Bayjah, or Briga, a town of the kingdom of Tunis in Africa, supposed to be the ancient Vaece of Sallust, and Oppidum Vaggenfe of Pliny. It was formerly, and still continues to be, a place of great trade, and the chief market of the kingdom for corn; of which the adjacent territories produce such abundance, that they can supply more than the whole kingdom with it; and the Tunisians say, that if there was in the kingdom such another town as this for plenty of corn, it would become as cheap as land. Here is also a great annual fair, to which the most distant Arabian tribes resort with their families and flocks. Notwithstanding all this, however, the inhabitants are very poor, and great part of the land about the town remains uncultivated, through the cruel exactions of the government, and the frequent incursions of the Arabs, who are very powerful in these parts. The town-stands on the declivity of a hill on the road to Constantina, about 10 leagues leagues from the northern coast, and 36 south-west from Tunis; and hath the convenience of being well watered. On the highest part is a citadel that commands the whole place, but is now of no great strength. The walls were raised out of the ruins of the ancient Vacca, and have some ancient inscriptions.

a populous town of Hungary, seated on the Danube, in E. Long. 19° 50'. N. Lat. 46° 40'.

BALZÈ, an ancient village of Campania in Italy, between the promontory of Misenum and Puteoli, on the Sinus Baianus; famous for its natural hot baths, which served the wealthier Romans for the purposes both of medicine and pleasure.—The variety of those baths, the softness of its climate, and the beauty of its landscape, captivated the minds of opulent nobles, whose passion for bathing knew no bounds. Abundance of linen, and diverse ointments, render the practice less necessary in modern life; but the ancients performed no exercise, engaged in no study, without previous ablutions, which at Rome required an enormous expense, in aqueducts, fountains, and attendants: a place therefore, where waters naturally heated to every degree of warmth bubbled spontaneously out of the ground, in the pleasantest of all situations, was such a treasure as could not be overlooked. Baja was this place in the highest perfection; its easy communication with Rome was also a point of great weight. Hither at first retired for a temporary relaxation the mighty rulers of the world, to string anew their nerves and revive their spirits, fatigued with bloody campaigns and civil contests. Their habitations were small and modest; but soon increasing luxury added palace to palace with such expedition and sumptuousness, that ground was wanting for the vast demand: enterprising architects, supported by infinite wealth, carried their foundations into the sea, and drove that element back from its ancient limits; it has since taken ample revenge, and recovered much more than it ever lost. From being a place of resort for a season, Baja now grew up to a permanent city: whoever found himself disqualified by age, or infirmity, for sustaining any longer an active part on the political theatre; whoever, from an indolent disposition, sought a place where the pleasures of a town were combined with the sweets of a rural life; whoever wished to withdraw from the dangerous neighbourhood of a court, and the baneful eye of informers, flocked hither, to enjoy life untroubled with fear and trouble. Such affluence of wealthy inhabitants rendered Baja as much a miracle of art as it was before nature; its splendour may be inferred from its innumerable ruins, heaps of marbles, mosaics, stucco, and other precious fragments of taste.—It flourished in full glory down to the days of Theodoric the Goth; but the destruction of these enchanted palaces followed quickly upon the irruption of the northern conquerors, who overturned the Roman system, sacked and burnt all before them, and destroyed or dispersed the whole race of nobility. Lots of fortune left the Romans neither the means, nor indeed the thought, of importing such expensive establishments, which can only be enjoyed in perfection during peace and prosperity. No sooner had opulence withdrawn her hand, than the unbribled sea rushed back upon its old domain; moles and batteries were torn asunder and washed away; whole promontories, with the proud towers that once crowned their brows, were undermined and tumbled headlong into the deep, where, many feet below the surface, pavements of streets, foundations of houses, and masses of walls, may still be deciphered. Internal convulsions of the earth contributed also largely to this general devastation; mephitic vapours and stagnated waters have converted this favourite seat of health into the den of pestilence, at least during the ethereal heats; yet Baja, in its ruined state, and stripped of all its ornaments, still presents many beautiful and striking subjects for the pencil. E. Long. 14° 45'. N. Lat. 41° 6'.