BĬRĒMIS. (1.) A ship with two banks of oars. [[Navis].] Such ships were called dicrota by the Greeks, which term is also used by Cicero.—(2.) A boat rowed by two oars.
BISSEXTUS ANNUS. [[Calendarium], Roman.]
BŎĒDRŎMĬA (βοηδρόμια), a festival celebrated at Athens on the seventh day of the month Boëdromion, in honour of Apollo Boëdromius. The name Boëdromius, by which Apollo was called in Boeotia and many other parts of Greece, seems to indicate that by this festival he was honoured as a martial god, who, either by his actual presence or by his oracles, afforded assistance in the dangers of war.
BOEŌTARCHĒS (βοιωτάρχης, or βοιωτάρχος), the name of the chief magistrates of the Boeotian confederacy, chosen by the different states. Their duties were chiefly of a military character. Each state of the confederacy elected one boeotarch, the Thebans two. The total number from the whole confederacy varied with the number of the independent states, but at the time of the Peloponnesian war they appear to have been ten or twelve. The boeotarchs, when engaged in military service, formed a council of war, the decisions of which were determined by a majority of votes, the president being one of the two Theban boeotarchs, who commanded alternately. Their period of service was a year, beginning about the winter solstice; and whoever continued in office longer than his time was punishable with death, both at Thebes and in other cities.
BŎNA, property. The phrase in bonis is frequently used as opposed to dominium or Quiritarian ownership (ex jure Quiritium). The ownership of certain kinds of things among the Romans could only be transferred from one person to another with certain formalities, or acquired by usucapion (that is, the uninterrupted possession of a thing for a certain time). But if it was clearly the intention of the owner to transfer the ownership, and the necessary forms only were wanting, the purchaser had the thing in bonis, and he had the enjoyment of it, though the original owner was still legally the owner, and was said to have the thing ex jure Quiritium, notwithstanding he had parted with the thing. The person who possessed a thing in bonis was protected in the enjoyment of it by the praetor, and consequently after a time would obtain the Quiritarian ownership of it by usucapion. [[Usucapio].]
BŎNA CĂDŪCA. Caducum literally signifies that which falls: thus glans caduca is the mast which falls from a tree. The strict legal sense of caducum and bona caduca is as follows:—If a thing is left by testament to a person, so that he can take it by the jus civile, but from some cause has not taken it, that thing is called caducum, as if it had fallen from him. Or if a heres ex parte, or a legatee, died before the opening of the will, the thing was caducum. That which was caducum came, in the first place, to those among the heredes who had children; and if the heredes had no children, it came among those of the legatees who had children. In case there was no prior claimant the caducum belonged to the aerarium; and subsequently to the fiscus. [[Aerarium].]
BŎNA FĬDES implies, generally speaking, the absence of all fraud and unfair dealing or acting. In various actions arising out of mutual dealings, such as buying and selling, lending and hiring, partnership and others, bona fides is equivalent to aequum and justum; and such actions were sometimes called bonae fidei actiones. The formula of the praetor, which was the authority of the judex, empowered him in such cases to inquire and determine ex bona fide, that is, according to the real merits of the case: sometimes aequius melius was used instead of ex bona fide.
BŎNŌRUM CESSĬO. There were two kinds of bonorum cessio, in jure and extra jus. The in jure cessio was a mode of transferring ownership by means of a fictitious suit. The bonorum cessio extra jus was introduced by a Julian law, passed either in the time of Julius Caesar or Augustus, which allowed an insolvent debtor to give up his property to his creditors. The debtor thus avoided the infamia consequent on the bonorum emtio, which was involuntary, and he was free from all personal execution. He was also allowed to retain a small portion of his property for his support. The property thus given up was sold, and the proceeds distributed among the creditors.
BŎNŌRUM COLLĀTĬO. By the strict rules of the civil law an emancipated son had no right to the inheritance of his father, whether he died testate or intestate. But, in course of time, the praetor granted to emancipated children the privilege of equal succession with those who remained in the power of the father at the time of his death; but only on condition that they should bring into one common stock with their father’s property, and for the purpose of an equal division among all the father’s children, whatever property they had at the time of the father’s death, and which would have been acquired for the father in case they had still remained in his power. This was called bonorum collatio.
BŎNŌRUM EMTĬO ET EMTOR. The expression bonorum emtio applies to a sale of the property either of a living or of a dead person. It was in effect, as to a living debtor, an execution. In the case of a dead person, his property was sold when it was ascertained that there was neither heres nor bonorum possessor, nor any other person entitled to succeed to it. In the case of the property of a living person being sold, the praetor, on the application of the creditors, ordered it to be possessed (possideri) by the creditors for thirty successive days, and notice to be given of the sale. This explains the expression in Livy (ii. 24): “ne quis militis, donec in castris esset, bona possideret aut venderet.”