his guilty nephews. The people condemned them all, and chose Valerius consul in place of Collatinus. In the mean time, Tarquin, supported by Porsenna, collected an army, and marched against Rome. The consuls advanced to meet him. B. led the cavalry; Aruns, son of Tarquin, commanded the body opposed to him. They pierced each other with their spears at the same moment, and both fell, A. C. 509. The Romans came off conquerors, and B. was buried with great splendor. The women lamented him a whole year, as the avenger of the honor of their sex.

303

means of this instrument, Antony succeeded in exciting the popular indignation against the murderers of Cæsar, and they were compelled to flee from Rome. B. went to Athens, and endeavored to form a party there among the Roman nobility; he gained over, also, the troops in Macedonia. He then began to levy soldiers openly, which was the easier for him, as the remainder of Pompey's troops, since the defeat of their general, had been roving about in Thessaly. Hortensius, the governor of Macedonia, aided him; and thus B., master of all Greece and Macedonia, in a short time stood at the head of a powerful army. He went now to Asia, and joined Cassius, whose efforts had been equally successful. In Rome, on the contrary, the triumvirs prevailed. All the conspirators had been condemned, and the people had taken up arms against them. B. and Cassius, having with difficulty subdued the Lycians and Rhodians, returned to Europe to oppose the triumviri. (Plutarch informs us, that a spirit appeared to B., on his march from Sardis to Abydos, in Asia Minor.) The army passed over the Hellespont, and 19 legions and 20,000 cavalry were assembled on the plains of Philippi, in Macedonia, whither, also, the triumvirs Antony and Octavianus marched with their legions. Although the Roman historians do not agree in their accounts of the battle of Philippi, so much as this appears certain, that Cassius was beaten by Antony, and caused himself to be killed by a slave; that B. fought with greater success against the division of the army commanded by Octavianus, who was hindered by indisposition from conducting the battle in person; that B., after the engagement, took possession of an advantageous situation, where it was difficult for an attack to be made upon him; that he was induced, by the ardor of his soldiers, to renew the contest, and was a second time unsuccessful. He was totally defeated, escaped with only a few friends, passed the night in a cave, and, as he saw his cause irretrievably ruined, ordered Strato, one of his confidants, to kill him. Strato refused, a long time, to perform the command; but, seeing B. resolved, he turned away his face, and held his sword, while B. fell upon it. Thus died B. (A. C. 42), in the 43d year of his age.

BRUTUS, Marcus Junius. This republican resembled in spirit, as well as in name, the expeller of Tarquin. He was at first an enemy of Pompey, who had slain his father in Galatia, but forgot his private enmity, and was reconciled to him, when he undertook the defence of freedom. He did not, however, assume any public station, and, after the unfortunate battle of Pharsalia, surrendered himself to Cæsar, who received him with the tenderest friendship, as he had always loved him, and regarded him almost like his own son, because the mother of Brutus, sister of the rigid Cato, had been the object of his affection. In the distribution of the offices of state, the dictator appointed B. to the government of Macedonia. Notwithstanding these benefits, B. was the head of the conspiracy against Cæsar, deeming the sacrifice of private friendship necessary for the welfare of his country. He was led into the conspiracy by Cassius, who, impelled by hatred against Cæsar, as well as by the love of freedom, sought, at first, by writing, and then by means of his wife, Junia, sister of B., to gain his favor; and, when he thought him prepared for the proposal, disclosed to him, verbally, the plan of a conspiracy against Cæsar, who was then aiming at the supreme power. B. agreed to the design, and his influence led many of the most distinguished Romans to embrace it also. Cæsar was assassinated in the senate-house. In public speeches, B. explained the reasons of this deed, but he could not appease the dissatisfaction of the people, and retired, with his party, to the capitol. He soon after took courage, when the consul P. Cornelius Dolabella, and the prætor L. Cornelius Cinna, Cæsar's brother-in-law, declared themselves in his favor. But Antony, whom B. had generously spared, was reconciled to him only in appearance, and obtained his leave to read Cæsar's will to the people. By

BRUYÈRE, John de la, the famous author of the Characters and Manners of his age, was born, 1639, in a village near Dourdan, not far from Paris. chased the place of treasurer at Caen,

He pur

but, a short time after, through the influence of Bossuet, he was employed in the education of the duke of Burgundy, with a pension of 3000 livres, and was attached to his person during the remainder of his life. În 1687, he translated the Characters of Theophrastus into French, with much elegance, and accompanied them with a succession of characters, in which he represented the manners of his time with great accuracy, and in a style epigrammatical, ingenious and witty. B. often took his characters from living persons, although he denied it, and seems, by this means, to have gained many enemies. He was a man of pleasant manners and amiable disposition. In 1693, he was elected a member of the French academy, with some opposition, and died in 1696.

BRUYN, Corneille le, a painter and traveller, born at the Hague in 1652, went, in 1674, to Rome, where he studied his art for two years and a half. He then followed his inclination for travelling, visited Naples, and other cities of Italy, embarked for Smyrna, travelled through Asia Minor, Egypt, and the islands of the Archipelago, noting down and drawing all that he found worthy of his attention. He afterwards settled in Venice, and became a disciple of Carlo Lotti. In 1693, he returned to his native country, and published his travels in 1698. The favorable reception of this work excited in him the desire to travel anew. He visited, in 1701, and the following years, Russia, Persia, India, Ceylon and other Asiatic islands. In Russia, he painted Peter the Great, and different princes of his family; in 1706, in Batavia, some of the principal men. In 1708, he returned to his country, where he published an account of his second journey, the value of which, like that of the first, consists more in the beauty and correctness of the drawings than in the trustworthiness of the statements. During the rest of his life, Le B. was occupied exclusively with his art, passed his time alternately at the Hague and at Amsterdam, and died at Utrecht, in the house of his friend and protector van Mollem.

BRYANT, Jacob, a philologist and antiquary, born at Plymouth in 1715, died, in 1804, at his country-seat, near Windsor. He studied at Eton and Cambridge, became afterwards tutor of the sons of the famous duke of Marlborough, the eldest of whom he also accompanied to the continent as his secretary. After his return, he received, by the influence of his pa

tron, a lucrative post in the ordnance, which gave him leisure for his researches into Biblical, Roman and Grecian antiquities. His most important work is the New System of Ancient Mythology, which appeared in 3 vols. 4to., 1773 to 1776. Whatever may be the ingenuity and the learning of the author, it is justly objected, that he has taken conjectures for proofs, and, in particular, that he has trusted too much to the deceptive conclusions of etymology. He was engaged in a famous dispute on the veracity of Homer and the existence of Troy, in which he endeavored to show, that there never was such a city as Troy, and that the whole expedition of the Greeks was a mere fiction of Homer's. The object of one of his earlier treatises, which appeared in 1767, is to show, that the island Melita, on which Paul was wrecked, was not Malta, but situated in the Adriatic. He endeavored to illustrate the Scriptures by explanations drawn from Josephus, from Philo the Jew, and from Justin Martyr; but in this, as in all his writings, his learning and his ingenuity are misled by his love of controversy and paradox.

BUBNA, Count of, descended from ar old family in Bohemia, was, early in life the chamberlain of the emperor of Aus tria, afterwards entered the military ser vice, and rose to the rank of field-mar shal-lieutenant. At the end of 1812, he was sent, by his court, with extraordinary commissions, to Napoleon, at Paris, and, in May, 1813, was sent again to him at Dresden. In the war of 1813, he commanded an Austrian division with much honor, and, in 1814, received the chief command of the Austrian army which was to pass through Geneva to the south of France. Here he showed as much caution in his movements as forbearance and humanity towards the inhabitants. He advanced upon Lyons, which was defended by marshal Augereau, but was unsuccessful in his attacks upon the city, till the corps of Bianchi and Hessen-Homberg came to his assistance, upon which the prince of Hessen-Homberg took the chief command. B. remained at Lyons till the return of the allied forces, and then retired to Vienna. After the landing of Napoleon in 1815, he again led a corps, under Frimont, against Lyons, and in Savoy opposed marshal Suchet, till Paris was conquered, and the marshal retreated beyond Lyons. He then took possession of Lyons without opposition, established a court-martial to punish the disturbers of public order, and proceeded

with greater severity than on his former campaign. In September, he marched back to Austria, and received, for his services, valuable estates in Bohemia, from his emperor. In the insurrection of Piedmont (q. v.), 1821, the count de B. received the chief command of the Austrian troops destined to restore the ancient government. After the accomplishment of this commission, he was appointed general commandant of Lombardy. He died at Milan, June 6, 1825, in the 56th year of his age.

BUCCANEERS; a band of English and French freebooters in America, whose exploits form one of the most remarkable parts of the history of the 17th century. After the assassination of Henry IV, in France, in 1610, several Frenchmen sought a residence on the island of St. Christopher, one of the Antilles. Driven thence in 1630, some of them fled to the western coast of St. Domingo, others to the small island of Tortugas, in the vicinity. Several Englishmen, led by a similar disposition, associated themselves with the latter. The fugitives at St. Domingo employed themselves especially in the chase of wild cattle, of which there were large herds on the island. They sold the hides to the mariners who landed on the coast, and, because they did not boil the flesh, but roasted it before the fire, like the American savages, they were called buccaneers. Without a captain, without laws, without the society of women, these hunters lived in the rudest state of nature, associating two by two, and enjoying in common all that they had taken in the chase or acquired by robbery. The Spaniards, who could not conquer them, determined to extirpate all the cattle on the island, and thus obliged the buccaneers either to cultivate the land as husbandmen, or to join the other freebooters on the island of Tortugas. These bold adventurers attacked, in small numbers, and with small means, but with an intrepidity which bade defiance to danger, not only single merchant vessels, but several of them together, and sometimes armed ships. Their common mode of attack was by boarding. They directed their efforts especially against the Spanish ships which sailed for Europe laden with the treasures of America. By the repeated losses which they suffered, the Spaniards were at last so discouraged, that they seldom offered a serious resistance. It happened once that a ship of the buccaneers fell in with two Spanish galleons, each of which had 60 cannon and 1500

305

men on board. men on board. To escape was impossible, and the pirates could not think of surrender. Their captain, Laurent, made a short speech to them, sent one of his men to the powder-room with orders to set fire to it upon the first sign which he should give him, and then placed his men in order of battle on each side. “We must sail between the enemy's ships," cried he to his crew, "and fire upon them to the right and left." This manœuvre was executed with extraordinary rapidity. The fire of the pirate killed so many people, on board both ships, that the Spaniards were struck with a panic, and let him escape. The Spanish commander was afterwards put to death on account of the disgrace which he had brought upon his nation. Their frequent losses greatly reduced the trade of the Spaniards with America. The buccaneers now began to land on the coast, and to plunder the cities. Their manner of dividing their booty was remarkable. Every one who had a share in the expedition swore that he had reserved nothing of the plunder. A false oath was of extremely rare occurrence, and was punished by banishment to an uninhabited island. The wounded first received their share, which was greater according to the severity of their wounds. The remainder was divided into equal parts, and distributed by lot. The leader received more than the others only when he had particularly distinguished himself. Those who had perished in the expedition were not forgotten. Their part was given to their relations or friends, and, in default of them, to the poor and to the church. Religion was strangely blended with their vices, and they always began their enterprises with a prayer. The wealth which they acquired was spent in gambling and debauchery, for it was the principle of these adventurers to enjoy the present and not care for the future. The climate and their mode of life gradually diminished their number, and the vigorous measures of the English and French governments at last put an end to their outrages, which had, perhaps, been purposely tolerated. From this band of pirates arose the French settlements on the western half of St. Domingo. In the beginning of the 18th century, the piracies of the buccaneers had entirely ceased. An account of their mode of life, and of many of their deeds, is to be found in the 10th volume of Raynal's History of the two Indies, and in the 2d volume of Archenholz's Historical Writings.

306

BUCENTAUR, in mythology; a monster, half man and half ox or ass. The splendid galley in which the doge of Venice annually sailed over the Adriatic on Ascension-Day also bore this name. Dropping a ring into the sea, he espoused it in the name of the republic, with the words Desponsamus te, mare, in signum veri perpetuique dominii. The custom originated in 1176, when the doge, having refused to deliver up the pope, who had taken refuge in Venice, to the emperor, encountered and defeated the imperial fleet which was sent to reduce the Venetians. BUCEPHALUS; the horse of Alexander the Great, which he bought for 13 talents (about 10 or 11,000 dollars). Philonicus, a Thessalian, offered to sell him to king Philip; but Philip, who considered the price too great, commanded the unmanageable steed to be led away, when the young Alexander offered to mount him. He leaped up, in fact, and, to the astonishment of all, the horse obeyed him, and willingly submitted to his guidance, though he had never before obeyed a rider. Alexander, from this circumstance, conceived such an affection for him, that he never rode upon any other horse; and Bucephalus, also, when caparisoned for battle, endured no other rider. He died of a wound, and Alexander caused him to be buried near the Hydaspes, and built, over his grave, a city, which he called Bucephala.

BUCER, Martin; born, 1491, at Schlettstadt, in Alsace. He died in the office of professor of theology at Cambridge, 1551. At the time of the reformation, he left the Dominican order, and became a convert to Lutheranism. He was, at first, preacher at the court of Frederic, the elector of the Palatinate, afterwards in Strasburg, and at the same time professor in the university there for 20 years, till king Edward VI of England, at the suggestion of archbishop Cranmer, invited him to Cambridge. In 1557, queen Mary caused his bones to be burned, to show her detestation of Protestantism. The cardinal Contarini called him the most learned divine among the heretics. He wrote a commentary on the Psalms, under the name of Aretius Filinus. His first wife had been a nun in her youth. After her death, he married again.

BUCH, Leopold von; born in 1777, in Prussia; one of the most distinguished geologists of Germany. He has studied the structure of the earth, by personal observation, for more than 30 years, in his travels through all the provinces of Ger

many, through Scandinavia to the North cape, through parts of Great Britain, France, Italy and the Canaries. In the possession of a happy independence, he sets out every spring, from Berlin, where he usually passes the winter, on his scientific travels. Simple in his habits, frugal, accustomed to hardships, he travels in the carriage, on horseback, on foot, as his purpose requires. He was the first geologist who clearly explained the dif ferent volcanic phenomena, particularly their effects on the elevation of the surface and the nature of the soil. He divides volcanoes into central volcanoes and volcanic chains. The latter appear to him to follow the direction of great clefts in the earth, which, in turn, correspond with the direction of the primitive mountains. His central volcanoes are, Etna, the isles of Lipari, Iceland, the Azores, the Canaries, &c. The results of his geological labors are contained in his Geognostical Observations on Travels through Germany and Italy (1802), and his Physical Description of the Canaries, where he lived, in 1815, for several months. He was afterwards accompanied by the Norwegian botanist Christian Smith, who, some years later, was among the victims of the unhappy expedition of captain Tuckey in the Congo river. Buch's Travels through Norway and Lapland (2 vols., Berlin, 1810, with copperplates) is one of the best works on the structure of the earth in the high northern regions.

BUCHANAN, George, an eminent poet and historian, and one of the great masters of modern Latinity, was born in Scotland, in 1506. His parents were indigent, and he owed his education to an uncle, who sent him to Paris. He af terwards repaired to St. Andrew's. He became tutor or companion of the earl of Cassilis, with whom he lived five years, and obtained the notice of James V, who appointed him tutor to his natural son, afterwards the famous regent, earl of Murray. His satires against the monks exposed him to the vengeance of the clergy, and he was imprisoned for heresy; but, contriving to escape, he withdrew to Bourdeaux, where he taught three years, and composed his tragedies of Baptistes and Jepthes, and his translations of the Medea and Alcestes of Euripides. In 1543, he quitted Bourdeaux on account of the pestilence, and became, for a while, domestic tutor to the celebrated Montaigne, who records the fact in his essays. In 1544, he went to Paris, and,

for some time, taught in the college of Bourbon. In 1547, he accompanied his friend Govea to Portugal. He had not been there a year before Govea died, and, the freedom of B.'s opinions giving of fence, he was thrown into prison, where he began his translations of the Psalms into Latin verse. He obtained his liberty in 1551, and spent four years at Paris, as tutor to the son of the marshal de Brissac. In 1560, he returned to Scotland, where he openly embraced Protestantism, yet was well received at court, and assisted the queen in her studies. He was also employed in regulating the universities, and was made principal of St. Leonard's college, St Andrew's. He even obtained a pension from Mary, which did not prevent him from connecting himself with the party of Murray. Though a layman, he was made, in 1567, moderator of the general assembly, which appointed him preceptor to James VI, who acquired, under his tuition, the scholastic knowledge on which he so much prided himself. It is said that Buchanan, on being subsequently told that he had made the king a pedant, replied, that "it was the best he could make of him." He next accompanied Murray to England, in order to prefer charges against Mary, and, in 1571, published his Detectio Mariæ Regina, a virulent attack upon the character and conduct of that unhappy queen; and, although his patron Murray had been assassinated in 1570, he continued in favor with the prevalent party, who made him one of the lords of the council and lord of the privy seal. He likewise received a pension of £100 per annum from queen Elizabeth. In 1579, he published his celebrated De Jure Regni, a work which will ever rank him among the spirited defenders of the rights of the people to judge of the conduct of their governors. He spent the last 12 or 13 years of his life in composing his great work, entitled Rerum Scoticarum Historia, in 90 books, which was published at Edinburgh, in 1582. He died the same year, at the age of 76, in very poor circumstances; and the city of Edinburgh interred him at the public expense. The moral character of B. has been the subject of much obloquy with his enemies; and the charge of early licentiousness seems countenanced by several of his poems. Conscious of his great abilities, he was also querulous and discontented with his circumstances, and by no means scrupulous in his attempts to amend them; added to which, his temper was harsh and unamiable, and his

307

conduct, as a party man, exceedingly virulent. As a writer, he has obtained high applause from all parties; and as a Latin poet, in particular, he stands among the first of the moderns. His Psalms are in all kinds of measure, and some of them are extremely beautiful. As a historian, he is considered to have united the beauties of Livy and Sallust as to style; but he discovered a great lack of judgment and investigative spirit, taking up all the tales of the chronicles as he found them, and affording to their legendary absurdities the currency of his own eloquent embellishment. On the whole, however, B. may justly be deemed an honor to his country; as a man whose genius burst through all disadvantages to the attainment of a wide and justly-celebrated distinction. Of his different works in verse and prose, various editions have been given; and a valuable edition of the whole was published at Edinburgh, in 2 vols. folio, 1714, and reprinted at Leyden, in 2 vols. 4to., 1725.

BUCHAREST (i. e. city of joy), the chief city of Walachia, the residence of the hospodar and of a Greek bishop, contains 10,000 meanly built houses, and 60,000 inhabitants, including Greeks, Jews and Armenians. The streets are not paved, but covered with logs. The Greeks formerly had an academy here with 12 instructers, which, in 1810, contained 244 students. It has declined since the present hospodar Ghika, a native of Walachia, took possession of its funds in 1825. The trade in wine, skins, and other products of the country, is very brisk. May 28, 1812, a peace was concluded here between Russia and the Porte.

Bucharest, Peace of, May 28, 1812, between Russia and the Porte. In November, 1806, the emperor Alexander took up arms for the protection of Moldavia and Walachia, and on account of the violation of the free navigation of the Bosphorus. He occupied Moldavia, upon which the Porte declared war against Russia, Jan. 7, 1807. An armistice, however, was agreed upon at Slobosia, Aug. 24, 1807, in consequence of the peace of Tilsit, by which the Russians evacuated the principality. After the expiration of the truce, in April, 1808, it was tacitly continued; but when Napoleon, in the congress at Erfurt, had agreed to the union of the two principalities with Russia, the Russian court opened a congress, to deliberate upon peace at Jassy, in Feb, 1809, and demanded the cession of both principalities by the Turks, and the re