A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

BŎNŌRUM POSSESSĬO was the right of suing for or retaining a patrimony or thing which belonged to another at the time of his death. The bonorum possessio was given by the edict both contra tabulas, secundum tabulas, and intestati. 1. An emancipated son had no legal claim on the inheritance of his father; but if he was omitted in his father’s will, or not expressly exheredated, the praetor’s edict gave him the bonorum possessio contra tabulas, on condition that he would bring into hotchpot (bonorum collatio) with his brethren who continued in the parent’s power, whatever property he had at the time of the parent’s death. 2. The bonorum possessio secundum tabulas was that possession which the praetor gave, conformably to the words of the will, to those named in it as heredes, when there was no person intitled to make a claim against the will, or none who chose to make such a claim. 3. In the case of intestacy (intestati) there were seven degrees of persons who might claim the bonorum possessio, each in his order, upon there being no claim of a prior degree. The first three degrees were children, legitimi heredes, and proximi cognati. Emancipated children could claim as well as those who were not emancipated, and adoptive as well as children of the blood; but not children who had been adopted into another family. If a freedman died intestate, leaving only a wife (in manu) or an adoptive son, the patron was entitled to the bonorum possessio of one half of his property.

BŎŌNAE (βοῶναι), persons in Athens who purchased oxen for the public sacrifices and feasts. They are spoken of by Demosthenes in conjunction with the ἱεροποιοί and those who presided over the mysteries.

BORĔASMUS (βορεασμός or βορεασμοί), a festival celebrated by the Athenians in honour of Boreas, which, as Herodotus seems to think, was instituted during the Persian war, when the Athenians, being commanded by an oracle to invoke their γαμβρὸς ἐπίκουρος, prayed to Boreas. But considering that Boreas was intimately connected with the early history of Attica, we have reason to suppose that even previous to the Persian wars certain honours were paid to him, which were perhaps only revived and increased after the event recorded by Herodotus. The festival, however, does not seem ever to have had any great celebrity.

BOULĒ (βουλή—ἡ τῶν πεντακοσίων). In the heroic ages, represented to us by Homer, the boulé is simply an aristocratical council of the elders amongst the nobles, sitting under their king as president, which decided on public business and judicial matters, frequently in connection with, but apparently not subject to an agora, or meeting of the freemen of the state. [[Agora].] This form of government, though it existed for some time in the Ionian, Aeolian, and Achaean states, was at last wholly abolished in these states. Among the Dorians, however, especially among the Spartans, this was not the case, for they retained the kingly power of the Heracleidae, in conjunction with the Gerousia or assembly of elders, of which the kings were members. [[Gerousia].] At Athens on the contrary, the boulé was a representative, and in most respects a popular body (δημοτικόν). The first institution of the Athenian boulé is generally attributed to Solon; but there are strong reasons for supposing that, as in the case of the Areiopagus, he merely modified the constitution of a body which he found already existing. But be this as it may, it is admitted that Solon made the number of his boulé 400, 100 from each of the four tribes. When the number of the tribes was raised to ten by Cleisthenes (B.C. 510), the council also was increased to 500, fifty being taken from each of the ten tribes. The bouleutae (βουλευταί) or councillors were appointed by lot, and hence they are called councillors made by the bean (οἱ ἀπὸ τοῦ κυάμου βουλευταί), from the use of beans in drawing lots. They were required to submit to a scrutiny or docimasia, in which they gave evidence of being genuine citizens, of never having lost their civic rights by atimia, and also of being above 30 years of age. They remained in office for a year, receiving a drachma (μισθὸς βουλευτικός) for each day on which they sat: and independent of the general account (εὐθύναι), which the whole body had to give at the end of the year, any single member was liable to expulsion for misconduct by his colleagues. The senate of 500 was divided into ten sections of fifty each, the members of which were called prytanes (πρυτάνεις), and were all of the same tribe; they acted as presidents both of the council and the assemblies during thirty-five or thirty-six days, as the case might be, so as to complete the lunar year of 354 days (12×29½). Each tribe exercised these functions in turn; the period of office was called a prytany (πρυτανεία), and the tribe that presided the presiding tribe; the order in which the tribes presided was determined by lot, and the four supernumerary days were given to the tribes which came last in order. Moreover, to obviate the difficulty of having too many in office at once, every fifty was subdivided into five bodies of ten each; its prytany also being portioned out into five periods of seven days each; so that only ten senators presided for a week over the rest, and were thence called proedri (πρόεδροι). Again, out of these proedri an epistates (ἐπιστάτης) was chosen for one day to preside as a chairman in the senate, and the assembly of the people; during his day of office he kept the public records and seal. The prytanes had the right of convening the council and the assembly (ἐκκλησία). The duty of the proedri and their president was to propose subjects for discussion, and to take the votes both of the councillors and the people; for neglect of their duty they were liable to a fine. Moreover, whenever a meeting, either of the council or of the assembly, was convened, the chairman of the proedri selected by lot nine others, one from each of the non-presiding tribes; these also were called proedri, and possessed a chairman of their own, likewise appointed by lot from among themselves. But the proedri who proposed the subject for discussion to the assembly belonged to the presiding tribe. It is observed, under [Areiopagus], that the chief object of Solon, in forming the senate and the areiopagus, was to control the democratical powers of the state: for this purpose he ordained that the senate should discuss and vote upon all matters before they were submitted to the assembly, so that nothing could be laid before the people on which the senate had not come to a previous decision. This decision, or bill, was called probouleuma (προβούλευμα); but then not only might this probouleuma be rejected or modified by the assembly, but the latter also possessed and exercised the power of coming to a decision completely different from the will of the senate. In addition to the bills which it was the duty of the senate to propose of their own accord, there were others of a different character, viz. such as any private individual might wish to have submitted to the people. To accomplish this, it was first necessary for the party to obtain, by petition, the privilege of access to the senate, and leave to propose his motion; and if the measure met with their approbation, he could then submit it to the assembly. A proposal of this kind, which had the sanction of the senate, was also called probouleuma, and frequently related to the conferring of some particular honour or privilege upon an individual. Thus the proposal of Ctesiphon for crowning Demosthenes is so styled. In the assembly the bill of the senate was first read, perhaps by the crier, after the introductory ceremonies were over; and then the proedri put the question to the people, whether they approved of it. The people declared their will by a show of hands (προχειροτονία). If it was confirmed it became a psephisma (ψήφισμα), or decree of the people, binding upon all classes. The form for drawing up such decrees varied in different ages. In the time of Demosthenes the decrees commence with the name of the archon; then come the day of the month, the tribe in office, and, lastly, the name of the proposer. The motive for passing the decree is next stated; and then follows the decree itself, prefaced with the formula δεδόχθαι τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ. The senate-house was called Bouleuterion (βουλευτηριον). The prytanes also had a building to hold their meetings in, where they were entertained at the public expense during their prytany. This was called the Prytaneion, and was used for a variety of purposes. [[Prytaneion].]

BRĀCAE, or BRACCAE (ἀναξυρίδες), trowsers, pantaloons, were common to all the nations which encircled the Greek and Roman population, extending from the Indian to the Atlantic ocean, but were not worn by the Greeks and Romans themselves. Accordingly the monuments containing representations of people different from the Greeks and Romans exhibit them in trowsers, thus distinguishing them from the latter people.

BRAURŌNĬA (βραυρώνια), a festival celebrated in honour of Artemis Brauronia, in the Attic town of Brauron, where Orestes and Iphigeneia, on their return from Tauris, were supposed by the Athenians to have landed, and left the statue of the Taurian goddess. It was held every fifth year, and the chief solemnity consisted in the Attic girls between the ages of five and ten years going in solemn procession to the sanctuary, where they were consecrated to the goddess. During this act the priests sacrificed a goat, and the girls performed a propitiatory rite, in which they imitated bears. This rite may have simply risen from the circumstance that the bear was sacred to Artemis, especially in Arcadia. There was also a quinquennial festival called Brauronia, which was celebrated by men and dissolute women, at Brauron, in honour of Dionysus.

BRUTTĬĀNI, slaves whose duty it was to wait upon the Roman magistrates. They are said to have been originally taken from among the Bruttians.

BUCCĬNA (βυκάνη), a kind of horn trumpet, anciently made out of a shell (buccinum), the form of which is exhibited in the specimen annexed. The buccina was distinct from the cornu; but it is often confounded with it. The buccina seems to have been chiefly distinguished by the twisted form of the shell, from which it was originally made. In later times it was carved from horn, and perhaps from wood or metal, so as to imitate the shell. The buccina was chiefly used to proclaim the watches of the day and of the night, hence called buccina prima, secunda, &c. It was also blown at funerals, and at festive entertainments both before sitting down to table and after.