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.