acle to the
multiplication of copies of it, whilst the necessity for them was in a
great degree superseded by the publication from time to time of synopses
and encheiridia of its contents, composed by the most eminent jurists, of
which a very full account will be found in the _Histoire au droit
byzantin_, by the advocate Mortreuil, published in Paris in 1846.

BASILICATA, a territorial division of Italy, now known as the province of
Potenza, which formed a part of the ancient Lucania (_q.v._). It is bounded
N. by the province of Foggia, N E. by those of Bari and Lecce, E. by the
Gulf of Taranto (for a distance of 24 m.), S. by the province of Cosenza,
and W. by the Mediterranean (for a distance of 10 m. only), and by the
provinces of Salerno and Avellino. It has an area of 3845 sq. m. The
province is as a whole mountainous, the highest point being the Monte
Pollino (7325 ft.) on the boundary of the province of Cosenza, while the
Monte Vulture, at the N.W. extremity, is an extinct volcano (4365 ft.). It
is traversed by five rivers, the Bradano, Basento, Cavone or Salandrella,
Agri and Sinni. The longest, the Bradano, is 104 m. in length; all run S.E.
or E. into the Gulf of Taranto. The province is traversed from W. to E. by
the railway from Naples to Taranto and Brindisi, which passes through
Potenza and reaches at Metaponto the line along the E. coast from Taranto
to Reggio di Calabria. A branch line runs N. from Potenza via Melfi to
Rocchetta S. Antonio, a junction for Foggia, Gioia del Colle and Avellino
(the second of these lines runs through the province of Potenza as far as
Palazzo S. Gervasio), while a branch S. from the Naples and Taranto line at
Sicignano terminates at Lagonegro, on the W. edge of the province.
Communications are rendered difficult by the mountainous character of the
interior. The mountains are still to some extent clothed with forests; in
places the soil is fertile, especially along the Gulf of Taranto, though
here malaria is the cause of inefficient cultivation. Olive-oil is the most
important product. The total population of the province was 490,705 in
1901. The chief towns are Potenza (pop. 1901, 16,186), Avigliana (18,313),
Matera (17,237), Melfi (14,649), Rionero in Vulture (11,809), Lauria
(10,099).

BASILIDES, one of the most conspicuous exponents of Gnosticism, was living
at Alexandria probably as early as the first decades of the 2nd century. It
is true that Eusebius, in his _Chronicle