Bidis
Βῖδς
Bidis (Βῖδς, Steph. B. sub voce: Eth. Bidinus), a small town of Sicily, mentioned by Cicero (Cic. Ver. 2.22), who relates at length the persecutions to which its principal citizen Epicrates was subjected by Verres. He calls it oppidum tenue sane, non longe a Syracusis.
But it appears from his account that, however small, it enjoyed full municipal rights: and we find the Bidini again mentioned in Pliny's list of the stipendiary towns of the interior of Sicily (Plin. Nat. 3.8. s. 14). Stephanus calls it only a φρούριον, or castellum.
Its site is considered by Fazello and Cluverius to be marked by an ancient church, called S. Giovanni di Bidino, about 15 miles W. of Syracuse, where, according to the latter, the remains of an ancient town were still visible in his day. The name is written on modern maps Bibino. (Fazell. 10.2. p. 453; Cluver. Sicil. p. 359; see however Amico, Not. ad Fazell. p. 456.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.