A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

483 BELISARIUS.
restored to his honours eight months befoie his
death; whilst Lord Mahon in his recent life of
Belisarius, on the authority of an anonymous writer
of the eleventh century, and of Tzetzes in the
twelfth century, has endeavoured to revive the
story which he conceives to have been handed
down by tradition in Constantinople,-which was
then transferred in the fifteenth century to Italy,
-and which has become so famous through the
French romance of Marmontel, that his eyes were
put out, and that he passed the remainder of his
life sitting in the streets of Constantinople and
begging in the words preserved in the metrical
narrative of Tzetzes.
The statue in the Villa Borghese, in a sitting
posture with an open hand, formerly supposed to
be Belisarius, has since the time of Winkelmann
been generally conjectured to represent Augustus
in the act of propitiating Nemesis.
In person, Belisarius was tall and handsome.
(Procop. Goth. iii. 1.) As a general, he was distinguished as well by his personal prowess and his
unconquerable presence of mind, as by the rapidity
and comprehensiveness of his movements, and also as
never having sustained defeat without good reason,
and as having effected the greatest conquests with
the smallest resources. His campaigns form an era
in military history, as being the first conducted by
a really great soldier under the influence of Christianity (for that he conformed to Christianity, even
if he was not himself a Christian, is evident from
his mention in connexion with the baptism of
Theodosius, Procop. IHist. Arcan. 1.); and it is remarkable to trace the union of his rigorous discipline over his army (Procop. Goth. i. 28, Vand. i. 12,
16) with his considerate humanity towards the
conquered, and (especially in contrast with the
earlier spirit of Roman generals) his forbearance
towards his enemies. (Procop. Vand. i. 16, 17,
Goth. i. 10.)
In a private capacity, he was temperate, chaste,
and brave; but his characteristic virtue, which appeared to Gibbon " either below or above the character of a man," was the patience with which he
endured his rivals' insults, and the loyalty to Justinian-in itself remarkable as one of the earliest
instances in, European history of loyalty to the
person of the sovereign-which caused him at the
height of his success and power to return, at the
emperor's order, from Africa, Persia, and Italy.
Sir W. Temple (Works, vol. ii. p. 286) places him
among the seven generals in the history of the
world who have deserved a crown without wearing
it.
In his two vices-the avarice of his later life
(Procop. Hist. Arcan. 5), and his uxoriousness-he
has been well compared to Marlborough, except so
far as the great Sarah was superior to the infamous
Antonina. To her influence over him are to be
ascribed the only great blots of his life-the execution of his officer, Constantine (Procop. ibid. 1),
A. D. 535, the persecution of his step-son, Photius
(Ibid. 1-3), A. D. 540, and the deposition of the
pope Sylverius and the corrupt election of Vigilius,
A. D. 537. (Goth. i. 25.) He had by Antonina an
only daughter, Joannina. (Procop. Hist. Arcanz. i.
5, Goth. iii. 30.)
The effects of his career are-1. The preservation of the Byzantine empire, and, with it, of the
mass of ancient literature afterwards bequeathed
by it to the West; both of which, but for his ap

BELLEROPHON.
pearance, must, humanly speaking, have perishei'
in the inroad of the barbarians. 2. The timely
support given to the cause of the orthodox faith ir.
the Western empire at the crisis of its greatest
oppression by the Arian kingdoms of the Goths
and Vandals in all the western provinces. 3. The
temporary infusion of Byzantine art and of the
Greek language into Italy by the establishment of
the exarchate of Ravenna on the ruins of the Ostrc
gothic kingdom. 4. The substitution of the By
zantine for the Vandal dominion in Africa and
Sicily, and the consequent preparation for their
future submission to the Mohammedan conquerors,
and their permanent desolation, from the fact of
his having made them the provinces of a distant
and declining empire, instead of leaving them to
become the homes of a warlike and vigorous nation.
The authorities for the life of Belisarius are the
works of Procopius; for the Bulgarian war, Agathias (v.15, 20) and Theophanes (pp. 198,199); and
for his death, those mentioned above. In modern
times, the chief authority is Gibbon (cc. 41 and 43);
Lord Mahon's Life of Belisarius, in which several
inaccuracies in Gibbon's account are pointed out;
and a review of this last-mentioned work in the
Wiener JairhbiUcher, by Von Hammer. [A. P. S.]
BELLE'ROPHON or BELLEROPHONTES
(BeXXepow CV or BeNAepo er'77ms), properly called
Hipponous, was a son of the Corinthian king Glaucus and Eurymede, and a grandson of Sisyphus.
(Apollod. i. 9. ~ 3; Hoem. II. vi. 155.) According
to Hyginus (Fab. 157; comp. Pind. 01. xiii. 66),
he was a son of Poseidon and Eurymede. He is
said to have received the name Bellerophon or
Belleropliontes from having slain the noble Corinthian, Bellerus. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 17; Eustath.
Homn. p. 632.) Others related, that he had slain
his own brother, Deliades, Peiren, or Alcimenes.
(Apollod. ii. 3. ~ 1, &c.) In order to be purified
from the murder, whichever it may have been,
he fled to Proetus, whose wife Anteia fell in
love with the young hero; but her offers being
rejected by him, she accused him to her husband of having made improper proposals to her,
and insisted upon his being put to death. Proetus, unwilling to kill him with his own hands,
sent him to his father-in-law, lobates, king in
Lycia, with a sealed letter in which the latter was
requested to put the young man to death. lobates
accordingly sent him to kill the monster Chimaera,
thinking that lie was sure to perish in the contest.
Bellerophon mounted the winged horse, Pegasus,
and rising up with him into the air, killed the
Chimaera from on high with his arrows. lobates,
being thus disappointed, sent Bellerophon out
again, first against the Solymi and next against
the Amazons. In these contests too he was victorious; and when, on his return to Lycia, he was
attacked by the bravest Lycians, whom lobates
had placed in ambush for the purpose, Bellerophon
slew them all. lobates, now seeing that it was
hopeless to attempt to kill the hero, shewed him
the letter he had received from Proetus, gave him
his daughter (PhilonoU, Anticleia, or Cassandra)
for his wife, and made him his successor on the
throne. Bellerophon became the father of Isander,
Hippolochus, and Laodameia. Here Apollodorus
breaks off the story; and Homer, whose account
(vi. 155-202) differs in some points from that of
Apollodorus, describes the later period of Bellero