BRANCHIDÆ, the hereditary priests of the temple of Apollo, at Didyma, in Ionia. They delivered up the treasures of the temple to Darius or Xerxes; and then, fearing the vengeance of the Greeks, they fled to Bactria or Sogdiana, upon the frontiers of Persia, where they built a city called by their own name. The punishment of their crime, however, fell upon their descendants, who were massacred by the army of Alexander the Great, and their city was destroyed.