BALEARES INSULIE, the ancient name the islands of Majorca and Minorca, off the coast of Spain, opposite the mouth of the Ebro. Of the name of these islands various etymologies have been given ; all of them referring, however, to the dexterity in slinging, for which the inhabitants were particularly celebrated. According to Bochart, the Baleares were peopled by a colony of Phoenicians ; and their is compounded of the two words rin+ bal-zareh, signifying skilfuLn throwing. M. Gebelin suggests, that, as Baal, the oriental name of the sun, came to be generally applied to all elevated objects, Baleares was the proper appellation of those who were famous for throwing stones from slings to a great height. The more received and proper etymology, however, refers the name of these islands to the Greek word pro.i.so, to throw. If we may believe the accounts given by ancient historians of the manner in which the Baleares were educated, they could not fail to be come the most expert slingers in the world. While yet infants, their breakfast was every morning sus pended by their mothers on a tree, nor were they al lowed to taste it, till they had struck it down with a stone from a sling. Their dexterity was seconded by great bodily strength, insomuch that the best tem pered arms were often shivered by the stones which they discharged. They carried to battle three slings of different lengths, which they used according to their different distances from the enemy.
The Baleares lived for ages in a state of savage sim plicity. The skins of sheep, or other animals, served to shelter them from the cold ; and caves in the rocks, or holes burrowed out in the ground, were all their abodes. Their fertile soil supplied them with the
necessaries of life ; nor had they even an idea of its luxuries, till they were corrupted by their connection with the armies of Carthage. Their manners became then so dissolute, and their propensity so lascivious, that, to allure them into foreign armies, no other temp tation was necessary than women and wine. Peaceful in their disposition, they lived unmolested by other nations, till some of them having leagued with the pi rates who infested the seas, drew upon their country the vengeance of the Romans. About the 630th year of the city, Metellus, the consul, was sent to in vade them. He overran their territories without dif ficulty, and, to secure his conquest, planted two co lonies, named Palma and Pollentia, at the east and west extremities of the large island. For his success in this expedition, he was honoured with a triumph, and distinguished by the surname of Balearicus. The two islands, of which the larger (now Majorca) was called Balearis Major, and the mailer (Minorca) Balearis Minor, were about thirty miles distant from each other. They formed a part of the Prorincia Tarragonensis ; and, on account of their excellent Harbours, and their commodious situation for naviga tors in that part of the Mediterranean, obtained the appellation of Fortunate. See Campbell's History of the Balearic Islands. Grasset St Sauveur, Voyages aux Iles Baleares. (F)