Boulearch

[Lothia]

Ave, civitas,

I am writing a novel series set during the later Roman Empire.  Somewhere in my research I found the words, boule, boulearch, and bouleterion, all referring to governorship of Greek cities.

Now, for the first time I had some reader question the word boulearch.

I have looked, and looked, and I'll be damned if I can find where I plucked those words from.

Google helps with boule and bouleterion, but not boulearch (the senior council member), or have I got this all screwed up?

Thank you in advance.
Tom

[Robert Vermaat]

Where did you find those words? Maybe a source is the problem?

[Lothia]

Hmmm,

Better recheck my sources.

Thank you.

[Nathan Ross]

Yes, I don't think 'bouletarch' is a genuine term. The boule was the council, the bouletai were the councillors and the bouleterion was the council building.

The head of the boule in the Greek period was the epistates. In the later period the chief magistrate of the city was named the strategos. Dura Europos had a strategos kai epistates heading both the city and the boule in the 2nd century.

In the later Roman period the latin titles of defensor and curator seem to have been superimposed onto the Greek-style boule structure in at least some of the eastern cities. Whether they replaced or doubled the older strategos kai epistates is unclear, I think.

[Lothia]

Nathan,

Thanks for our reply. Okay, I give up.

[Sean Manning]

Were you thinking of φύλαρχος phylarchos "leader of a tribe"? Its a Classical word but scholarly Greeks liked reviving old words.

[Lothia]

Were you thinking of φύλαρχος phylarchos "leader of a tribe"?  Its a Classical word but scholarly Greeks liked reviving old words.

Sir,

In my earlier drafts of my novel I showed a Roman Catholic priest (who did his "final exam" in ancient Greek).  the words I was unsure about.  He was the one who corrected my pronunciation of Boulearch, so I know the word existed.  I just cannot find the book I found it in.  Perhaps it was an inter-library loan.

Thanks again for your reply.

[Sean Manning]

Were you thinking of φύλαρχος phylarchos "leader of a tribe"?  Its a Classical word but scholarly Greeks liked reviving old words.

Sir,

In my earlier drafts of my novel I showed a Roman Catholic priest (who did his "final exam" in ancient Greek).  the words I was unsure about.  He was the one who corrected my pronunciation of Boulearch, so I know the word existed.  I just cannot find the book I found it in.  Perhaps it was an inter-library loan.

Thanks again for your reply.

βούλαρχος appears in the dictionary LSJ and in some DuckDuckGo results for modern Greek. Apparently it means something like "president of the senate" or "chief councilor" in Modern Greek.

[Nathan Ross]

βούλαρχος appears in the dictionary LSJ and in some DuckDuckGo results for modern Greek.

Aha! Yes, the change in spelling yields results... Boularch, or boularchos, is the correct word. Mostly known in Asia Minor, it seems, but here's at least one Roman-era citation:

Honorary inscription, dated by boularch Lucius Cornelius Philoserapis

[Lothia]

Nathan,

Oh, great. I am so glad you found that. I can stop cutting myself now.