BAT 



BATTts, Lint of . See Line. 



Battle, Square. See Square BATTAtrou. 



Battle, yltln'mJir by. Sec Attainder.. 



Battle royal, in Cocl-fi^hling, denotes a fi^Iit between 

 tliree, five, or feven cocks all together ; fo as that the cock, 

 which llanilo longed gets the day. 



Battle-axe, an ancient military weapon, which, at dif- 

 ferent periodt, formed a principal part of the ofTenfive 

 armour. 



Homer never afcribes this weapon to any but the barba- 

 rians, for the battle-axe waa not uftd in war by the politer 

 nations. Eiift.Ttliius tells us, it was the favourite weapon of 

 the Amazons. The only itiftance where Homer has placed 

 it ill the hands of a warrior occurs in the thirteenth book of 

 t'le Iliad, when Pifander fights Meneltus : it is there called 

 Afi/7), and is dcfcnbtd with Cn^jular minutenefs- 

 — i I) uir' acTTiJo; (l\no xaXnv 



Maxfv, liif!;*!. 1. 6ll. 



The TlfcXiici/;, mentioned in the fifteenth book, 1. 710, was 

 perhaps not very different : 



A^^' 01 yt^-,xi^jit ij-oc^EMi, nra 9vjLU>y (;^orr(; 



Something of this kind, it feems, was in ufe among the Bac- 

 trian!<, when they attended Xerxes' expedition : bcfide bows 

 and arrows, we are told they were armed with a fort of 

 hatchet, called Sagaris: (Herodotus, Polyiniiia Ixiv.) The 

 JLycians had axes and daggers: (Ibid, xcii.) and the Egyp- 

 tians huge battle-axes. 



At the rita;e of the Roman capitol, by the Gauls uiidcr 

 Brennus, we find one of the moll dillingnilhed warriors armed 

 with a battle-axe (Pint. Camilhis) : and Ammianus Marcel- 

 linus, many centuries afterwards, defcribing a body of 

 Gauls, furnifliis them all with battle axes and fwords. 

 From Tacitus, it ftiould feem the ancient Germans had 

 clubs, but no fuch weapons as thofc we are fpcaking of : and 

 the only inllance in his writings whercy^caWj- occurs as an 

 implement of combat, is where the Olhonians are particularly 

 defcribed as ftriking on tlie helmets of their antagonifts with 

 their axes. (Taciti Plift. II. xlii.) In (hort, it was even 

 then never ufed but amon<T the Roman auxiliaries. 



The introdinSlion of the battle-axe into this country has 

 been frequently attriljuted to the Danes ; but proofs of its 

 earlier ufe among us are not wanting, and there are inftances 

 known where it has been found even among the fcpulchres 

 of the ancient Britons. Mr. Rooke, in the ArcliKologia of 

 the Antiquary Society (vol. x. p. 1 13.) has defcribed a frag- 

 ment of an ancient battle-axe found among fome Druidical 

 remains in a barrow at Afpatria in Cumberland, June i 789. 

 And in the fame volum.e(pl. xl.)are twortprefentationsof the 

 old Galwegian bill, or battle-axe, found in a mofs near Ter- 

 reagles, the feat of Marmaduke Maxwell Conl\ablc, Efq; of 

 Nethdale in Ireland. Oilurs have been found among the 

 barrows on the downs of Willlhire, and in the north of 

 Scotland. 



That it was ufed in the early Saxon times, we liave the au- 

 thority of fcveral manuferipts of the ninth Century ; and the 

 Frencli writers have recorded a particular inllance of its ufe 

 in France, fo far back as the year 510. Clovis, they fay, 

 bribed the miniAers and captains of Raguacharius to deliver 

 up both him and his brother : and wlicn the prifoners were 

 brought before him, he firtl reproached them for fuffering 

 thei.Tfelvcs to be chained, and then difpatched them with his 

 hattle-axe. See Gre^t- Turon. 1. ii. c. 42. 



Tne battle-axe, however, was more ufed by the Danes than 

 any ctiicr of the Northern nations : and they were, in courfe, 

 more expert with it. At the battle of Stamford, Ocl. 24, 



BAT 



1066, between Harold king of Enghnd, and Harold 

 Harfager of Norway, when the Norwegians were obliged 

 to retire, and the Englifli begun to purfue tliem with great 

 eagerncfs, a total flop was put to their purfuit for fcveral 

 hours by the dcfperale boldntfs of a finglc Norwegian, who 

 defended the pafs of Stamford-bridge with his battle-axe : 

 he killed more than forty of lire Englilh, and was himfclf (lain 

 only by ftratagem. (Hen. Hunt. \. vii. p. 211.) The battle- 

 axe principally in ufe among the Anglo-Saxons appears to 

 have been \.]\t- bipeimis, or double edged axe ; x\\i yjfarma is 

 fuppofed to have been the bipcnnis with a longer handle or 

 halbert : and t\\c pole-axe, with an edge on one fide, and a 

 fiiarp point on the other, probably came in with the Normans. 



During the middle period of our hillory we read but little 

 of this weapon, though the VVtlfh infantry at the battle of 

 Agincourt, 1415, found it particularly ferviceable in dil- 

 patching thofe whom the archers had wounded with their 

 arrows. One of the laft inftances of its cfieftual fervice was 

 at the battle of Tewkfbury, during the quarrel of the Rofes, 

 when the Duke of Somerfct clave Lord Wenlock's head. 



Toward the fixteenth century it feems to have been gra- 

 dually difufed, though one inllance occurs where a piilol 

 placed in its handle befpeaks a wilh in the warriors of that 

 period to im.prove its ufe. (See Arms.) It was perhaps moll 

 ferviceable when our Knights were completely cafed in ar- 

 mour ; and has fincc degenerated into the halbert or 

 pailifan. 



BATTLEMENTS, in the Military Jrt, indentures, or 

 notches in the top of a wall, parapet, or other building, in 

 fomiof emhrafures, for the fake of looking through them, &c. 

 much afFcAed in the old fortification. 



BATTOCHES, or Battogues. See Battacks. 



BATTOLOGY, from /S^tk-, bat/us, babbler, and ?,:>i;, 

 I fpeah, in Grammar a multiplying of words without occa- 

 fion, or a needlcfs and fuperfluous repetition of the fame 

 words, or things. 



BATTONI, or BATONI, Pompeio, in Biography, 

 an eminent Italian painter of the Florentine fchool, was bom 

 at Lucca in 1708. He was the fon of a goldfmith, and 

 brought up to that bufinefs ; but difcovering a ftrong pre- 

 dilection for painting, he was fupported in the Roman 

 fchool by a fubfcription ; and at Rome he employed himfelf 

 in ftudying the antique, and copying the works of Raphael, 

 and likewife in fonning a ilyle of his own, from a diligent 

 obfcrvation of nature. Having diftinguillied himfclf both as 

 a dcfigner and a colourirt, he was engaged in the exccutioa 

 of many important works, and painted altar-pieces and other 

 pictures for various churches in Rome, Milan, Brefcia, 

 Lucca, Parma, Meflina, and other cities ; as well as hiftory- 

 pieces for private pcrfons. One of his moll admired works, 

 is a holy family, purchafed for a large fum by the grand 

 duke of Rnffia. Battoni, however, acquired his principal 

 fame as a portrait painter. Bcfides three popes, he painted 

 fcveral of the Imperial families of Auftria and Ri^flia. In 

 recompence for a pifture, which commemorated the inter- 

 view of the emperor Jofeph w ith his brother at Rome in 

 1770, he received fcveral magnificent prefents ; and he, with 

 all his male iflue, was ennobled by the emperor. By the 

 beautiful daughter of the furveyor of the Farnefe palace, 

 whom he married in early life, he l;ad fcveral children ; and 

 two of his daughters were highly celebrated for their tallc and 

 proficiency in mufic. As to his charader, he was fimple 

 and modcll, finccre, friendly, and charitable ; much attached 

 to religion, and very adiduous in the cxercife of his pra- 

 feflion. He ftldom appeared in public, preferring a retired 

 life, partly on account of the defers of his education, and 

 partly by reafon of the awkwardnefs of his fig'.:re, which ap- 

 I proached 



