Buccina, Trumpet. (Blanchini, De Mus. Instrum. Vet.)
BULLA, a circular plate or boss of metal, so called from its resemblance in form to a bubble floating upon water. Bright studs of this description were used to adorn the sword belt; but we most frequently read of bullae as ornaments worn by children, suspended from the neck, and especially by the sons of the noble and wealthy. Such an one is called heres bullatus by Juvenal. The bulla was usually made of thin plates of gold. The use of the bulla, like that of the praetexta, was derived from the Etruscans. It was originally worn only by the children of the patricians, but subsequently by all of free birth.
Bulla. (From the Collection of Mr. Rogers; the gold chord added from a specimen in the Brit. Mus.)
BŪRIS. [[Aratrum].]
BUSTUM. It was customary among the Romans to burn the bodies of the dead before burying them. When the spot appointed for that purpose adjoined the place of sepulture, it was termed bustum; when it was separate from it, it was called ustrina. From this word the gladiators, who were hired to fight round the burning pyre of the deceased, were called bustuarii.
BUXUM or BUXUS, probably means the wood of the box-tree, but was given as a name to many things made of this wood. The tablets used for writing on, and covered with wax (tabulae ceratae), were usually made of box. In the same way the Greek πυξίον, formed from πύξος, “box-wood,” came to be applied to any tablets, whether they were made of this wood or any other substance. Tops and combs were made of box-wood, and also all wind instruments, especially the flute.
BYSSUS (βύσσος), linen, and not cotton. The word byssus appears to come from the Hebrew butz, and the Greeks probably got it through the Phoenicians.
C
CĂBEIRĬA (καβείρια), mysteries, festivals, and orgies, solemnised in all places in which the Pelasgian Cabeiri were worshipped, but especially in Samothrace, Imbros, Lemnos, Thebes, Anthedon, Pergamus, and Berytos. Little is known respecting the rites observed in these mysteries, as no one was allowed to divulge them. The most celebrated were those of the island of Samothrace, which, if we may judge from those of Lemnos, were solemnised every year, and lasted for nine days. Persons on their admission seem to have undergone a sort of examination respecting the life they had led hitherto, and were then purified of all their crimes, even if they had committed murder.