BELIAL BELL. 



485 



vfry same troops, added to others collected in Peru, 

 attacked and defeated B. at Vilcapugic , October 1 , 

 1813, and again at Ayoma, November 14, of the same 

 year ; and San Martin was appointed to succeed him 

 in command. In 1816, B. was re-appointed to the 

 command of the troops in Tucuman, and was making 

 the most judicious arrangements for acting against 

 the Spaniards in Upper Peru, when the spirit ot anar- 

 chy seized upon the army, and he was deposed, and 

 the troops dispersed. B. was liberal, upright, and 

 disinterested to a degree not exceeded by any of his 

 compatriots, and faithful and exact in the discharge 

 of all his duties. He displayed considerable ardour 

 as an officer, and applied himself closely to the study 

 of tactics ; but had neither the experience nor the 

 military capacity necessary to constitute a great 

 general. Regardless of his occasional reverses of 

 fortune, and of the persecution which he underwent 

 from some of the transitory factions of the day, he 

 continued to labour unremittingly for the welfare of 

 his country until his death, in 1820, which was very 

 justly deplored. See Memoirs of General Miller, in 

 the Service of the Republic of Peru, London, 1828. 



BELIAL was, with the Hebrews, what Pluto was 

 with the Greeks the ruler of the infernal regions. 

 The word itself signifies the bad, the destructive, 



BELISARIUS ; one of the greatest generals of his 

 time, to whom the emperor Justinian chiefly owed 

 the splendour of his reign. Sprung from an obscure 

 family in Thrace, B. first served in the body-guard 

 of the emperor, soon after obtained the chief com- 

 mand of an army of 25,000 men, stationed on the 

 Persian frontiers, and, in the year 530, gained a 

 complete victory over a Persian army of not less than 

 40,000 soldiers. The next year, however, he lost a 

 battle against the same enemy, who had forced his 

 way into Syria the only battle which he lost during 

 his whole career. He was recalled from the army, 

 and soon became, at home, the support of his master. 

 In the year 532, civil commotions, proceeding from 

 two rival parties, who called themselves the green 

 and the blue, and who caused great disorders in Con- 

 stantinople, brought the life and reign of Justinian in 

 the utmost peril, and Hypatius was already chosen 

 emperor, when B., with a small body of faithful ad- 

 herents, restored order. Justinian, with a view of 

 conquering the dominions of Gelimer, king of the 

 Vandals, sent B., with an army of 15,000 men, to 

 Africa. After two victories, he secured the person 

 and treasures of the Vandal king. Gelimer was led 

 in triumph through the streetsiof Constantinople, and 

 Justinian ordered a medal to be struck, with the in- 

 scription Belisarius gloria Romanorum, which has 

 descended to our times. By the dissensions existing 

 in the royal family of the Ostrogoths (see Goths) in 

 Italy, Justinian was induced to attempt to bring 

 Italy and Rome under his sceptre. B. vanquished 

 Vitiges, king of the Goths, made him prisoner at 

 Ravenna (540), and conducted him, together with 

 many other Goths, to Constantinople. The war in 

 Italy against the Goths continued ; but B., not being 

 sufficiently supplied with money and troops by the 

 emperor, demanded his recall (548). He afterwards 

 commanded in the war against the Bulgarians, whom 

 he conquered in the year 559. Upon his return to 

 Constantinople, he was accused of having taken part 

 in a conspiracy. But Justinian was convinced of his 

 innocence, and is said to have restored to him his 

 property and dignities, of which he had been de- 

 prived. B. died in the year 565. His history has 

 been much coloured by the poets, and particularly 

 by Marmontel, in his otherwise admirable politico- 

 jihilosophical romance. According to his narrative, 

 the emperor caused the eyes of the hero to be struck 

 uit and B. was compelled to beg his bread in the 



streets of Constantinople. Other writers say, thai 

 Justinian had him thrown into a prison, which is still 

 shown under the appellation of the tower of fielisa- 

 rius. From this tower he is reported to have let 

 down a bag fastened to a rope, and to have addressed 

 the passengers in these words -.Date Belisario obo- 

 litm, quern virtus evexit, invidia dcjtressit (Give an 

 obolus to Belisarius, whom virtue exalted, and envy 

 has oppressed). Of this, however, no contemporary 

 writer makes any mention. Tzetzes, a slightly- 

 esteemed writer of the 12th century, was the first 

 who related this fable. Certain it is, that, through 

 too great indulgence towards his wife Antonina, B- 

 was impelled to many acts of injustice, and that lie 

 evinced a servile submissiveness to the detestable 

 Theodora, the wife of Justinian. 



BELKNAF, Jeremy ; an American clergyman and 

 author, of considerable reputation. He was born in 

 June, 1744, graduated at Harvard college in 1762, 

 and ordained pastor of the church in Dover, New 

 Hampshire, in 1767. Here he spent twenty years 

 in the diligent performance of his clerical duties, and 

 the cultivation of literature. It was during this 

 period that he composed his History of New Hamp- 

 shire, a work by which he established himself as an 

 author in the good opinion of his countrymen. In 

 1787, he took charge of a church in Boston, where 

 he continued to officiate until his death, in 1798. 

 Besides his History, he published two volumes of his 

 unfinished American Biography, and a number of 

 political, religious, and literary tracts. Doctor B. 

 wrote with ease and correctness, though not with 

 elegance : he was more remarkable for research and 

 extensive information, than for brilliancy or origina- 

 lity of talents. The History of New Hampshire and 

 the American Biography, above mentioned, are often 

 consulted. His sermons, and many dissertations, are 

 but little known. As a public preacher and citizen, 

 he enjoyed the highest estimation. He was one of 

 the founders of the Massachusetts historical society, 

 whose Collections are important to the public annals. 



BELL. Church-bells originated in Italy, being 

 formed, by degrees, out of the cymbals, small tink- 

 ling bells, and hand-bells of the East, used, in reli- 

 gious ceremonies, as a means of honouring the gods, 

 or of summoning them to the feast. The feast of 

 Osiris, particularly, is known to have been announced 

 by bells, and, in Athens, the priests of Cybele made 

 use of them at their sacrifices. Pliny says that bells 

 were invented long before his time. They were 

 called tintinnabula ; and Suetonius tells us that 

 Augustus caused one to be hung before the temple 

 of Jupiter. Among Christians, they were first em- 

 ployed to call together religious congregations, for 

 which purpose runners had been employed before. 

 Afterwards, the people were assembled by the sound 

 of little pieces of board struck together ; hence called 

 sacred boards. To the present day, the Catholics 

 use such boards in Passion-week and Lent, because 

 the noise of bells seems to them unsuited to the 

 solemnity of the season. On the first day of Easter 

 the bells ring again, and the return of the accus- 

 tomed sound produces a very cheerful effect. Pau- 

 linus, bishop of Nola, in Campania, is said to have first 

 introduced church bells, in the fourth century, and 

 thence the Latin names of the bell, campana and 

 nola, are said to have originated. In the sixth cen- 

 tury, bells were used in the convents; they were 

 suspended on the roof of the church in a frame. 

 Towards the end of this century, bells were placed 

 on some churches at the expense of certain cities. 

 About 550, they were introduced into France. Pope 

 Sebastian, who died in 605, first ordered that the 

 hours of the day should be announced by striking the 

 bell, that people might better attend to the lu>ra 



