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 Gacony; 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 soldiery.