Bl O 



B 1 O 



t 1^ , I Ml r.-n «4ir, ■« fi.;d to !!■<%•« l.«ert the firil lli« Roman antiquities, vras born at Forli in T3?3, and irii- 



.? C..,mns the M,K.f.,n, ^^ ^^^j:^ZTro. died at C.cn,o:.a'. Bcln. deputed i,, h. youth on pubHc huf- 



ncfa to Milan, he there made the hrll copy of Cicero s trea 



■writer of hitlory in profc. 



].in war. , 



■ Btos-, the PLilif'fhcr, v.as a native of BoijUaeiies, and 

 !lo'ir;(hed in t!ie rsigii of Antigonus Gonatas, king of J-ia- 

 cedon, ard died about the lad year of the i.^th olympiad, 

 or the 24 1 II year B.C. He was a pcrfon of mean extrac- 

 tion, being the fon of a J.ac>.da:inonian harlot ; and when 

 ■\oun->-, was fold as a {lave to an orator, who afterwards gave 

 him his freedom, and left him large pofrc-fiions. Thus <:n. 



dowcd he went to Alliens, and devoted himfelf to the ftady ^ ,. „ . , r ii-r. lu .-v v.- 



of pMlo ouhv. He was rtrll the difeiole of Crates, then of any pubhc ftat.on and profecuted h,s hterary labours idi h,s 

 he Cynic^, afterwards of Theodorus, and lad of all of Thco- death in 14^3- ^ His long refKlence at Ro:ne enabled him 

 - ' • • <^ ' - - - -■ '^•-'-" •♦■■ -•'"'-f relics or antiquity in 3 books 



tile on famous orator*. At Rome he became fecretary to 

 pope F.usrenins IV., and ferved the three fuceeedin;^ pnpss 

 in the fame office. He was employed in v?.riou3 delegations 

 to Venice, where he had an opportunity of cultivating an 

 acq'.-.aintance and fienddvip with many learned ptvfons in 

 that republic. Debarred by his marriage from enjoying any 

 church preferments, and devoted to ftudy more than to the 

 purfuit of wealth artd h.onour, he preferred retirement to 



Horace is fuppofed to allude to him in his 



'■ llle Bioneis ferroonibus, et falc nigro." Epift. 2. lib. ii. 

 To a ereat talicer, who aiked him a favour, he faid, " If 

 you would have me grant it, let fome other perf.m a)k it for 

 yon." Being on board a Ihip belonging to pir tcs, which 

 was chafed by another, the pifates exclaiined, " We are un- 

 done, if they'difcover who vvc are;" " and I," fays Bion, 

 " if they difcover who I am." He ridiculed the contradic- 

 tion of burning the dead as if they were inftiifible, and la- 

 menting ihtm as if they were ftill fenfible. ricmc of his jells 

 were offcnfive to morals and decency ; for to ntither of thefe 

 did he pay much regard. Notwithftanding his avcwed irre- 

 ligion, he recurred, when fick, to the piadice of puerile fu- 

 perllitions, and f;ibmitttd to death with great reluctance. 

 Brucker's Hill. Phil, by Enfield, vol. i. p. 189. Gen. Dicl. 

 Lae-tius, lib. iv. torn. i. Ed. Meib. p. 253, &c. 



BiON, a celebrated Bucolic poet, was a native of Smyrna, 

 and a contemporary of Ptolemy Philadilpliu?, about 280 

 years B.C. In Sicily or Mainia Gra:cia, where he is fup- 

 pofed to have fpent the laft part of his life, 'Mofchus was 

 his pupil ; and from the beautiful elegy of th's poet, we are 



was mtitled •• Italia illulbata." All thcfe works difplay 

 great reading and diligent rtfearch, though they are not free 

 from many errorii to which his ignorance of Greek literature 

 mult Iiave contributed. H?.ving undertaken to write a ge- 

 neral hillory from the decline of the Roman empire to his 

 own time, he finiilied tin-ee dccads of it, and tlie lirll book 

 of the. fourth. He alfo wrote a book " Di Origine et Gef- 

 tis Venetorum," and had planned an enin-e hillory of the 

 Venetian republic ; but he afterwards chofe to infert the 

 fubliance of it in his genera! hiftory. He left feveral other 

 writings in MS., which it is netdlcfs to mention. His ftj'le 

 wants purity and elegance, and his judgment in collecting 

 materials was fuperior to his tafte in iiCng them. A collec- 

 tion of his wv.rks was pnblilhed at Bafil, in 1531, fo!. 

 Nouv. D^a. Hist. Gen. Biog. 



BIORKO, in Geography, a town of Sweden, in the pro- 

 vince of Uuland. 



BIORNEBORG, a town of Finland, on the tail Cde of 

 the gulf of Bothnia, featcd on a lake, 80 miles north of 

 Abo. N.lat. 62°6'. E.bng. 22''35'. 



BIORNSE, a fmall illand af Denmark, near the fouth 



led to infer, that he lolt his life in prifon, and that the per- coai't of the ifland of Fnnen. 



petrators of this deed did not cfcape juft punini.ment. As a BlfiRNSTAHL, James Jonas, in Bio^rnphy, a learned 



poet he was highly (.{teemed ; and his performances that are Swcdilh traveller, was born at Rolarbo in 1731, and having 



extant, though iiiconli.lirablc, fe-rve as examples of the ex- lini(lii;d his edncaiion in the univerlity of Upfal, he became, 



■cellence to which the Greeks had attained in fimilar compo- in 1766, tutor to the fon of baron Rudbec, with whom he 



fitions. Nothing can be more fwcct and te-.der than his travelled for eight years through France, Italy, part of Ger- 



" Elegy on the death of Adonis," nor any thing more ele- many, Holland, and England. At Parip', where he improved 



gar.tly ingenious than his " Cupid inllruCted." The works himlcif in the oriental languages, he was elefled, in 1 770, a 



of Bion are ufually printed with thofii of Mofclius ; and member of the academy of faiences, and upon the baron's 



the belt editions are thofe of Paris, in 1686; of Venice, in return to S>yeden, in 177^, Biorn'tahl received orders from 



1746 ; He(l<in's, at Oxford, in 1748 ; Scheir's, at Leipfic, in the king to travel at his expence through the Ottoman em- 



1752 ; and Wakefield's, Lond. 1795. Gen. Diet. Gen. Biog, 

 BioN, M, mathematical inllniment maker to the French 

 Tcing, died at Paris, in 1733, at the age of 78 years, and is 

 known to mathematicians as the anther of two w'orks ; one, 

 " On the conllruction and principal ufes of mathematical in- 

 itruments," traiiflated into Enghlh with additions, by Mr. 

 Edmund Sti ne ;" and another, "On the ufe ot the Globes ;" 

 the filth edition of which was pnbliflied at Paris, in 1728. 



pire, Syria, Egypt, and the northern part or Africa, and 

 in the fame year he was appointed extraordinary proteffor of 

 philofophy at Upfal. In the following year he commenced 

 his travels ; and having arrived at Conltantinople, he conti- 

 nued there two years, improving himfelf in the ealtern lan- 

 guages. In 1779, he was appointed profclfor of the oriental 

 languages at Lund ; but he died this year of a putrid fever 

 at Salonichi. The refult of his obfervations in the courfe 



BIONCOURT, in Geography, a town of France, in the of his travels was communicated in a ftries of letters to C- 



department of the Meurthe, and the thief place of a canton, 

 in the dillrict of Chateau-Salins, 2 leagues W.S.W. of Cha- 

 tean-Salins. 



BJoRKXA, in Ichthyology, a fpecies of Cyprinus, hav- 

 ing thirty five rays in the anal fin. Found in the lakes of 

 Sweden. Liniiius. This is Cyprhms qmiutmcmlh, pinna 

 aiii oiriculoram 25, of Artedi. 



C. Giorwell, librarian to the king at Stockholm ; and a com- 

 plete col'.ect'on of them appeared at Stockholm, in 1 778, in 

 three volumes, Svo. under the title of "J.J. BKSrnitahrs 

 Bref riirande des utl'andika Refa tii utgifvaren C. C. Gibr- 

 vvell." A German tranllation of th:3 work was publillitd at 

 Stralfiind and Rollock, in 17^3. in ^w volumes, 8vo.' Tiis 

 principal o' jciS of Bicirnilahl's refearch was oriental MSS., 

 BIONDO, Flavio, (Lat. Bhndus), m Biography, an from which he maJe many important and ufeful extiails. 

 antiquary and hiftorian, and one of the firft who illultratcd Cea. Biog. 



BIOT 



