B ACCALAUREUS BACCHUS. 



365 



from Taurus and Caucasus, conquered Western Asia, 

 destroyed Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar (588), 

 subjected Tyre and Phoenicia, and founded an empire 

 which extended to the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 Babylon, which, even earlier, was the seat of scienti- 

 fic, particularly of astronomical and astrological 

 knowledge, was the capital of this empire. Com- 

 merce and industry introduced wealth, and this pro- 

 duced a love of luxury and magnificence. The 

 manufactures of linen, cotton, and silk were especially 

 celebrated. Learning was confined to the priests, 

 who are mentioned under the name of Chaldeans. 

 Under Nabonidas, the empire declined until Cyrus 

 put an end to it by destroying the capital, in 536, 

 and united Babylonia with Persia. It shared the 

 -fate of Persia until A. D. 640, when it was conquer- 

 ed by the followers of Mohammed, who built Bagdad 

 on the Tigris in 762. This became the seat ot the 

 caliphs, who were expelled in 1258, by Holagou, 

 a prince of the Tartars. In 1534, Bagdad fell into 

 the power of the Turkish victors, from whom Shah 

 Abbas took it in 1613. It came, with Babylonia, 

 anew under the dominion of the Turks, in 1639, 

 who possess it at the present day. 



Of the ruins of Babylon, which engage the atten- 

 tion of travellers in modern times, the most correct 

 accounts are contained in the Memoir on the Ruins 

 of Babylon, by Claude James Rich, resident of the 

 East India company at the court of the .Pacha of 

 Bagdad (3d edition, with copperplates, London, 

 1818). Rich, Niebuhr, and Rennel suppose ancient 

 Babylon to have been situated in the Turkish pacha- 

 lie, Bagdad, near the village Hill or Hella, which 

 lies in 32 28' N. lat., on the eastern bank of the Eu- 

 phrates, and contains 6000-7000 inhabitants. In the 

 neighbourhood are a number of old, ruined canals. 

 Idols, vessels, intaglios, &c., and even ruins of large 

 buildings, are still seen there Delia Valle and 

 Rennel think one of them to be the tower of Belus. 

 The greatest height of this is 141 feet, and the sides 

 are directed to the four cardinal points. Another 

 ruin of a castle contains many caves and passages. 

 A third, a huge oblong edifice, on the western side 

 of the Euphrates, is called by the Arabians Birs Nim- 

 rud. This was first described by Rich. He takes it 

 for the tower of Belus, the top of which was to serve 

 as an observatory. Of this opinion is also Ker Por- 

 ter. Grotefend has done much towards deciphering 

 the arrow-headed inscriptions. The material is en- 

 tirely brick, as described by Herodotus. Of the old 

 city walls not a trace has been discovered. As to 

 the rest, these ruins bear the character of grandeur, 

 but not of beauty. The ornaments still existing are 

 clumsy and tasteless. 



BACCALAUREUS (anciently, baccalarius, bachelor) de- 

 noted, in the middle ages, I. a warrior of lower rank 

 (bachelier), under a knight banneret ; 2. transferred 

 to the clergy, it signified a canon of the lowest rank ; 

 3. a candidate who had passed three academical 

 courses and examinations, and was himself entitled 

 to give lectures without being reckoned among the 

 independent lecturers. This was, consequently, the 

 lowest academical degree. After the first examina- 

 tion, he was called baccalaureus simplex ; after the 

 second (or Biblical), baccalaureus currens ; after the 

 third (philosophical and dogmatical), baccalaureus 

 formatus. The baccalaureus could now become a 

 licentiate, L e., acquire all the rights of a teacher. 

 In France, this institution remained until the revolu- 

 tion. In England, it is even now in existence, and 

 the baccalaureus, created according to the regular 

 forms, is called & formed bachelor ; one who is creat- 

 ed by an extraordinary diploma, a current bachelor. 

 In the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, a ba- 

 chelor of arts must keep a certain numtxr of terms ; 



and a bachelor of divinity must be a master of arts. 

 There are, also, at these universities, bachelors of 

 laws, of medicine, and of music. In France, since 

 the 1st of October, 1822, he who wishes to become 

 baccalaureus must have attended, at least one year, 

 the philosophical course, in one of the royal colleges, 

 institutes of education or divinity schools, in which 

 philosophy is taught. Those candidates, likewise, 

 who have been educated and instructed in the house 

 of their father, of their brother, or uncle, can. be ad- 

 mitted to the baccalaureat des lettres. The candidates 

 for the academical degree of baccalaureus are ex- 

 amined in all that is taught in the higher classes of 

 the royal colleges, that is, in Greek and Latin au- 

 thors, rhetoric, history, philosophy, the elements of 

 mathematics, and natural history. Bachelor of arts 

 is a degree commonly conferred, in the United States, 

 on students who have completed the course of study 

 established at the several colleges in that country. 



BACCHANALIA. See Bacchus and Orgies. 



BACCHIUS. See Rhythm. 



BACCHUS (in Greek, Aiowm) ; the god of wine, 

 born of a mortal mother, yet one of the immortal 

 gods. His history is one of the most perplexed in 

 the Greek mythology. Semele was pregnant with 

 him by Jupiter. Before his birth, however, she 

 became a victim of the craft of Juno. Jupiter has- 

 tened to save the unborn fruit of his embrace, and 

 concealed it, till mature, in his own thigh. He 

 afterwards committed the infant to Mercury, who 

 carried him to Ino and Athamas, and finally to the 

 nymphs of Nysa, in India, where he grew and pros- 

 pered. His teacher was Silenus, afterwards his 

 constant companion. 



In the vales of Nysa, Bacchus invented the pre- 

 paration of a beverage from grapes, and taught the 

 planting of vines. To spread the knowledge of his 

 invention, he travelled over almost the whole known 

 world, and received in every quarter divine honours. 

 Drawn by lions (some say panthers, tigers, or lynxes), 

 he began his march, which resembled a triumphal 

 pomp, with a great suite of men and women, Sileni, 

 Satyrs, and Msenades. Inspired by the presence of 

 the god, rejoicing, brandishing the thyrsus, and 

 crowned with vines and ivy, they danced around 

 him, shouting, " Evoe ! Eleleus !" over hill and val- 

 ley, accompanied by the tones of Phrygian flutes and 

 timbrels. The Thebans would not acknowledge his 

 divinity, and Pentheus armed himself against him. 

 Bacchus resolved to punish the crime, and inspired 

 the women with a fury which drove them from their 

 dwellings, to wander on mount Cithaeron. Pentheus 

 himself was torn in pieces by his own mother and 

 her sisters, to whom he appeared a wild beast. He 

 punished the daughters of Mynias, who derided his 

 feasts, with frenzy and transformation. At Naxos, 

 some Tuscan sailors attempted to carry him off to 

 Italy, supposing him, from his purple robe, to be the 

 son of a king. They fettered him ; but the fetters 

 fell off, vines and ivy entwined the vessel, and kept 

 it fixed in the midst of the sea : the god transformed 

 himself to a lion, and the seamen, seized with mad- 

 ness, leaped into the waves, where they were changed 

 into dolphins. On the other hand, he rewarded such 

 as received him hospitably, and rendered him wor- 

 ship ; as, for instance, Midas (q. v.), who restored to 

 him the faithful Silenus. 



His love was shared by several ; but Ariadne, 

 whom he found deserted upon Naxos, alone was 

 elevated to the dignity of a wife, and became a 

 sharer of his immortality. To confer the same fa- 

 vour on his mother, Semele, he descended into the 

 realms of Pluto, and conducted her to Olympus, 

 where she was henceforth called Thyme. In the 

 dreadful war with the giants, he fought heroically, 



