Baptistery: The room or building where the rites of baptism were performed. In every baptistery there was a font, which usually had the shape of a cross. After the 6th century the baptistery was a seperate building -octagonal, circular, cruciform etc.-, at the precinct of a church or attached to it.
Barrel vault: A half cylindrical vault.
Basil of Caesarea: Bishop of Caesarea, writer, monk and saint. Born in Caesarea (Cappadocia) ca. 330, died in 379. A man of both Christian and classical culture (he was educated in Constantinople and Athens), Basil gave the orthodox Church its liturgy and monastic rules.
Basilica: Architectonic type of church. It is a rectangular -in its ground plan- chamber divided by colonnades in three or more aisles. The architectural type of basilica was used by the Christians from the 4th century as a place of worship. The eastern part tapers into a semicylindrical niche, the apse, which is intended for the clergy, while at the west lies the narthex for the catechumens.
Basket capital: A capital of roughly hemispherical shape, decorated with a wicker design imitating a basket.
Belisarios: General. Born in Thrace c. 505, died in Constantinople 565. He fought against the Persians at Dara (Mesopotamia, 530), suppressed the Nika revolt (532), defeated the Vandals in North Africa (533-534), occupied Sicily and entered Rome (536); Belisarios was sent back to Italy in 544 and recalled in 548; in 559-560, he led an emergency defence against the Cotrigur Huns who threatened Constantinople and Thrace.
Bema: The chancel part of a church; in Syrian churches, a U-shaped free-standing bema (known as the Syrian bema) usually occupies the centre of the nave, its apse facing towards the west.