BATONI, bȧ-tō′nē̇, or BATTONI, Pompeo Girolamo (1708-1787). An Italian painter, born at Lucca. He sought to counteract the mannerism prevalent in his day by reviving the style of Raphael and the earlier classicists. He was the greatest painter of Italy during the middle of the Eighteenth Century, and completed in all about 40 notable works, which are scattered throughout the principal art galleries of Europe. Among the most important of these are: Portraits of the Popes Benedict XIV., Clement XIII., and Pius VI., and of the Emperors Joseph II. and Leopold II.; “Marriage of Saint Catharine” (Quirinal, Rome); “Achilles” (Uffizi, Florence); “Choice of Hercules” (Turin Gallery); “Madonna” (Louvre, Paris); “Magdalen,” “John the Baptist,” and “The Fine Arts” (Dresden Gallery); “Marriage of Cupid and Psyche” (Berlin Museum). His “Magdalen” is universally considered his masterpiece.
BATON ROUGE, băt′on ro͞ozh (Fr., red baton or stick). The capital of Louisiana, 89 miles by rail northwest of New Orleans, on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, and on the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley and the Texas and Pacific railroads (Map: Louisiana, D 3). It is a picturesque city, built on the river bluff, and many of its houses are quaint and old, of French and Spanish styles. Baton Rouge is the seat of the State University, organized in 1860, and contains State educational institutions for the deaf and dumb and blind, orphan asylums. State penitentiary, and State Agricultural Experiment Station. Other features of interest are: The State Capitol, the courthouse, city hall, post-office, high-school building, and a national cemetery. There are extensive manufacturing interests, including lumber, cottonseed products, brick, sugar, and artificial ice. The city is governed, under a charter of 1898, by a mayor, elected every four years, and a city council, which has power of election in departments of police, improvements, finance, and judiciary. Baton Rouge was one of the earliest French settlements in Louisiana. At the beginning of the Revolution it was strongly garrisoned by the English, but in September, 1779, was taken by a large Spanish force under Governor Galvez. Baton Rouge became the capital of the State in 1849, and on January 26, 1861, the Louisiana ordinance of secession was adopted here. On August 5, 1862, a Union force, under Gen. Thomas Williams, was fiercely attacked here by a strong Confederate force under Gen. John C. Breckenridge, the latter being repulsed after two hours of severe fighting, though General Williams lost his life. Population, in 1890, 10,478; in 1900, 11,269.
BATRACHIA, bȧ-trā′ki-ȧ (Gk. βάτραχος, batrachos, frog). A word synonymous with Amphibia (q.v.).
BATRACHOMYOMA′CHIA (Gk. βατραχομυομαχία, ‘The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice,’ from βάτραχος, batrachos, frog + μῦς, mys, mouse + μάχη, machē, battle). A Greek mock-heroic poem, erroneously bearing the name of Homer. The ancients said that its actual author was Pigres of Caria, brother of Queen Artemisia, who joined Xerxes in his invasion of Greece. The poem is a parody on the Iliad, in which the military preparations and contests of beasts, single combats, intervention of the gods, and other Homeric circumstances are described with much humor. Chief critical edition by Ludwich (Leipzig, 1896).
BATSHIAN, bȧt-shyän′. See Batjan.
BAT′TA (from Canarese bhatta, rice in the husk). An allowance in addition to the ordinary pay of officers of the British Army in India. See Pay and Allowances, Military.
BATTAKS, bät′tȧks, or BATTAS, bät′tȧz. The natives of the northern interior of Sumatra. Physically they are somewhat darker, taller, and stronger than the coast Malays, and are mesocephalic in head-form. One of the most individual of East Indian peoples, they present marked contrasts of culture and seeming savagery. A well-developed village life, agriculture (even including a plow), cattle-breeding of a notable sort, metal-working (even gold-weaving), and the arts of reading and writing, with an alphabet modified from the characters of the Asoka inscriptions, flourish on the one hand; while on the other there exist debt-slavery, permissive polygamy, exocannibalism, and man-eating as a punitory institution, together with primitive ancestor and spirit worship, influenced, as the mythological names, etc., indicate, by Hindu sources. The Battaks proved remarkably unresponsive to the world of Islam, with which they have for centuries been in more or less close contact. The house-architecture of the Battaks, solider than the general Malay type, is a modification of the pile-dwelling of a shore people, to suit the highlands, while in parts of the area the primitive tree-house still survives. Their palisaded kampongs (villages) and other war devices are of interest. A collection of 60 views of houses, landscapes, natives, etc., from the Battak country was published in 1880 by the Penang Photographic Studio. Since the account of the Battaks by Junghuhn in 1847, there have been several studies of this interesting Malay people, the chief of which are: Schreiber, Die Battaländer in ihrem Verhältniss zu den Malaien auf Sumatra (Barmen, 1847); and Brenner, Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras (Wüizburg, 1893).
BATTAL′ION (Fr. bataillon; for derivation, see Battle), Infantry. A separate body of men with a distinct organization, and generally the unit of command in the organization or manœuvring of an army. Originally the battalion was supposed to comprise the largest number of men, who, when drawn up in battle order, could hear the word of command or trumpet-call. The modern battle formation, and consequent army organization, is a direct result of the improved firearms with which modern infantry is equipped, the principle now underlying the strength of the battalion as a unit of command being generally the largest number of men capable of effective control as a unit in action. Modern expert military opinion, based on the experience of recent wars, would seem to indicate the necessity of still further reducing the strength of the unit of command in ‘attack’ formation, a single company, when extended for ‘attack,’ covering over half a mile of ground. This, together with the fact that the present complement of officers is not enough to insure complete control, is a difficulty which increases with the battalion, and correspondingly with the strength of the
