Bimāter, a surname of Bacchus, which signifies that he had two mothers, because, when he was taken from his mother’s womb, he was placed in the thigh of his father Jupiter. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 12.
Bingium, a town of Germany. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 70.
Bion, a philosopher and sophist of Borysthenes in Scythia, who rendered himself famous for his knowledge of poetry, music, and philosophy. He made everybody the object of his satire, and rendered his compositions distinguished for clearness of expression, for facetiousness, wit, and pleasantry. He died 241 B.C. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.——A Greek poet of Smyrna, who wrote pastorals in an elegant style. Moschus, his friend and disciple, mentions in an elegiac poem that he died by poison, about 300 years B.C. His Idyllia are written with elegance and simplicity, purity and ease, and they abound with correct images, such as the view of the country may inspire. There are many good editions of this poet’s works, generally printed with those of Moschus, the best of which is that of Heskin, 8vo, Oxford, 1748.——A soldier in Alexander’s army, &c. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 13.——A native of Propontis, in the age of Pherecydes.——A native of Abdera, disciple to Democritus. He first found out that there were certain parts of the earth where there were six months of perpetual light and darkness alternately.——A man of Soli, who composed a history of Æthiopia.——Another of Syracuse, who wrote nine books on rhetoric, which he called by the names of the muses, and hence Bionei sermones mentioned by Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 2, li. 60.—Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 4.
Birrhus. See: [Cœlius].
Bisaltæ, a people of Scythia, or, according to some, of Thrace or Macedonia. Their country is called Bisaltia. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 29.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 10.
Bisaltes, a man of Abydos, &c. Herodotus, bk. 6, ch. 26.
[♦]Bisaltis, a patronymic of Theophane, by whom Neptune, under the form of a ram, had the golden ram. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 117.—Hyginus, fable 18.
[♦] ‘Bisaltes’ replaced with ‘Bisaltis’
Bisanthe, a town on the Hellespont. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 137.
Biston, son of Mars and Callirhoe, built Bistonia in Thrace, whence the Thracians are often called Bistones. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 110.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 14.—Lucan, bk. 7, li. 569.