Scanned text contains errors.
BUCCINA.
vords of the original, and a comparison of the Epitome and the MS. of Gaius is therefore of little advantage in this point of view. The Epitome is, however, still useful in showing what subjects were discussed in Gaius, and thus filling up (so far as the material contents are concerned) some of the lacunae of the Verona MS.
A complete edition of this code was published by Sichard, in his Codex Theodosianus, Basileae, 1528, small folio. (Schulting, Jurisprudentia Veins Ante-Justinianea,, Lugd. Bat. 1717; Jus Civile Antejustinianeum, Berlin, 1815 ; Julii Paulli Re-cept. Sentent. Lib. v. ed. Arndts, Bonn, 1833 ; Savigny, GescMclite des Rom. Rechts im Mittelalter. ii. c. 8 ; Bbcking, Institutionen, i. 90, &e. ; Gaius, Praefatio Primae Editioni Praemissa.) [G. L.]
BRUTTIANI, slaves whose duty it was to wait upon the Roman magistrates. They are said to have been originally taken from among the Bruttians, because this people continued from first to last faithful to Hannibal (Festus, s. v. Bruttiani; Gell. x. 3) ; but Niebuhr (Hist, of Rome, vol. iii. note 944) is disposed to think that these servants bore this name long before, since both Strabo (vi. p. 255) and Diodorus (xvi. 15) state that this word signified revolted slaves.
BUCCINA (/3u/cc£z/7?), a kind of horn-trumpet, anciently made out of a shell. It is thus happily described by Ovid (Met. i. 335) i—
" Cava buccina sumitur illi Tortilis, in latum quae turbine crescit ab imo: Buccina, quae in medio concepit ut ae’ra ponto, Littora voce replet sub utroque jacentia Phoebo."
The musical instrument buccina nearly resembled in shape the shell buccinum, and, like it, might almost be described from the above lines (in the language of conchologists), as spiral and gibbous. The two drawings in the annexed woodcut agree with this account. In the first, taken from a frieze (Burney’s History of Music, vol. i. pi. 6), the buccina is curved for the convenience of the performer, with a very wide mouth, to diffuse and increase the sound. In the next, a copy of an ancient sculpture taken from Blanchini’s work (De Musicis Instrum. Veterwn, p. 15. pi. 2, 18), it still retains the original form of the shell.
The inscriptions quoted by Bartholini (De Tibiis, p. 226) seem to prove that the buccina was distinct from the cornu; but it is often (as in A en. vii. 519) confounded with it. The buccina seems to have been chiefly distinguished by the twisted form of the shell, from which it was originally
BULLA.
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 (Senec. Thyest. 798) and of the night, hence called buccina prima, se-cunda, &c. (Polyb. xiv. 3; Liv. xxvi. 15; Sil. Ital. vii. 154 ; Propert. iv. 4. 63 ; Cic. Pro Mur. 9.) It was also blown at funerals, and at festive entertainments both before sitting down to table and after. (Tacit. Ann. xv. 30.) Macrobius (i. 8) tells us that tritons holding buccinae were fixed ori the roof of the temple of Saturn.
The musician who played the buccina was called buccinator. [B. J.]
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 (aurea buttis cingula, Virg. Aen. ix.. 359 ; bidlis asper balteus, Sid. Apoll. Carm. 2). Another use of them was in doors, the parts of which were fastened together by brass-headed, or even by gold-headed nails. (Plant. A sin. ii. 4, 20; Cic. Verr. iv. 56.) The magnificent bronze doors of the Pantheon at Rome are enriched with highly ornamented bosses, some of which are here shown.
TJ
We most frequently read, however, of bullae as ornaments worn by children suspended from the neck, and especially by the sons of the noble and wealthy. Such a one is called heres buttatus by Juvenal (Sat. xiv. 4). His bulla was made of thin plates of gold. Its usual form is shown in the annexed woodcut, which represents a fine bulla preserved in the British Museum, and is of the size of the original.
The use of the bulla, like that of the praetexta, was derived from the Etruscans, whence it is called by Juvenal (v. 164) aurum Etruscum. It was originally worn only by the children of the patricians, but subsequently by all of free birth (Cic.
p 4