BOLBIT´INE
BOLBIT´INE (
Βολβιτίνη Hecataeus,
fr.285, ap.
Steph. B. sub voce Diod. 1.33),was a town of the Delta, en the Bolbitic arm of the Nile [
NILUS].
It corresponds to the modern
Raschîdor Rosetta. (Niebuhr,
Travels, vol. i. p. 56; Champollion,
l'Egypte, vol. i. p. 241) From the apparently proverbial phrase--
Βολβίτινον ἅρμα--cited by Stephanus of Byzantium (
l.c.), we may infer that Bolbitine was celebrated for its manufactory of chariots. If Bolbitine were the modern
Rosetta, the Rosetta stone, with its triple inscription, must have been originally erected, as it was in the last century discovered, there.
This stone was inscribed and set up in the reign of Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, about B.C. 193, when the town of Bolbitine was perhaps enlarged or restored by the Macedonian king.
The inscription, in hieroglyphics, in the enchorial character, and in Greek letters, belongs to the years of that monarch's minority.
It commemorates the piety and munificence of Ptolemy, his remission of fiscal imposts and arrears, his victories over rebels, and his protection of the lands by dams against the encroachments of the Nile.
[
W.B.D]
