a general engagement between two armies, in a country sufficiently open for them to encounter in front and at the same time (see WAR). The word is also written battel, battell, and battail. It is formed from the French bataille, of the Latin verb baturae, to fence or exercise with arms; whence battalia and batalia, which properly denoted the action or exercise of those who learned to fence, and who were hence also denominated battatores.

The ancients never joined battle without much ceremony and preparation; as taking auguries, offering sacrifice, haranguing the soldiery, giving the word or a tesser, &c. The signals of battle were, founding the clavicum or general charge, and displaying a peculiar flag called by Plutarch a purple robe. To which may be added, ringing psalms, raising military shouts, and the like. A Roman legion, ranged in order of battle, consisted of hastati, placed in the front; of principes, who were all old experienced soldiers, placed behind the former; and of triarii, heavy armed with large bucklers, behind the principes. The hastati were ranked close; the ranks of the principes were much opener, so that they could receive the hastati; and those of the triarii opener still, insomuch that they could receive both the principes and the hastati within them, without any disorder, and still facing the enemy. When therefore the hastati found themselves unable to stand the enemy's charge, they retired gently within the principes, where joining with them, they renewed the combat. If these found themselves too weak to sustain the enemy, both retired among the triarii, where rallying, they formed a new corps, and charged with more vigour than ever. If these failed, the battle was lost; the Romans had no farther resource. The moderns are unacquainted with this method of inferring or embattling one company into another; without which the former cannot be well succoured or defended, and their places taken by others; which was a thing the Romans practised with great exactness. For the vexillers, and in later times the archers and slingers, were not drawn up in this regular manner, but either disposed of before the front of the hastati, or scattered up and down among the void spaces of the hastati, or sometimes placed in two bodies in the wings. These always began the combat, skirmishing in flying parties with the foremost troops of the enemy. If they were repulsed, which was usually the case, they fell back to the flanks of the army, or retired again in the rear. When they retired, the hastati advanced to the charge. As to the cavalry, it was posted at the two corners of the army, like the wings on a body; and fought some-

times on foot, sometimes on horseback. The auxiliary forces composed the two points of the battle, and covered the whole body of the Romans.—Other less usual forms of battle among the Romans were the cuneus, or wedge; globus, or round form; forfex, or pair of sheers; turris, or an oblong square figure; ferra, or saw. The Greeks were inferior to the Romans in marshalling their armies for battle, as they drew up their whole army in a front, and trifled the success of the day to a single force. They had three forms of battle for the horde, viz. the square, the wedge, and the rhombus or diamond form. The first held best for the defensive; the latter for the offensive; the wedge being preferred as bringing most hands to fight.

The Greeks notified the places of their battles and victories by adding the word νικη; whence Nicomedea, Nicopolis, Theffalonica, &c. The ancient Britons did the like, by adding the word Mais; whence Maifeweth, Malmaisbury, &c. The English by the word Field.—The Romans had their particular days, called praliares dies, wherein alone it was lawful to join battle; and others wherein it was unlawful, called dies atri. The Athenians, by the ancient laws of their country, were not to draw out their forces for battle till after the seventh day of the month: And Lucian relates of the Lacedemonians, that by the laws of Lycurgus, they were not to fight before full moon. Among the Germans, it was reputed an impiety to fight in the wane of the moon; and Cæsar tells us, that Ariovistus was beaten by him, because, contrary to the laws of his country, he had fought when the moon was in her wane. The German soldiery were intimidated with the apprehension, and afforded Cæsar an easy victory; acie commissa, impeditor religione hostis victus. It is well known that Jerusalem was taken by Pompey in an attack on the sabbath-day, when by the Jewish superstitious notions, they were not allowed to fight, or even to defend themselves. The Romans did not carry their superstition so far: their atri dies were only observed in respect of attacking; no day was too holy for them to defend themselves in. Among the ancients, we find frequent instances of battles in the night; it was by the moonlight that Pompey beat Mithridates, and Scipio Africarbal and Syphax.

The first pitched battle, of which we have any distinct account, is that between Croesus and Cyrus, described by Xenophon, concerning which we have a dissertation expressly by M. Freret, wherein several points of the ancient tactics are well explained. In the modern war, we find few pitched or set battles: the chief view of the great commanders of late days is rather to harass or starve the enemy by frequent alarms, cutting off his provisions, carrying off his baggage, seizing his posts, &c. than to join issue with him, and put the whole on the event of one day; a battle generally deciding the fate of a campaign, sometimes of a whole war. Hence it is a rule, never to venture a general battle, unless either you fight to advantage, or be forced to it. Joining or giving battle should always be by design; a general should never suffer himself to be forced to fight. All the measures, movements, encampments, he makes, are to lead to the execution of his great design, which is to fight to advantage, till by some mistake of the enemy, he at length find the favourable Battle-axe, favourable opportunity. It is in this that a superior genius will at length prevail over an inferior: in the course of a campaign, he will take a number of advantages over him, which together are equivalent to a battle, the event of which is ever doubtful.

**Battle-Axe**, an ancient military weapon. Axes were a principal part of the offensive armour of the Celts. At the siege of the Roman Capitol by the Gauls under Brennus, we find one of the most distinguished of their warriors armed with a battle-axe. And Ammianus Marcellinus, many centuries afterwards, describing a body of Gauls, furnishes them all with battle-axes and swords. Some of these weapons have been found in the sepulchres of the Britons, on the downs of Wiltshire, and in the north of Scotland. Within these four or five centuries the Irish went constantly armed with an axe. At the battle of Bannockburn, king Robert Bruce clave an English champion down to the chin at one blow with a battle-axe. The axe of Lochaber hath remained a formidable implement of destruction in the hands of our Highlanders, even nearly to the present period; and it is still used by the city-guard of Edinburgh in quelling mobs, &c.

**Battlements**, in architecture, are indentures or notches in the top of a wall or other building, in the form of embrasures, for the sake of looking through them.

**Battology**, in grammar, a superfluous repetition of some words or things.

**Battion**, in merchandise, a name given to certain pieces of wood or deal for flooring or other purposes.

**Battory**, a name given by the Hans Towns to their magazines or factories abroad. The chief of these battories are those at Archangel, Novogrod, Berghem, Lisbon, Venice, and Antwerp.

**Batua, Butua, Butte, or Butoce** (anc. geog.), a town of Dalmatia situated on the Adriatic; now Budva; which see.

**Battus**, an order of penitents at Avignon and in Provence, whose piety carries them to exercise severe discipline upon themselves both in public and private.

**Batz**, a copper coin mixed with some silver, and current at different rates, according to the alloy, in Nuremberg, Basle, Fribourg, Lucerne, and other cities of Germany and Switzerland.

**Bavaria**, a duchy and formerly electorate of Germany. This duchy was once a kingdom, which extended from the mountains of Franconia to the frontiers of Hungary and the Adriatic Guelph. It comprehended the countries of Tirol, Carinthia, Carniola, Stiria, Austria, and other states, which are now fallen to different princes. At present it is bounded on the east by Bohemia and Austria, on the west by Swabia, on the north by Franconia, and on the south by Tirol. But the Duke of Bavaria is not absolute matter of all this country; for within its bounds are situated many free cities, among which is Ratibon, and several lordships both ecclesiastical and secular. It is divided into Upper and Lower Bavaria; and these two provinces consist of 12 counties, which formerly sufficed to make a duchy, according to the laws of Franconia. The country is watered by five navigable rivers, besides several smaller ones, and 16 lakes.—It contains 35 cities, of which Munich is the capital; 94 towns; 720 castles; 4700 villages; eight great abbeys; and 75 cloisters or monasteries, besides those of the mendicants.—It is Bavaria divided into four great bailiages called governments. These are Munich, Landshut, Straubing, and Burghausen. The principal cities are Ingolstadt, Donauwörth, Landsberg, Freising, Straubingen, Wilshausen, Waßerberg, Eiling, Rain, &c.

Besides these two provinces, the Duke of Bavaria possesses the upper palatinate of Westphalia, which has been united to Bavaria, and comprehends several counties, cities, towns, and villages. On the other side of this province is Cham, the chief city of the county of the same name, belonging likewise to the Duke of Bavaria. He also possesses the landgraviate of Leuchtenberg, which fell to him by the death of Maximilian Adam, in consequence of family pacts made between the house of Bavaria and that of Leuchtenberg for their mutual succession. In 1567, the county of Kaag fell to the Duke of Bavaria by the death of Ladislaus the last count of that name. There are likewise family pacts of mutual succession established betwixt the house of Bavaria and the Palatine of the Rhine.—The inhabitants of this country are strong and laborious, exercising themselves in shooting with rifled muskets at a mark, in order to render themselves more expert in war.

The house of Bavaria is universally allowed to be one of the most ancient in Germany. The counts of Scheyren, whose castle at present is a cloister, gave them the name. At that place are shown the tombs of more than 26 lords of Scheyren. The Emperor Otho I. established as counts-palatine of Bavaria and landgraves of Scheyren, Arnolph, and Herman, sons of Arnolph brother to the Duke of Berchtold of Carinthia, marquis of the county upon the Ens. After the death of Berchtold, the same emperor, instead of giving Bavaria to his son, gave it to Duke Henry his brother, who had married Judith sister to Arnolph and Herman. This Duke Henry of Bavaria had by his marriage Henry Hezillon, who was succeeded by his son Henry, afterwards chosen emperor by the name of Henry II. This emperor having no children by Saint Cunegond his wife, Bavaria passed again to the family of Franconia, and afterwards to that of Swabia under Henry IV., who possessed it till the year 1071, when this last emperor gave that county to Count Wolf, or Guelph, of Ravensburg in Swabia. To this Guelph, who died in the island of Cyprus, succeeded Guelph II. and to him his brother Duke Henry IX. who was succeeded by his son Henry the Proud. This last had married the only daughter of the emperor Lotharius, and after the death of his father-in-law became also Duke of Saxony; but refusing to deliver up the imperial ornaments of his father-in-law to the emperor Conrad III. Duke of Swabia, or to acknowledge him for emperor, he was put to the ban of the empire, and lost his estates. After the death of Henry, Conrad made his brother Leopold Marquis of Austria and Duke of Bavaria; who, dying without issue, was succeeded by his brother Henry XI., whom the emperor Frederic I. made Duke of Austria, joining together the two counties above and below the Ens, and declaring them free and independent of the government of Bavaria. The same emperor gave Bavaria thus dismembered, with Saxony, to Henry the Lion, son of Henry the Proud. But Henry the Lion, afterwards losing the favour of this emperor, was put to the ban of the empire; and lost all his possessions except except Brunswick and Lunenburg, which still remain to his descendants. In 1180, the duchy of Bavaria was given by the emperor to Otho the Landgrave of Wittelsbach, count-palatine of the house of Bavaria. In the time of this Otho, the castle of Scheyern was changed into a monastery, in which the Duke was buried. From him are descended the two great families that remain to this day in Germany; viz. the counts-palatine of the Rhine, and till lately electors of Bavaria. The elector of Bavaria is now extinct, and sunk in the elector-palatine; so that there are now only eight instead of nine electoral princes in Germany.