Polymnestus, a descendant of the Minyre, and bore him a son, who, because of his stuttering, was called Battus. On growing to man hood, Battus inquired at the oracle of Delphi about his voice, and when told to "found a town in Libya," was unable to understand the response. Afterwards, owing to misfortunes, the Therocans sent to Delphi for advice, and were again ordered to send a colony to Gyrene, under Battus, which they now did, landing first in Platea, and afterwards removing to Gyrene itself.
Herodotus (iv. 155) thinks that the name of Battus, being the word for " king " in Libya, had been applied to the leader of the colony after his arrival there, and that it had no reference to his stuttering. Battus having ruled forty years (about G30-590 B.C.) was succeeded by his son Arcesilaus, who, after a reign of sixteen years, of which nothing is known, was followed by Battus IT. Of this dynasty, known as the Battiadce, the names were alternately Battus and Arcesilaus, there being, as the oracle predicted, probably after the fact, four of each. Under Battus II., surnamed the Prosperous, the population of Cyrene was increased by a large number of colonists from all parts of Greece invited by a promise of land. To find land for all it was necessary to dispossess many of the native Libyans, who therefore sought and obtained the aid of an Egyptian army, which, however was completely defeated. Amasis, the next king of Egypt, proved friendly to Cyrene. The reign of Arcesilaus II. (about 554-544 B.C.) is known only for the disastrous battle with the Libyans, who had been stirred to revolt by his brothers, in which he lost 7000 hoplites. He himself soon after fell ill, and was strangled by his brother Learclms. The disgrace of the ruling family being increased by the fact that the next heir, Battus III., was lame, the oracle at Delphi was consulted, and advised that affairs should be placed in the hands of Demonax of Mantinea, who distributed the people into three tribes, and arranged a form of self-government for them. Battus, retaining the royal lands and sacred offices of a king, acquiesced. Not so his wife Pheretime and son Arcesilaus, who bestirred themselves, the former in Cyprus, the latter in Samos, to raise forces to recover the sovereignty, and ultimately succeeded; but in his success Arcesilaus III. forgot the commands of the oracle (Herod., iv. 163), and, among other cruelties to the vanquished, burned alive a number of them who had escaped to a tower. To avoid the consequences he retired to the town of Barca, but was there slain in the market-place by some fugitives from Cyrene. His mother, Pheretime, who had been regent in his absence, now obtained from Aryandes, the Persian satrap of Egypt, an army to take vengeance on the people of Barca. After a fruitless siege of nine mouths (Herod,. iv. 200) a treaty of peace was solemnly sworn to by the Persian general, and was instantly broken in spirit, though not in letter, when the gates of Barca were thrown open. Pheretime, ruthless in her cruelties towards those who had been connected with her son s murder, herself died soon after, a wretched death, in Egypt. Of Battus IV. nothing is known. Arcesilaus IV., with whom the dynasty ended (about 460-445 B.C.), obtained twice the victory in the chariot race at the Pythian games, and for this was cele brated by Pindar in two odes (Pyth., iv. and v.).
BATU, a thickly-wooded island lying off the north western coast of Sumatra, 40 miles in length by 10 in average breadth, almost immediately under the equinoctial line. Cocoa-nuts, oil, and trepang are exported. It is the seat of an active volcano. The inhabitants are a colony from the island of Mas.
BATUM, a seaport town of Asiatic Turkey, in the pashaUc of Trebizond, and 110 miles N.E. of the city of that name. It is situated on the Black Sea, not far from the mouth of ths Chorak, and the harbour is the safest and most important on the eastern coast. There is deep water close to the shore, and protection is afforded by the high overhanging cliffs of a spur of the Gouriel Mountains. The situation of the town is marshy and unhealthy ; and the place itself is " filthy in the extreme." It is now the seat of a mutessarif, or deputy-governor ; and the Turkish authorities are fortifying it with several strong batteries. A dilapidated ronak, or governor s house, two mosques, and a Greek church are almost the only buildings that relieve the meanness of the squalid-looking huts ; but the natural and political position of the place render it of commercial and military importance. There is a custom house, a Russian consulate, and a steamer agency ; and the Russian steamers regularly use the harbour as a port of transshipment, their own harbour at Poti being insecure. A considerable contraband trade is carried on across the frontiers, as well as a moderate amount of regular exporta tion by sea. The population does not exceed 2000.
BAUDELAIRE, Charles, who would have been pleased to be considered as a master in the French Satanic school of poetry, was born at Paris in April 1821. He was the son of a man of some distinction, who had been the friend of Condorcet and of Cabanis. The poet s life contained no episode more important than a voyage to the East Indies, where he resided for some time, and whence he brought perhaps the Oriental languor and the curious delight in perfumes which make themselves felt in many of his verses. Baudelaire returned to Paris while still a very young man, and sought the literary, or at least what is called the Bohemian society of the capital. He admired M. Theophile Gautier, as M. Gautier had admired Victor Hugo, and his poems are all conceived in the school of Romanticism. Romanticism, or, to define it rather widely, the school of revolt against French academic taste, the search for remote experiences, the artistic reproduction of the excesses and vagaries of passion, found in Baudelaire its most reckless disciple. Some portions of his verses, Les Fleurs du Mai, appeared originally in the Revue des Deux, Mondes, and when they were published in a volume, had the misfortune to attract the notice of the police. When so many low unwholesome works were published without scandal, it was an error to attract notice to the verses of Baudelaire. The chief notes of his poetry are a perverse delight in loathsome subjects, a curious reaction towards Christianity and repentance, a pleasure in the last refine ments of art, above all an unsleeping self-consciousness and affectation. Less unpleasant than his Fleurs du Mai, are his exquisite and gem-like Petits Poemes en Prose, and his volumes of subtle and ingenious criticism. Baudelaire died in 1867 at the age of forty-six, after a long illness. He will possibly be best remembered for his translation of the works of Edgar Allen Poe, one of the most accurate and bril liant translations in literature. The impression left on the reader by Baudelaire s life and industry is rather a painful one. It is difficult to be blind to the fact that he lived for notoriety, and that he preferred to gain notoriety by a distinguished activity in the least wholesome fields of letters. His poems represent the high- water mark of the tide of Romanticism ; and it may be hoped that the taste for lepers and corpses in poetry will now gradually decline. The best edition of his works, prose and verse, is that published by Michel Levy, Paris. Some of his suppressed poems were printed in Brussels, under the title Les Epaves.
physician, who had to leave his native country on becom ing a convert to Protestantism, was bora at Basel in 1560. Early devoting himself to medicine, he pursued his studies at Padua, Montpellier, and some of the celebrated schools in Germany. In his journeys through various parts of Europe he collected a number of plants which had escaped his elder brother s notice. Returning to Basel in 1580, he
was admitted to the degree of doctor, and gave private lectures