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

20' 2 BIBLIOTHECA. BIBLIOTHECA.
son who had received a beneficium. It does not, tiquity dealt with the instruction of the people,
however, appear from these passages, what the public collections of books appear to have been
beneficium actually was. It might be any kind very ancient. That of Peisistratus was intended
of honour, or special exemption from service. (De for public use (Gell. vi. 17; Athen. i. p. 3); it
Bell. Civ. iii. 88; Sueton. Tib. 12; Vegetius, De was subsequently removed to Persia by Xerxes.
Re MAfilitari, ii. 7.) About the same time, Polycrates, tyrant of Samos,
Beneficiarius is opposed by Festus (s. v.) to is said to have founded a library. In the best
munifex, in the sense of one who is released from days of Athens, even private persons had large
military service, as opposed to one who is bound to collections of books; the. most important of which
do military service. we know any thing, belonged to Euclid, Euripides,
Grants of land, and other things, made by the and Aristotle. Strabo says (xiii. 1) that Aristotle
Roman emperors, were called beneficia, and were was the first who, to his knowledge, made a colentered in a book called Liber Beneficiosrum (Hy- lection of books, and taught the Egyptian kings
ginus, De Limsitizus Constit. p. 193, Goes.). The the arrangement of a library. The most important
secretary or clerk who kept this book was called and splendid public library of antiquity was that
a( conmmentariis beneficiorumz, as appears from an in- founded by the Ptolemies at Alexandria, begun
scription in Gruter (dlxxviii. 1.) [G. L.] under Ptolemy Soter, but increased and re-arranged
BESTIA'RII (bapLo'c lXo), persons who fought in an orderly and systematic manner by Ptolemy
with wild beasts in the games of the circus. Philadelphus, who also appointed a fixed librarian
They were either persons who fought for the sake and otherwise provided for the usefulness of the
of pay (auctoramentumz), and who were allowed institution. The library of the Ptolemies conarms, or they were criminals, who were usually tained, according to A. Gellius (vi. 17), 700,000
permitted to have no means of defence against the volumes; according to Josephus, 500,000; and acwild beasts. (Cic. pro Sext. 64; Sen. De Benefl cording to Seneca (De Tranq. An. 9), 400,000.
ii. 19, Ep. 70; Tertull. Apol. 9.) The bestiarii, The different reckoning of different authors may
who fought with the beasts for the sake of pay, be in some measure, perhaps, reconciled by supand of whom there were great numbers in the posing that they give the number of books only in
latter days of the republic and under the empire, a part of the library; for it consisted of two parts,
are always spoken of as distinct from the gladiators, one in the quarter of the city called Brucheion,
who fought with one another. (Cic. in Vatin. 17; the other in the part called Serapeion. Ptolemy
ad Que. Fr. ii. 6. ~ 5.) It appears that there were Philadelphus bought Aristotle's collection to add
schools in Rome, in which persons were trained to to the library, and Ptolemy Euergetes continued
fight with wild beasts (scholae bestiarubz, or bestia- to add to the stock. A great part of this splendid
siomrse0, Tertull. Apol. 35.) library was consumed by fire in the siege of
BIAION DIKE' (Jianwyc afrs[o). This action Alexandria by Julius Caesar: some writers say
might be brought whenever rapes of free persons, that the whole was burnt; but the discrepancy
or the illegal and forcible seizure of property of any in the numbers stated above seems to confirm the
kind were the subject of accusation (Harpocrat.); opinion that the fire did not extend so far. At
and we learn from Demosthenes (c. Pantaen. p. 976. any rate, the library was soon restored, and
11) that it came under the jurisdiction of the continued in a flourishing condition till it was deForty. According to Plutarch (Solon, 23) the law stroyed by the Arabs A. D. 640. (See Gibbon,
prescribed that ravishers should pay a fine of 100 c. 51.) Connected with the greater division of
drachmae; but other accounts merely state gene- the library, in the quarter of Alexandria called
rally that the convict was muleted in a sum equal Brucheion, was a sort of college to which the name
to twice that at which the damages were laid of Mouseion (or Museum) was given. Here many
(&L7rXi'v 7P' Xpaclsgr"Jv o (peiAelv, Lys. De Caede favoured literati pursued their studies, transcribed.Eratostlh. p. 33; Dem. c. lAid. p. 528. 20; Harpo- books, and so forth; lectures also were delivered.
crat.); and the plaintiff in such case received one The Ptolemies were not long without a rival in
half of the fine; and the state, as a party medi- zeal. Eumenes, king of Pergamus, became a patron
ately injured, the other. To reconcile these ac- of literature and the sciences, and established a
counts Meier (Att. Proc. p. 545) supposes the rape library, which, in spite of the prohibition against
to have been estimated by law at 100 drachmae, exporting papyrus issued by Ptolemy, jealous of
and that the plaintiff fixed the damages in refer- his success, becamne very extensive, and perhaps
ence to other injuries simultaneous with, or conse- next in importance to the library of Alexandria.
quent upon, the perpetration of the main offence. It remained, and probably continued to increase,
With respect to aggressions upon property, the till Antonius made it a present to Cleopatra.
action,ialfwv is to be distinguished from 4o6Akrs, (Plut. Anton. 58.)
in that the former implies the employment of The first public library in Rome was that
actual violence, the latter merely such detention of founded by Asinius Pollio (Plin. H. N. vii. 30;
property as amounted to violence in the contempla- Isid. Orig. vi. 5), and was in the atrium Libertatis
tion of law (Meier, Att. Proc. p. 546), as for in- on Mount Aventine. Julius Caesar had projected
stance the nonpayment of damages, and the like, a grand Greek and Latin library, and had comto the successful litigant after an award in his missioned Varro to take measures for the establishfavour by a court of justice. (Dem. c. Mid. 540. merit of it; but the scheme was prevented by his
24.) [J. S. M.] death. (Suet. Jul; 44.) The library of Pollio
BI'BASIS (63iaees). [SALTATIO.] was followed by that of Augustus, in the temple
BIBLIOPO'LA. [LImER.] of Apollo on the Mount Palatine (Suet. Aug. 29 I
BIBLIOTHE'CA (,8~ALoOipcJ, or /&roOino Dion Cass. liii. 1), and another, bibliothecae OcB,3Lxiuov), primarily, the place where a collection tavianae (so called from Augustus's sister Octavia),
of books was kept; secondarily, the collection forming part of the Porticus Octavia. (Dion Cass.
itself. (Festus, s. v.) Little as the states of an- xlix. 43; Plut. irlacell. 30.) There were also