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BĀLISTA, BALLISTA. [Tormentum.]

BALNĔUM or BĂLĬNĔUM (λοετρόν or λουτρόν, βαλανεῖον, also balneae or balineae), a bath. Balneum or balineum signifies, in its primary sense, a bath or bathing vessel, such as most Romans possessed in their own houses; and from that it came to mean the chamber which contained the bath. When the baths of private individuals became more sumptuous, and comprised many rooms, the plural balnea or balinea was adopted, which still, in correct language, had reference only to the baths of private persons. Balneae and balineae, which have no singular number, were the public baths. But this accuracy of diction is neglected by many of the later writers. Thermae (from θέρμη, warmth) means properly warm springs, or baths of warm water, but was afterwards applied to the structures in which the baths were placed, and which were both hot and cold. There was, however, a material distinction between the balneae and thermae, inasmuch as the former was the term used under the republic, and referred to the public establishments of that age, which contained no appliances for luxury beyond the mere convenience of hot and cold baths, whereas the latter name was given to those magnificent edifices which grew up under the empire, and which comprised within their range of buildings all the appurtenances belonging to the Greek gymnasia, as well as a regular establishment appropriated for bathing.—Bathing was a practice familiar to the Greeks of both sexes from the earliest times. The artificial warm bath was taken in a vessel called asaminthus (ἀσάμινθος) by Homer, and puelus (πύελος) by the later Greeks. It did not contain water itself, but was only used for the bather to sit in, while the warm water was poured over him. On Greek vases, however, we never find anything corresponding to a modern bath in which persons can stand or sit; but there is always a round or oval basin (λουτήρ or λουτήριον), resting on a stand, by the side of which those who are bathing are standing undressed and washing themselves. In the Homeric times it was customary to take first a cold and afterwards a warm bath; but in later times it was the usual practice of the Greeks to take first a warm or vapour, and afterwards a cold bath. At Athens the frequent use of the public baths, most of which were warm baths (βαλανεῖα, called by Homer θερμὰ λοετρά), was regarded in the time of Socrates and Demosthenes as a mark of luxury and effeminacy. Accordingly, Phocion was said to have never bathed in a public bath, and Socrates to have used it very seldom. After bathing both sexes anointed themselves, in order that the skin might not be left harsh and rough, especially after warm water. Oil (ἔλαιον) is the only ointment mentioned by Homer, but in later times precious unguents (μῦρα) were used for this purpose. The bath was usually taken before the principal meal of the day (δεῖπνον). The Lacedaemonians, who considered warm water as enervating, used two kinds of baths; namely, the cold daily bath in the Eurotas, and a dry sudorific bath in a chamber heated with warm air by means of a stove, and from them the chamber used by the Romans for a similar purpose was termed Laconicum. A sudorific or vapour bath (πυρία or πυριατήριον) is mentioned as early as the time of Herodotus. At what period the use of the warm bath was introduced among the Romans is not recorded; but we know that Scipio had a warm bath in his villa at Liternum, and the practice of heating an apartment with warm air by flues placed immediately under it, so as to produce a vapour bath, is stated to have been invented by Sergius Orata, who lived in the age of Crassus, before the Marsic war. By the time of Cicero the use of baths of warm water and hot air had become common, and in his time there were baths at Rome which were open to the public upon payment of a small fee. In the public baths at Rome the men and women used originally to bathe in separate sets of chambers; but under the empire it became the common custom for both sexes to bathe indiscriminately in the same bath. This practice was forbidden by Hadrian and M. Aurelius; and Alexander Severus prohibited any baths, common to both sexes, from being opened in Rome. The price of a bath was a quadrant, the smallest piece of coined money, from the age of Cicero downwards, which was paid to the keeper of the bath (balneator). Children below a certain age were admitted free. It was usual with the Romans to take the bath after exercise, and before the principal meal (coena) of the day; but the debauchees of the empire bathed also after eating as well as before, in order to promote digestion, and to acquire a new appetite for fresh delicacies.

Roman Bath. (Fresco from the Thermae of Titus.)

Upon quitting the bath the Romans as well as the Greeks were anointed with oil. The Romans did not content themselves with a single bath of hot or cold water; but they went through a course of baths in succession, in which the agency of air as well as water was applied. It is difficult to ascertain the precise order in which the course was usually taken; but it appears to have been a general practice to close the pores, and brace the body after the excessive perspiration of the vapour bath, either by pouring cold water over the head, or by plunging at once into the piscina. To render the subjoined remarks more easily intelligible, the preceding woodcut is inserted, which is taken from a fresco painting upon the walls of the thermae of Titus at Rome. The chief parts of a Roman bath were as follow:—1. Apodyterium. Here the bathers were expected to take off their garments, which were then delivered to a class of slaves, called capsarii, whose duty it was to take charge of them. These men were notorious for dishonesty, and were leagued with all the thieves of the city, so that they connived at the robberies which they were placed to prevent. There was probably an Elaeothesium or Unctorium, as appears from the preceding cut, in connection with the apodyterium, where the bathers might be anointed with oil.—2. Frigidarium or Cella Frigidaria, where the cold bath was taken. The cold bath itself was called Natatio, Natatorium, Piscina, Baptisterium, or Puteus.—3. Tepidarium would seem from the preceding cut to have been a bathing room, for a person is there apparently represented pouring water over a bather. But there is good reason for thinking that this was not the case. In most cases the tepidarium contained no water at all, but was a room merely heated with warm air of an agreeable temperature, in order to prepare the body for the great heat of the vapour and warm baths, and upon returning from the latter, to obviate the danger of a too sudden transition to the open air.—4. The Caldarium or Concamerata Sudatio contained at one extremity the vapour bath (Laconicum), and at the other the warm bath (balneum or calda lavatio), while the centre space between the two ends was termed sudatio or sudatorium. In larger establishments the vapour bath and warm bath were in two separate cells, as we see in the preceding cut: in such cases the former part alone was called concamerata sudatio. The whole rested on a suspended pavement (suspensura), under which was a fire (hypocaustum), so that the flames might heat the whole apartment. (See cut.) The warm water bath (balneum or calda lavatio), which is also called piscina or calida piscina, labrum and solium, appears to have been a capacious marble vase, sometimes standing upon the floor, like that in the preceding cut, and sometimes either partly elevated above the floor, as it was at Pompeii, or entirely sunk into it. After having gone, through the regular course of perspiration, the Romans made use of instruments called strigiles or strigles, to scrape off the perspiration.

Strigil. (From a Relief at Athens.)

The strigil was also used by the Greeks, who called it stlengis (στλεγγίς) or xystra (ξύστρα). The figure in the cut on p. 24 is represented with a strigil in his hand. As the strigil was not a blunt instrument, its edge was softened by the application of oil, which was dropped upon it from a small vessel called guttus or ampulla, which had a narrow neck, so as to discharge its contents drop by drop, from whence the name is taken.

Strigil and Guttus. (From a Statue in the Vatican.)

In the Thermae, spoken of above, the baths were of secondary importance. They were a Roman adaptation of the Greek gymnasium, contained exedrae for the philosophers and rhetoricians to lecture in, porticoes for the idle, and libraries for the learned, and were adorned with marbles, fountains, and shaded walks and plantations. M. Agrippa, in the reign of Augustus, was the first who afforded these luxuries to his countrymen, by bequeathing to them the thermae and gardens which he had erected in the Campus Martius. The example set by Agrippa was followed by Nero, and afterwards by Titus, the ruins of whose thermae are still visible, covering a vast extent, partly under ground and partly above the Esquiline hill. Thermae were also erected by Trajan, Caracalla, and Diocletian, of the two last of which ample remains still exist. Previously to the erection of these establishments for the use of the population, it was customary for those who sought the favour of the people to give them a day’s bathing free of expense. From thence it is fair to infer that the quadrant paid for admission into the balneae was not exacted at the thermae, which, as being the works of the emperors, would naturally be opened with imperial generosity to all, and without any charge.

BALTĔUS (τελαμών), a belt, a shoulder belt, was used to suspend the sword. See the figs. on p. 41. In the Homeric times the Greeks used a belt to support the shield. The balteus was likewise employed to suspend the quiver, and sometimes together with it the bow. More commonly the belt, whether employed to support the sword, the shield, or the quiver, was made of leather, and was frequently ornamented with gold, silver, and precious stones. In a general sense balteus was applied not only to the belt which passed over the shoulder, but also to the girdle (cingulum), which encompassed the waist. In architecture, Vitruvius applies the term Baltei to the bands surrounding the volute on each side of an Ionic capital. Other writers apply it to the praecinctiones of an amphitheatre. [Amphitheatrum.]

BĂRATHRON (βάραθρον), also called Orugma (ὄρυγμα), a deep cavern or chasm, like the Ceadas at Sparta, behind the Acropolis at Athens, into which criminals were thrown. [Ceadas.]

BARBA (πώγων, γένειον, ὑπήνη), the beard. The Greeks seem generally to have worn the beard till the time of Alexander the Great; and a thick beard was considered as a mark of manliness. The Greek philosophers in particular were distinguished by their long beards as a sort of badge. The Romans in early times wore the beard uncut, and the Roman beards are said not to have been shaved till B.C. 300, when P. Ticinius Maena brought over a barber from Sicily; and Pliny adds, that the first Roman who is said to have been shaved every day was Scipio Africanus. His custom, however, was soon followed, and shaving became a regular thing. In the later times of the republic there were many who shaved the beard only partially, and trimmed it, so as to give it an ornamental form; to them the terms bene barbati and barbatuli are applied. In the general way at Rome, a long beard (barba promissa) was considered a mark of slovenliness and squalor. The first time of shaving was regarded as the beginning of manhood, and the day on which this took place was celebrated as a festival. There was no particular time fixed for this to be done. Usually, however, it was done when the young Roman assumed the toga virilis. The hair cut off on such occasions was consecrated to some god. Thus Nero put his up in a gold box, set with pearls, and dedicated it to Jupiter Capitolinus. Under the emperor Hadrian the beard began to revive. Plutarch says that the emperor wore it to hide some scars on his face. The practice afterwards became common, and till the time of Constantine the Great, the emperors appear in busts and coins with beards. The Romans let their beards grow in time of mourning; the Greeks, on the other hand, on such occasions shaved the beard close.

BARBĬTUS (βάρβιτος), or BARBĬTON (βάρβιτον), a stringed instrument, the original form of which is uncertain. Later writers use it as synonymous with the lyra. [Lyra.]

BASCAUDA, a British basket. This term, which remains with very little variation in the Welsh “basgawd” and the English “basket,” was conveyed to Rome together with the articles denoted by it.

BĂSĬLĬCA (sc. aedes, aula, porticus—βασιλική, also regia), a building which served as a court of law and an exchange, or place of meeting for merchants and men of business. The word was adopted from the Athenians, whose second archon was styled archon basileus (ἄρχων βασιλεύς), and the tribunal where he adjudicated stoa basileius (ἡ βασίλειος στοά), the substantive aula or porticus in Latin being omitted for convenience, and the distinctive epithet converted into a substantive. The first edifice of this description at Rome was not erected until B.C. 182. It was situated in the forum adjoining the curia, and was denominated Basilica Porcia, in commemoration of its founder, M. Porcius Cato. Besides this there were twenty others erected at different periods, within the city of Rome. The forum, or, where there was more than one, the one which was in the most frequented and central part of the city, was always selected for the site of a basilica; and hence it is that the classic writers not unfrequently use the terms forum and basilica synonymously. The ground plan of all these buildings is rectangular, and their width not more than half, nor less than one-third of the length. This area was divided into three naves, consisting of a centre (media porticus), and two side aisles, separated from the centre one, each by a single row of columns. At one end of the centre aisle was the tribunal of the judge, in form either rectangular or circular, as is seen in the annexed plan of the basilica at Pompeii. In the centre of the tribunal was placed the curule chair of the praetor, and seats for the judices and the advocates. The two side aisles, as has been said, were separated from the centre one by a row of columns, behind each of which was placed a square pier or pilaster (parastata), which supported the flooring of an upper portico, similar to the gallery of a modern church. The upper gallery was in like manner decorated with columns, of lower dimensions than those below; and these served to support the roof, and were connected with one another by a parapet-wall or balustrade (pluteus), which served as a defence against the danger of falling over, and screened the crowd of loiterers above (sub-basilicani) from the people of business in the area below. Many of these edifices were afterwards used as Christian churches, and many churches were built after the model above described. Such churches were called basilicae, which name they retain to the present day, being still called at Rome basiliche.

Ground Plan of a Basilica.

BASTERNA, a kind of litter (lectica) in which women were carried in the time of the Roman emperors. It appears to have resembled the Lectica [Lectica] very closely; and the only difference apparently was, that the lectica was carried by slaves, and the basterna by two mules.

BAXA, or BAXĔA, a sandal made of vegetable leaves, twigs, or fibres, worn on the stage by comic actors.

BĒMA (βῆμα). [Ecclesia.]

BENDĬDEIA (βενδίδεια), a Thracian festival in honour of the goddess Bendis, who is said to be identical with the Grecian Artemis and with the Roman Diana. The festival was of a bacchanalian character. From Thrace it was brought to Athens, where it was celebrated in the Peiraeeus, on the 19th or 20th of the month Thargelion, before the Panathenaea Minora. The temple of Bendis was called Bendideion.

BĔNĔFĬCĬUM, BĔNĔFĬCĬĀRĬUS. The term beneficium is of frequent occurrence in the Roman law, in the sense of some special privilege or favour granted to a person in respect of age, sex, or condition. But the word was also used in other senses. In the time of Cicero it was usual for a general, or a governor of a province, to report to the treasury the names of those under his command who had done good service to the state: those who were included in such report were said in beneficiis ad aerarium deferri. In beneficiis in these passages may mean that the persons so reported were considered as persons who had deserved well of the state; and so the word beneficium may have reference to the services of the individuals; but as the object for which their services were reported was the benefit of the individuals, it seems that the term had reference also to the reward, immediate or remote, obtained for their services. The honours and offices of the Roman state, in the republican period, were called the beneficia of the Populus Romanus. Beneficium also signified any promotion conferred on or grant made to soldiers, who were thence called beneficiarii.

BESTIĀRĬI (θηριομάχοι), persons who fought with wild beasts in the games of the circus. They were either persons who fought for the sake of pay (auctoramentum), and who were allowed arms, or they were criminals, who were usually permitted to have no means of defence against the wild beasts.

BIBLĬŎPŌLA (βιβλιοπώλης), also called librarius, a bookseller. The shop was called apotheca or taberna libraria, or merely libraria. The Romans had their Paternoster-row; for the bibliopolae or librarii lived mostly in one street, called Argiletum. Another favourite quarter of the booksellers was the Vicus Sandalarius. There seems also to have been a sort of bookstalls by the temples of Vertumnus and Janus.

BIBLĬŎTHĒCA (βιβλιοθήκη, or ἀποθήκη βιβλίων), primarily, the place where a collection of books was kept; secondarily, the collection itself. Public collections of books appear to have been very ancient. That of Peisistratus (B.C. 550) was intended for public use; it was subsequently removed to Persia by Xerxes. About the same time Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, is said to have founded a library. In the best days of Athens, even private persons had large collections of books; but the most important and splendid public library of antiquity was that founded by the Ptolemies at Alexandria, begun under Ptolemy Soter, but increased and re-arranged in an orderly and systematic manner by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who also appointed a fixed librarian, and otherwise provided for the usefulness of the institution. A great part of this splendid library was consumed by fire in the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar; but it was soon restored, and continued in a flourishing condition till it was destroyed by the Arabs, A.D. 640. The Ptolemies were not long without a rival in zeal. Eumenes, king of Pergamus, became a patron of literature and the sciences, and established a library, which, in spite of the prohibition against exporting papyrus issued by Ptolemy, who was jealous of his success, became very extensive, and perhaps next in importance to the library of Alexandria. The first public library in Rome was that founded by Asinius Pollio, and was in the atrium Libertatis on Mount Aventine. The library of Pollio was followed by that of Augustus in the temple of Apollo on Mount Palatine and by another, bibliothecae Octavianae, in the theatre of Marcellus. There were also libraries on the Capitol, in the temple of Peace, in the palace of Tiberius, besides the Ulpian library, which was the most famous, founded by Trajan. Libraries were also usually attached to the Thermae. [Balneum.] Private collections of books were made at Rome soon after the second Punic war. The zeal of Cicero, Atticus, and others, in increasing their libraries is well known. It became, in fact, the fashion to have a room elegantly furnished as a library, and reserved for that purpose. The charge of the libraries in Rome was given to persons called librarii.

BĪCOS (βῖκος), the name of an earthen vessel in common use among the Greeks, for holding wine, and salted meat and fish.

BĬDENTAL, the name given to a place where any one had been struck by lightning, or where any one had been killed by lightning and buried. Such a place was considered sacred. Priests, who were called bidentales, collected the earth which had been torn up by lightning, and every thing that had been scorched, and burnt it in the ground with a sorrowful murmur. The officiating priest was said condere fulgur; he further consecrated the spot by sacrificing a two-year-old sheep (bidens), whence the name of the place and of the priest, and he also erected an altar, and surrounded it with a wall or fence. To move the bounds of a bidental, or in any way to violate its sacred precincts, was considered as sacrilege.

BIDIAEI (βιδιαῖοι), magistrates in Sparta, whose business was to inspect the gymnastic exercises. They were either five or six in number.

BĪGA or BĪGAE. [Currus.]

BĪGĀTUS. [Denarius.]

BĬPENNIS. [Securis.]

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.”

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.