in the customs of the middle age, a form of cry, or alarm to arms; on the hearing whereof, the inhabitants of towns or villages were to issue forth, and attend their prince. The word seems originally from Gafcony; and the Italians even now, on a sudden insurrection of the people, commonly cry, Via fora, by an usual change of the letter B into V.
BIARCHUS, an officer in the court of the emperors of Constantinople, intrusted with the care and inspection of the provisions of the feldery.