B i\ S 



entablature of the large orders is profiled over each 

 column. 



This edifice is about 150 feet long an.l 60 feet bro?.d ; 

 tlie hall is raifcd above the ground 26 feet ; it is formed b)r 

 vaults fupportcd on pillars, and the whole is covered with a 

 TToodcn dome. See PL.'i; II. o^ Archite3tire, t\\e Roman 

 bafilica, from the defcription of Vitnivius. Plate III. the 

 bafiliea at Pa-Hum. Plate IV. the plan of the old bafilica 

 of St. Peter, founded Ijy Conftantine. Plate V. plan of the 

 modi-rn St. Peter's of the Vatican. Vitruvius. Arch, de 

 A. Palladio. Coftagati Piaiitadcl Vaticano. Encyc. Meth. 



BASILICS, Basilica, a collection of the Roman laws, 

 tranflated into Greek by order of the emperori; Bafil and 

 Leo, and which were of force in the eallern empire till its 

 di Ablution. 



The bafilics comprehend the inflitutes, digelts, code, and 

 novels, and fome ediels of Julliniau and other emperors. 

 The colleiflion confilled of fixty books, for which reafon it 

 was called t|>ixovTx?i=/.o,-. It is fuppofed to be chiefly the 

 work of the emperor Leo the Philofopher, who denomi- 

 nated it from his father Bafilius Maccdo, who liril began it 

 in 867, and carried the work to forty books. It was pub- 

 liihed by Leo, with the addition of twenty books more, in 

 880 ; and thirty years after, corrccleil and improved by his 

 fon Conftantine Porphyrogcnitus. Six books of the ba- 

 filica were tranflated into Latin in 1557, fol. by Genti?.nus 

 Hervetus. Of thefe fixty books, there are iiow remaining 

 only forty-one; an edition of which, with a Latin verfion, 

 was publi filed by Charles Annibal Fabrottus, at Paris, in 

 1647, in 7 tomes folio: the other nineteen are in fome mea- 

 fure fupplied by Fabrottu3, from the " Synopfis Bafilico- 

 rum," &c. Four other books have been fince difcovered, 

 and are inferted in Girard Meerman's " Novus Thefaurus 

 Juris Civ. et Canon." torn. v. Of the whole work, the 

 lixty books, Jo. Leunclavius has printed at Balil, in 1575, 

 an ecloge or fynopfis. On the fubjeft of the bafilics, Fa- 

 bricius (Bib. Gra;c. t. xii. p. 425 — 514.), Heineccius (Hift. 

 Juris Romani, p. 396 — 399.), and Giannone ( Iltoria Ci- 

 vile di Napoli, toni. i. p. 450 — 458.), as hiftorical civilians, 

 may be ufefully confulted. 



BASILICATA, in Geography, a province of the king- 

 dom of Naples, bounded on the north by the Capitanata and 

 the TeiTa di Bari, on the eaft by the gulf of Tarento, on 

 the fouth by Principato Citra and Calabria Citra, and on 

 the well by Principato Ultra. Its extent is about 1,605,047 

 moggies, 5 moggies making 4 Englifii acres ; and the num- 

 ber of its inhabitants about 325,682. Its rivers are Bra- 

 dano, Bafiento, S.ilandrella, Acri, and Sinao ; its lakes are 

 Lagonagro and Olmo; its mountains are for the mod part 

 branches of the Apennines ; and its principal places are 

 Acerenza, Melfi, Monte-l'elofo, Tricarico, Potenza, An- 

 glona, Venofa, and Muro : its ruined cities are Metapontum 

 and Heraclea. This province produces corn, wine, oil, faf- 

 fron, cotton, honey, and wax. 



BASIUCI, ;Sa(7i>.iMi, in the Greek Empire, was a de- 

 nomination given to the prince's mandatories, or thofe who 

 carried his orders and commands. 



BASILICON, or B.\si LiruM, in Pharmaey, is the pom- 

 pous denomination formerly given to an officinal unguent or 

 plailer, much refembling and fuperfeded by the Unguen- 

 Ti'M Refinx Flava. 



BASILICUS, or Basilica, in jljlronomy, is the name 

 of a fixed liar of the firll magnitude in the conilellation Leo; 

 called alfo reguhis, and cor leoii'ts. 



Basilici's Simu, iii Ancient Geography, the gulf of Mel- 

 lalTo, a gulf of Afia Minor, in Caria, which it feparates from 

 Ionia. 



B A S 



BASILIDiE, a people of Scythia, according to Pliny. 

 Herodotus fays, that their habitation was below the cata- 

 rails of Boryilhenes. 



BASILIDES, in Biography, an herefiarch of Alexan- 

 dria in Egypt, who flouriihed in the former part of the fe- 

 cond century. Bafnage refers him to the year 121, Mill to 

 123, and Cave to the year 1 12. Griibe fays, that he began 

 to ipread his notions in the time of Trajan, but chiefly under 

 Adrian; and that he probably did not die before the begin, 

 ningofthe reign of Antoninus Fius : and this opinion is con- 

 firmed by Clement of Alexandria, who informs us, that he 

 or his followers boalled of his having been taught by Glau- 

 cias, a difciple of St. Peter. Bafilides has generally ob- 

 tained thif firft place among the Egyptian Gnoftics. He 

 was the author of feveral vi-orks, of which the principal was 

 his " Twenty-four Books of Commentaries," fuppofed by 

 Beaufobre, Fabricius, and Joaes, to be the " Gofpel of 

 Bafilides," mentioned by Orig en, and after him by Ambrofe 

 and Jerome. As none of his works are extant, we derive 

 our knowledge of them from thofe who have detailed and 

 expofcd his errors ; ainoug whom are Iren^us, TcrtuUian, 

 Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Epiphanius, &c. Bafilides 

 acknowledged the exifteuce of one fuprcme God, felf-ex- 

 iftent, and perfect in wifdorn and goodnels, who produced 

 from his own fubftance feven beings, or seon?, of a moll ex- 

 cellent nature. From two of thefe, called Dynamis and 

 Sophia, i. e. power and wifdom, proceeded angels of the 

 highefl. order, who formed a heaven for their habitation ; 

 and theie angels again produced other inferior angelic beings; 

 thefe were fucceeded by other generations of angels, and 

 new heavens were alfo created, until the number of angehc 

 orders, and of their reipettive heavens, amounted, as Irenceus 

 has fuggelted, and others have believed, to 365, the number 

 of days in the Egyptian year. Beaufobre difputes this 

 account ; and it is fuggelled, that Bafilides might poffibly 

 fay, there were 365 angels, who prefided each over one day 

 of the year; which is a notion that feems to have been en- 

 tertained by fome perfons in the eaft. Bafilides afcribed the 

 formation of this lower world to angels ; conceiving it to be 

 unworthy of the Supreme Being to give form and beauty to 

 matter, and to be the author of the many evils that are in 

 this world. Thefe angels, perceiving matter, which was 

 eternal, agitated in a tumultuous manner, determined to 

 reduce it to order; and having in their minds an idea of the 

 world .of fpirits to which they belonged, and which ferved 

 for them as a model, propofed to form a material world that 

 fhould refemble it, and to create a race of beings to inhabit it. 

 This defign was executed, and approved by the Supreme 

 Being; who added a reafonable foul to the animal hfe with 

 which alone the inhabitants of this new world were at firft: 

 endowed, and who gave to the angels the empire over them. 

 Thefe aTigclic beings became gradually depraved by the in- 

 fluence of malignant matter, and endeavoured to efi'ace from 

 the minds of men the knowledge of the Supreme Being, and 

 to arrogate to therafelves the worfiiip that was his due. The 

 moll arrogant and turbulent of thefe fallen angels prefided 

 over the Jewifh nation. At length the Supreme Deity, ob- 

 ferving and compaflionating the ruined and wretclied ftate 

 of the world, fent from heaven his firil-begotten Nus, or 

 Chrift, the chief of the aeons, to reftore the knowledge of 

 the Supreme God, and to deftroy the empire of thofe angels 

 that prefided over the world, and particularly that of the 

 arrogant leader of the Jewilh nation. The god of the Jews, 

 alarmed at this, fent forth his minifters to feize the man 

 Jefus, and put him to death. They executed his commands; 

 but their cruelty could not extend to Chrift, the heavenly 

 being, againil whom their efforts were vain. According to 



Irenxus'a 



