In cities of ancient Greece, the boule (; : boulai, ) was a council (, bouleutai) appointed to run daily affairs of the city. Originally a council of nobles advising a king, boulai evolved according to the constitution of the city: In oligarchies boule positions might have been hereditary, while in democracies members were typically chosen by lot and served for one year. Little is known about the workings of many boulai, except in the case of Athens, for which extensive material has survived.

Athenian boule

The original council of Athens was the Areopagus. It consisted of ex-archons and was aristocratic in character.

Solonian boule

The Athenian boule under Solon heard appeals from the most important decisions of the courts. Those in the poorest class could not serve on the boule of 400. The higher governmental posts, archons (magistrates), were reserved for citizens of the top two income groups.

Cleisthenes' boule (after 508 BC)

Following the Athenian Revolution in 508 BC Cleisthenes formed a new government of Athens through a series of reforms. In strengthening the common Athenian identity Cleisthenes devised an artificial political division of Athens into ten tribes. The tribes would each include local demes from three different types of areas; the city trittys, the coastal trittys and inland trittys. The institution of the boule was reformed accordingly and would now be a council of 500 male citizens. Each of the ten tribes supplied 50 men to the council with each of the 50 adhering from its constituting demes and distributed according to the size of their population. Under Cleisthenes, the boule attained renewed political power as responsible for the agenda-setting of the legislative body of the Assembly (ekklesia) as well as the formal execution of the political decisions taken in the Assembly. The boule met every day except for festival days and ill-omened days. According to Aristotle, Cleisthenes introduced the bouleutic oath.

Selection process

Members of the Council under Cleisthenes were selected by lot. Not all citizens, however, were in the selection pool when selecting members by lot from each deme. Only male citizens age 30 or above and with no criminal charges, who had put themselves forward would be available for selection.

Ephialtes' boule (after 461 BC)

After the reforms of Ephialtes and Pericles in the mid-5th century BC, the boule took on many of the administrative and judicial functions of the Areopagus, which retained its traditional right to try homicide cases. It supervised the state's finances, navy, cavalry, sacred matters, building and shipping matters and care for invalids and orphans. Its own members staffed many boards that oversaw the finer points of these many administrative duties. It undertook the examination of public officials both before and after leaving office (most offices lasting one year) to ensure honest accounting and loyalty to the state. It heard some cases of impeachment of public officials for high crimes and mismanagement or serious dereliction of duties.

Boulai in other Greek states

Kingdom of Macedonia

In the Macedonian Kingdom, and later the Macedonian Empire, the body that assisted the king with running the kingdom was called the synedrion, literally translated as "The Congress". This tradition continued to be in use in the years of Alexander the Great and its members were hereditary. Although not democratic, the members of the Synedrion, including the king, were considered equal to one another and had the right of the freedom of speech.

Corinth

The League of Corinth was a federation of Greek states created by king Philip II of Macedon during the winter of 338/337 BC to facilitate his use of unified Greek military forces in his war against Achaemenid Persia. The league guaranteed, among other things, that member states' constitutions in force at the time of joining were guaranteed and that a Synedrion, or congress of representatives, was to meet at Corinth.

Epirus

The Epirus, which became a federal republic in 231 BC, was ruled by the "Synedrion", or "The Congress". The Synedrion was dissolved when the Epirote federation fell apart due to internal upheaval during the Third Macedonian War.

Modern Greece

The name "boule", pronounced as Vouli in Modern Greek, is preserved in the Parliament of modern Greece; either as the name of the lower house of a bicameral parliament in 1844–1864 and 1927–1935, or the name of the unicameral Parliament in 1864–1927, 1935–1941, 1944–1967, and 1974–today.

References

Sources

  • Aristotle. Constitution of Athens 4.3, 46.1, 62.3.
  • Hignett, Charles. A History of the Athenian Constitution. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958.
  • Jones, A.H.M. Athenian Democracy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1957.
  • Rhodes, P.J. The Athenian Boule. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1972.
  • Struble, Robert, Jr. Treatise on Twelve Lights, Chapter Six, "Ancient Greece".