The bottomry premium must be ultimately paid by the parties for whose benefit the advances were obtained, as ascertained on the final adjustment of the average expenditures at the port of destination.
The practice of pledging property subject to maritime risks was common among the ancient Greeks, being known as ἔκδοσις or δάνειον (see Demosthenes’ speeches Pro Phormione, Contra Lacritum and In Dionysodorum); it passed into Roman law as foenus nauticum or usura maritima.
See also [Lien]: Maritime; and generally Abbott on Shipping (14th ed., 1901).
BOTZARIS [Bozzaris], MARCO (c. 1788-1823), leader in the War of Greek Independence, born at Suli in Albania, was the second son of Kitzo Botzaris, murdered at Arta in 1809 by order of Ali of Iannina. In 1803, after the capture of Suli by Ali Pasha, Marco, with the remnant of the Suliots, crossed over to the Ionian Islands, where he ultimately took service in an Albanian regiment in French pay. In 1814 he joined the Greek patriotic society known as the Hetairia Philike, and in 1820, with other Suliots, made common cause with Ali of Iannina against the Ottomans. On the outbreak of the Greek revolt, he distinguished himself by his courage, tenacity and skill as a partisan leader in the fighting in western Hellas, and was conspicuous in the defence of Missolonghi during the first siege (1822-1823). On the night of the 21st of August 1823 he led the celebrated attack at Karpenisi of 350 Suliots on 4000 Albanians who formed the vanguard of the army with which Mustai Pasha was advancing to reinforce the besiegers. The rout of the Turks was complete; but Botzaris himself fell. His memory is still celebrated in popular ballads in Greece. Marco Botzaris’s brother Kosta (Constantine), who fought at Karpenisi and completed the victory, lived to become a general and senator in the Greek kingdom. He died at Athens on the 13th of November 1853. Marco’s son, Dimitri Botzaris, born in 1813, was three times minister of war under the kings Otho and George. He died at Athens on the 17th of August 1870.
BOTZEN, or Bozen (Ital. Bolzano), a town in the Austrian province of Tirol, situated at the confluence of the Talfer with the Eisak, and a short way above the junction of the latter with the Adige or Etsch. It is built at a height of 869 ft., and is a station on the Brenner railway, being 58 m. S. of that pass and 35 m. N. of Trent. In 1900 it had a population of 13,632, Romanist and mainly German-speaking, though the Italian element is said to be increasing. Botzen is a Teutonic town amid Italian surroundings. It is well built, and boasts of a fine old Gothic parish church, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, opposite which a statue was erected in 1889 to the memory of the famous Minnesänger, Walther von der Vogelweide, who, according to some accounts, was born (c. 1170) at a farm above Waidbruck, to the north of Botzen. Botzen is the busiest commercial town in the German-speaking portion of Tirol, being admirably situated at the junction of the Brenner route from Germany to Italy with that from Switzerland down the Upper Adige valley or the Vintschgau. Hence the transit trade has always been very considerable (it has four large fairs annually), while the local wine is mentioned as early as the 7th century. Lately its prosperity has been increased by the rise into favour as a winter resort of the village of Gries, on the other bank of the Talfer, and now practically a suburb of Botzen.
The pons Drusi (probably over the Adige, just below Botzen) is mentioned in the 4th century by the Peutinger Table. In the 7th to 8th centuries Botzen was held by a dynasty of Bavarian counts. But in 1027, with the rest of the diocese of Trent, it was given by the emperor Conrad II. to the bishop of Trent. From 1028 onwards it was ruled by local counts, the vassals of the bishops, but after Tirol fell into the hands of the Habsburgers (1363) their power grew at the expense of that of the bishops. In 1381 Leopold granted to the citizens the privilege of having a town council, while in 1462 the bishops resigned all rights of jurisdiction over the town to the Habsburgers, so that its later history is merged in that of Tirol.
(W. A. B. C.)