ng from Abyssinia to the Zambezi. The
above-mentioned anubis baboon, _P. anubis_ (with the subspecies _neumanni_,
_pruinosus_, _heuglini_ and _doguera_), ranging from Egypt all through
tropical Africa, together with _P. sphinx_, _P. olivaceus_, the Abyssinian
_P. lydekkeri_, and the chacma, _P. porcarius_ of the Cape, represent the
subgenus _Choeropithecus_. The named Arabian baboon, _P. hamadryas_ of
North Africa and Arabia, dedicated by the ancient Egyptians to the god
Thoth, and the South Arabian _P. arabicus_, typify _Hamadryas_; while the
drill and mandrill of the west coast, _P. leucophaeus_ and _P. maimon_,
constitute the subgenus _Maimon_. The anubis baboons, as shown by the
frescoes, were tamed by the ancient Egyptians and trained to pluck
sycamore-figs from the trees. (See PRIMATES; CHACMA; DRILL; GELADA and
MANDRILL).

(R. L.*)

BABRIUS, author of a collection of fables written in Greek. Practically
nothing is known of him. He is supposed to have been a Roman, whose gentile
name was possibly Valerius, living in the East, probably in Syria, where
the fables seem first [v.03 p.0097] to have gained popularity. The address
to "a son of King Alexander" has caused much speculation, with the result
that dates varying between the 3rd century B.C. and the 3rd century A.D.
have been assigned to Babrius. The Alexander referred to may have been
Alexander Severus (A.D. 222-235), who was fond of having literary men of
all kinds about his court. "The son of Alexander" has further been
identified with a certain Branchus mentioned in the fables, and it is
suggested that Babrius may have been his tutor; probably, however, Branchus
is a purely fictitious name. There is no mention of Babrius in ancient
writers before the beginning of the 3rd century A.D., and his language and
style seem to show that he belonged to that period. The first critic who
made Babrius more than a mere name was Richard Bentley, in his
_Dissertation on the Fables of Aesop_. In a careful examination of these
prose Aesopian fables, which had been handed down in various collections
from the time of Maximus Planudes, Bentley discovered traces of
versification, and was able to extract a number of verses which he assigned
to Babrius. Tyrwhitt (_De Babrio_, 1776) followed up the researches of
Bentley, and for some time the efforts of scholars were directed towards
reconstructing the metrical original of the prose fables. In 1842 M. Minas,
a Greek, the discovere