de- ference also to the reward, immediate or remote,
scribed under EccLEsrA. It is used by the Greek obtained for their services. The honours and
writers on Roman affairs to indicate the Roman offices of the Roman state, in the republican period,
tribunal. (See e. g. Plut. Pomp. 41.) were called the beneficia of the Populus Romanlus.
BENDIDEIA (BEe3LIeLa), a festival celebrated Beineficium also signified any promotion conin the port town of Peiraeeus in honour of Bendis, ferred on or grant made to soldiers, who were
a Thracian divinity, whose worship seems to have thence called beneficiarii; this practice was combeen introduced into Attica about the time of Ismon, as we see from inscriptions in Gruter (li. 4,
Socrates, for Plato (De Re Publ. init.) introduces cxxx. 5), in some of which the word beneficiarius
Socrates giving an opinion on the Bendideia, and is represented by the two letters B. F. In this
saying that it was then celebrated for the first sense we must understand the passage of Caesar
time. It was celebrated on the 20th, or according (De Bell. Oiv. ii. 18) when he speaks of the magna
to others, on the 19th of Thargelion. (Schol. ad beneficia and the eaegqnae clientelae of Pompeius in
Plat.'Repeub. i. p. 354; Proclus, ad Plat. Timz. Citerior Spain. Beneficiarius is also used by
pp. 9-27.) The festival resemblsed, in its clin- Caesar (De Bell. Civ. i. 75), to express the per