Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

BOKEASMUS.

61

IiOULE.

BOREASMTJS (fSopeavfxos or 0opeao-p.oi'), 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 ya/xflpbs eyrc'/coupo;, 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 re-
corded by Herodotus. The festival, however,
does not seem ever to have had any great
celebrity._

BOULE (povkri—7) tCov 7Tei/TaK0trtwv). In
the heroic ages, represented to us by Homer,
the boule 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, fre-
quently in connection with, but apparently
not subject to an agora, or meeting of the
freemen of the state. [Agoka.] 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, espe-
cially 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 bottle was a representa-
tive, and in most respects a popular body
{Shiixotlkov). The first institution of the
Athenian boule is generally attributed to
Solon ; but there are strong reasons for sup-
posing that, as in the case of the Areiopayus,
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 bis boule 400, 100 from
each of the four tribes. "SVhen 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 (/3ouAeuTaf) or council-
lors were appointed by lot, and hence they
are called councillors made by the bean (oi
a7ro tov Kvdp.ov /3ouAeuTGu), 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 ati-
mia, and also of being above 30 years of age.
They remained in office for a 5"ear, receiving
a drachma (p.«r6b; j3ouAeuriKos) for each day
on which they sat: and independent of the
general account (ei0vV<zt)> 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 pry-
tanes (n-puTai'ct?), 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
(12X29j). Each tribe exercised these func-
tions in turn ; the period of office was called
a prytany (n-purai-eta), and the tribe that pre-
sided 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. More-
over, to obviate the difficulty of having too
many in office at once, every fifty was sub-
divided into five bodies of ten each ; its pry-
tany 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 (VpoeSpoi). Again, out
of these proedri an epistates (cn-io-TaTTjs) 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 prytancs had the right
of convening the council and the assembly
(e/c/cArjcrio). 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. More-
over, 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 Areio-
pagcs, that the chief object of Solon, in form-
ing 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 (n-po/3ovAeup.a) ; but
then not only might this probouleuma be re-
jected 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