FAS 
to be a general name for churches in after-ages. Baflic 
is chiefly applied, in modern times, to churches of royal 
foundation ; as thofe of- St. John de Lateran, and St. Pe¬ 
ter of the Vatican at Rome, founded by the emperor Con- 
flantine. Bafilics were alfo little chapels built by the an¬ 
cient Franks over the tombs of their great men, fo called, 
as refembling the figure of the facred bafilictz , or churches. 
Perfons of inferior condition had only tuvibx or porticuli 
eredled over them. By an article in the Snlique law, he 
that robbed a tumba or porticulus, was to be fined fifteen 
folidi; but he that robbed a baftlica, thirty folidi. 
BASl'LlCA,yi The middle vein of the arm, fo called 
by vvay of pre-eminence. 
Basilica, or Basilicus, the fame as Rcgulus or Cor 
Leonis, being a fixed ftar of the firft magnitude in the con- 
ftellation Leo. 
BASI'LICAL, or Basi'lic, adj. Belonging to the ba- 
filic vein.—Thefe aneurifms following always upon bleed¬ 
ing the bajilic vein, muft be aneurifms of the humeral ar¬ 
tery. Sharp . 
BASILICA'TA, a province of the kingdom of Naples, 
bounded on the north by the Capitanata and Bari, on the 
eafi by the gulf of Tarento, on the Couth by Principato 
Citra and Calabria Citra, and on the well by the Princi¬ 
pato Ultra : about fixty-fix miles in length, and fifty in 
breadth. It produces corn, wine, oil, faffron, cotton, ho¬ 
ney, and wax, in abundance. The principal towns are 
Melfi, Acerenza, Potenza, Turfi, and Venofa. 
BASPLICI,yi a denomination given in the Greek em¬ 
pire to thofe who carried the emperor’s orders and com¬ 
mands. 
BAS I'Ll CON, f. [from royal.] In pharma¬ 
cy, a name given to leveral compofitions to be found in an¬ 
cient medical writers. Of late years it has been confined 
to three officinal ointments, difiinguiffied by their colours, 
viz. black, yellow, and green. The laft revifed pharma¬ 
copoeia of the London college retains only the two firfi, 
under the names of unguentum refines favee , and unguentum 
fids. See Pharmacy. 
B A'SILICS,/! a name fuppofed to have been given by 
the emperor Leo to a collection of laws in honour of his 
father Balilins Macedo, who began it in the year 867, and 
in the execution chiefly made ule of Sabbathius Protof- 
patharius, who carried the work as far as forty books. 
Leo added twenty books more, and publiffied the work in 
the year 880. The whole, thirty years after, was correct¬ 
ed and improved by Conftantine Porphyrogenitus, fon of 
Leo ; whence many have held him the author of the ba- 
filica. Six books of the bafilica were tranflated into La¬ 
tin in 1577, by Gentian Hervetus. An edition of the 
Greek bafilics, with a Latin verfion, has been fince pub- 
liflied at Paris, in 1647, by Annib. Fabrottus, in feven vo¬ 
lumes. There ftill want nineteen books, which are fup¬ 
pofed to be loft. Fabrottus has endeavoured to fupply in 
fome meafure the defeCt from the fynopfis of the balilica, 
and the gloffes; of which feveral had been made under 
the fucceeding emperors, and Contained the whole Juftini- 
an law, excepting the fuperfluities, in a new and more con¬ 
fident order, together with the later conftitutions of the 
emperors pofterior to Juftinian. The whole collection, 
confiding of fixty books, was for that reafon called e|»)_ 
>'.ovra.Q i«Ao?. 
B ASl'LlCUM,/. in botany. See Ocymum. 
BASI'LIDES, the father of Herodotus, who, with o- 
thers, attempted to deftroy Strattes tyrant of Chios. He - 
rodot. A family who held an oligarchial power at Erytnras. 
Strabo. A pried, of mount Carmel, who foretold many 
momentous events to Vefpadan when he offered facrifices. 
Tacitus. 
B ASILI'DIANS, ancient heretics, the followers of Ba- 
filides, an Egyptian, who lived near the beginning of the 
fecond century. He was educated in the Gnoftic fchool, 
over which Simon Magus prefided ; with whom he agreed 
that Chrift was a man in appearance, that his body was a 
phantom, and that he gave his form to Simon the Cyre- 
Vo l. II. No. 102. 
BAS 777 
nian, who was crucified in his (lead. We learn from Eu- 
lebius, that this herefiarch wrote twenty-four books upon 
the gofpel, and that he forged feveral prophets; to two of 
which he gave the names Barcaba and Bartoph. We have 
dill the fragment of a Bafilidian gofpel. His difeipies 
fuppofed there were particular virtues in names; and 
taught, with Pythagoras and Plato, that names were not 
formed by chance, but naturally dignified fomething. Ba- 
filides, to imitate Pythagoras, made his difeipies keep fi- 
lence for five years together. The Bafilidians held much 
the fame opinions with the Valentinians, another branch 
of the Gnodic family. They alferted, that all the aCtions 
of men are neceflary ; that faith is a natural gift, to which 
men are forcibly determined, and fliould therefore be fa- 
ved though their lives were ever fo irregular. Irenaeus 
and others affure us, they aCted confidently with their prin¬ 
ciple; committing all manner of impurities, in confidence 
of their natural eledtion. They had a particular hierar¬ 
chy of divine perfons, or yEons. Under the name Abrax¬ 
as, they are faid to have worfliipped the fupreme God, 
from whom, as a principle, all other things proceeded. 
There are feveral gems dill fubfifting, inferibed with the 
name Abraxas , which were ufed by the Bafilidians as amu¬ 
lets againft difeafes and evil fpirits, 
BASILIP'PUM, anciently a town of Bastica in Spain ; 
now Cantillana, a citadel of Andalufia, above Seville, on 
the Guadalquiver. 
BA'SILISK, J. \bafilifcus , Lat. of / 3 ac-iAt<r>i©-, Gr. of 
a king.] A fpecies of lizard, for particulars of 
which fee the generic title Lacerta. 
Basilisk, in the older artillery, was a large piece of 
ordnance fo called from its refemblance to the fabulous 
reptile of that name. It threw an iron ball of 20olbs. 
weight; and was in great repute in the time of Solyman 
emperor of the Turks, in the wars of Hungary ; but it is 
now grown out of ufe in mod parts of Europe. Paulus 
Jovius relates the terrible daughter made in a Spanidi (hip 
by a Angle ball from one of thefe bafilifks ; after paffing 
through the beams and planks in the fhip’s head, it killed 
upwards of thirty men. And Maffeus fpeaks of bafilifks 
made of brafs, each of which required 100 yoke of oxen 
to draw them. More modern writers alfo-give the name 
bafilifk to a much fmaller and fizeable piece of ordnance, 
made of fifteen feet long by the Dutch, but of only ten 
by the French, and carrying a ball of 481b. 
BASI'LIUS, furnamed the Macedonian emperor of the 
Greeks. He was a common foldier, and of an obfeure fa¬ 
mily in Macedonia, and yet raifed him'felf to the throne; 
for, having pleafed the emperor Michael by hisaddrefsin 
the management of his liorfes, he became his firft equerry, 
and then his great chamberlain. He at length aftaffinated 
the famous Bardas, and was aiTociated to the empire in 
849. He held the eighth general council at Conftantino- 
ple ; depofed the patriarch ‘Photius, but in 858 reftored 
him to the patriarchate ; and declared againft the popes, 
who refufed to admit him into their communion. He was 
dreaded by his enemies the Saracens, whom he frequently 
vanquiftied; and loved by his fubjedts, for his juftice and 
clemency'. He died in 886. Under his reign, the Ruf¬ 
fians embraced Chriftianity, and the dodtrine of the Greek 
church. He ought not to be confounded with Bafilius the 
Young, who fucceeded Zemifces in 975, and after a reign 
of fifty years died in 1025. 
BA'SIN,y. \_hafin, Fr. bacile, bacino, Ital. It is often 
written bafon, but not according to etymology.] A fmall 
veflel to hold water for wafliing, or other ufes : 
Let one attend him with a filver bafin, 
Full of rofe-water, and beftrew’d with flowers. Shake/. 
A fmall pond.—On one fide of the walk you fee this hol¬ 
low bafin , with its feveral little plantations lying conveni¬ 
ently under the eye of the beholder. SpeElator. —A part 
of the fea inclofed in rocks, with a narrow entrance: 
The fpacious bafins arching rocks inclofe, 
A fure defence from ev’ry ftorm that blows. Pope. 
9 M Any 
