BEIDERLINDEN
392
BEIRUT
according to his own statement, had among his
teachers the celebrated mathematician and astrono-
mer Regiomontanus. Behaim entered business hfe
at an early age and became an agent at Antwerp.
In 1481 or 1482 he went to Lisbon on business. Here
his reputation as a pupil of Regiomontanus led to
his appointment by King John (Joao) II as a member
of a commission, the "junta dos mathematicos",
which was to find some improved method for de-
termining latitude. Behaim furnished them ■n-ith
the so-called Jacob's-staff, or cross-staff, and the as-
tronomical tables necessarj' for ascertaining the decli-
nation of the sun. Having in this way become fa-
vourably known, Behaim was offered the opportunity
of accompanying Diego Cam (Cao) on a voyage of dis-
covery along the west coast of Africa. In the course
of his explorations Cam discovered the mouth of
the Congo and went as far as Walfisch Bay. After
his return Behaim was made a Ivnight of the Portu-
guese Order of Christ in 1486, and married a daughter
of Jobst von Hurter, hereditary governor of the
islands of Fayal and Pico of the Azores group. In
1492,wliile he was at Nuremberg, Behaim made the
well-known globe, probably with the scientific help of
Hartmann Schedel, the Xuremberg humanist.
His influence on the great discoverers of his time was formerly much overestimated; at present it is questioned whether he had any such influence at all. It cannot be proved either that Columbus was stim- ulated by him or that Magellan (JIagalhaes) in his search for a southern passage made use of a chart of the world dra'mi by Behaim, as was once believed. It has even been questioned of late years whether Behaim had any right to call himself a pupil of Regiomontanus or whether he had taken part in the chscoveries of Cam. Nevertheless his "apple", the oldest of all existing globes, ensures his lasting fame. The globe is about twenty-one inches in diameter and has no network to mark longitudes and latitudes. It is provided merely with the equator, one meridian, the tropics and the constellations of the zodiac, and is a unique example of miniature painting. There is an unmistakable connexion be- tween Behaim's manner of representing the world and the geographical views of Toscanelli whose chart is usually reconstructed vrith the aid of Behaim's globe. Unfortunately the reproductions of Behaim's globe, so far made, are not satisfactory. The first copy was published by Doppelmayr in liis "Historie von den Nurnberger Mathematicis" (1730) and was reproduced by Xordenskjold in his "Facsimile Atlas to the Early History of Cartography" (1889). Another was drawn in 1847 for Jomard by Jean Muller who gave Dr. Ghillany a copy which the latter used in his biography of Behaim. This draw- ing is also to be found in Ruge, "Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen " flSSl), in Gunther's biography of Behaim, and in Kretsclimer, "Die Entdeckung .A.merikas" (1892).
VoK MrRR, Divlomatische Geschichte des portugiesischen beruhmten Ritlers Martin Behaim (Nuremberg. 177S; Ghillant, Der Erdglobu^ des Martin Behaim vom Jahre 1492 und der des Johann Schoner vom Jahre ISZO (Nuremberg. 1S42); Idem, Geschichte des Seefahrers Ritter Martin Behaim (Nuremberg, 1853): Reichenbach. Martin Behaim. ein deutscher Seefahrer aus dem XV. Jahrhundert (Wurzen-Leipzig. 1SS9): Gl'nterh, Martin Behaim. vol. XIII of the Bayerische Bibliothek (Bam- berg. 1890): Wagner, Die Rekonstruktion der Toscanelli- Karte vom J. 1474 und die Pseudo-FacsimHie des Behaim' Globus vom J. 1492. in the Nachrichten von der k. Gesellsch. der Wissensch. zu Gottingen. philol.-histor. division, 1894 (Gottin- gen. 1895), 208 sqq.: Ravexstein, Martin de Bohemia in Bibliotheca da Ravista Portitgueza colonial e maritima (Lisbon, 1900): Stauber. Die Schedelsche Bibliothek in Stud. u. Darstell. aus dem Gebiete der Gesch. (Freiburg im Br., 1907), VI.
Otto H.\rtig.
Beiderlinden, Bern.\rd. See Poon.\, Diocese of.
Beirut, in Phoenicia, a titular Latin see, and the residential see of several prelates of Oriental rites. The earliest form was likely Beeroth "springs", not
Beroth (II Kings, %-iii,S) or Berotha (Ezech., xlvii, lb),
probably situated near Baalbek in Coele-Syria. It i-;
difficult to explain the more usual form, Berytos, but
it probably comes from Beridi, the Phoenician name
of a fish-goddess related to the god of Gebal or By bios ,
two towns of the Gibhtes, a Chanaanite tribe. Bery-
tos was the birthplace of Sanchoniathon, an early
Phoenician author, and seems to have been unim-
portant in remote times. It is mentioned by the
Greeks before Alexander, but is not spoken of in
connexion \\-ith the expeditions of this conqueror.
After the time of Antiochus IV, Epiphanes (175-
164 B. c), Berj'tos was kno\\Ti as Laodicea of
Chanaan, a name which it kept until the reign of
Ale.xander II, Zabinas (129-123 B. c); see J. Rouvier,
in "Re\T_ie de numismatique" (1896), and "Revue
biblique", VII, 272-275. According to Strabo
(XVI, ii, 9) it was destroyed by King Trj-phon
(137-134 B. c). If this be true, it must have been
rebuilt after a short time, for there are records for
the complete series of the coins of Berj-tos from 123
to 14 B. c. It is certain that the Romans enlarged
and embellished it; that it was garrisoned by two
legions, the Leg. V Macedonica and Leg. VIII
Augusta, and that in the year 14 B. c. it became a
Roman colony with the name Colonia Julia Augusta
Felix Berytus, so called after Julia, the daughter of
Augustus (Mommsen, Res gestte dixT Augusti, II,
119), The Jewish kings Herod the Great, Herod
Agrippa I, and Herod Agrippa II built sumptuous
monuments at Berj'tos and gave gladiatorial combats
there (Josephus, BeU. Jud., I, xxi, 11; Antiq., XVI,
xi, 2; XVII, X, 9; XIX, vii, 5; XX, ix, 4); Titus also,
after the. siege of Jerusalem, gave gladiatorial games
at Berytos, in which the combatants were Jews.
(Josephus, Bell. Jud., VII, iii, 1.) From that time
dates the magnificent aqueduct, the remains of which
are yet xnsible, which carried to the city the waters
of tJie River Magoras, now N'ahr Beiruth. About
the middle of the third centurj' Berytos became the
seat of the most renowned law school in the Eastern
Roman Empire. Many celebrated jurisconsults
were among its teachers (Montreuil, Hist, du droit
byzantin, I, 264-273, 279-283). This school was
spared by Justinian when he closed all similar schools
in favour of Constantinople. The town had suffered
much from an earthquake in 529, and wlien taken by
the Arabs about 635 it had fallen into decay.
Berj-tos became a Christian see at an early date, and was a suffragan of TjTe in Phoenicia Prima, a pro'i-ince of the Patriarchate of Antioch. In antiq- uity its most famous bishop was Eusebius, after- wards Bishop of Nicomedia, the courtier-prelate and strong supporter of Arianism in the fourth century. Lequien (II. 815-820) gives a list of thirteen Greek bishops reaching to 1673, rectified and completed by CjTil Charon, a Greek Catholic priest (in Al-Mashriq, Beirut, 1 March, 1905). In 450 Beirut obtained from Theodosius II the title of metropolis, with juris- diction over six sees taken from TjTe; but in 451 the Council of Chalcedon restored these to Tjtc, leaving, however, to Beirut its rank of metropolis (Mansi, VII, 85-98). Thus, from 451 Beirut was an exempt metropolis depending directly on the Patriarch of Antioch. The city was captured on 27 April, 1111, by Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, and with the ex- ception of short intervals was held by the Franks till 1241, At an early date they established there a Latin see subject to Tj-re and, with the provinces of Arabia and Phoenicia Prima, erroneously comprised in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Lists of its Latin bishops are available (Lequien, III, 1325-27; Gams, 434; Eubel, I, 137; II, 117; Revne bfe6dictine, 1904, 13,3-34).
Owing to the fertility of the soil and the security of the harbour, Beirut soon became one of the most active commercial cities in the East, The Druse
