BĔNĔFĬCĬUM, BĔNĔFĬCĬĀRĬUS. The term beneficium is of frequent occurrence in the Roman law, in the sense of some special privilege or favour granted to a person in respect of age, sex, or condition. But the word was also used in other senses. In the time of Cicero it was usual for a general, or a governor of a province, to report to the treasury the names of those under his command who had done good service to the state: those who were included in such report were said in beneficiis ad aerarium deferri. In beneficiis in these passages may mean that the persons so reported were considered as persons who had deserved well of the state; and so the word beneficium may have reference to the services of the individuals; but as the object for which their services were reported was the benefit of the individuals, it seems that the term had reference also to the reward, immediate or remote, obtained for their services. The honours and offices of the Roman state, in the republican period, were called the beneficia of the Populus Romanus. Beneficium also signified any promotion conferred on or grant made to soldiers, who were thence called beneficiarii.
BESTIĀRĬI (θηριομάχοι), persons who fought with wild beasts in the games of the circus. They were either persons who fought for the sake of pay (auctoramentum), and who were allowed arms, or they were criminals, who were usually permitted to have no means of defence against the wild beasts.
BIBLĬŎPŌLA (βιβλιοπώλης), also called librarius, a bookseller. The shop was called apotheca or taberna libraria, or merely libraria. The Romans had their Paternoster-row; for the bibliopolae or librarii lived mostly in one street, called Argiletum. Another favourite quarter of the booksellers was the Vicus Sandalarius. There seems also to have been a sort of bookstalls by the temples of Vertumnus and Janus.
BIBLĬŎTHĒCA (βιβλιοθήκη, or ἀποθήκη βιβλίων), primarily, the place where a collection of books was kept; secondarily, the collection itself. Public collections of books appear to have been very ancient. That of Peisistratus (B.C. 550) was intended for public use; it was subsequently removed to Persia by Xerxes. About the same time Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, is said to have founded a library. In the best days of Athens, even private persons had large collections of books; but the most important and splendid public library of antiquity was that founded by the Ptolemies at Alexandria, begun under Ptolemy Soter, but increased and re-arranged in an orderly and systematic manner by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who also appointed a fixed librarian, and otherwise provided for the usefulness of the institution. A great part of this splendid library was consumed by fire in the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar; but it was soon restored, and continued in a flourishing condition till it was destroyed by the Arabs, A.D. 640. The Ptolemies were not long without a rival in zeal. Eumenes, king of Pergamus, became a patron of literature and the sciences, and established a library, which, in spite of the prohibition against exporting papyrus issued by Ptolemy, who was jealous of his success, became very extensive, and perhaps next in importance to the library of Alexandria. The first public library in Rome was that founded by Asinius Pollio, and was in the atrium Libertatis on Mount Aventine. The library of Pollio was followed by that of Augustus in the temple of Apollo on Mount Palatine and by another, bibliothecae Octavianae, in the theatre of Marcellus. There were also libraries on the Capitol, in the temple of Peace, in the palace of Tiberius, besides the Ulpian library, which was the most famous, founded by Trajan. Libraries were also usually attached to the Thermae. [[Balneum].] Private collections of books were made at Rome soon after the second Punic war. The zeal of Cicero, Atticus, and others, in increasing their libraries is well known. It became, in fact, the fashion to have a room elegantly furnished as a library, and reserved for that purpose. The charge of the libraries in Rome was given to persons called librarii.
BĪCOS (βῖκος), the name of an earthen vessel in common use among the Greeks, for holding wine, and salted meat and fish.
BĬDENTAL, the name given to a place where any one had been struck by lightning, or where any one had been killed by lightning and buried. Such a place was considered sacred. Priests, who were called bidentales, collected the earth which had been torn up by lightning, and every thing that had been scorched, and burnt it in the ground with a sorrowful murmur. The officiating priest was said condere fulgur; he further consecrated the spot by sacrificing a two-year-old sheep (bidens), whence the name of the place and of the priest, and he also erected an altar, and surrounded it with a wall or fence. To move the bounds of a bidental, or in any way to violate its sacred precincts, was considered as sacrilege.
BIDIAEI (βιδιαῖοι), magistrates in Sparta, whose business was to inspect the gymnastic exercises. They were either five or six in number.
BĪGA or BĪGAE. [[Currus].]
BĪGĀTUS. [[Denarius].]
BĬPENNIS. [[Securis].]