BOA´GOS
BOA´GOS (
βοαγός). The
boys (seven to eighteen years) at Sparta after their seventh year were taken
by the state and trained for its service. They were divided into sections,
called
βοῦαι. The leader of such a section
who was an
εἴρην (i. e. between twenty and
thirty years; those between eighteen and twenty were called
μελλείρενες) was called
βουαγὸς or
βουαγόρ (
Plut. Lyc. 17;
Xen. Rep. Lac. 2.1. 1). Hesychius (s. v.
βοαγόρ) calls him a
παῖς; but he uses
παῖς in a
broad sense, comprising all not fully developed men (i. e. under thirty
years). As not being a fully developed man, the
βοαγὸς was not recognised as a magistrate. But in the
inscriptions which date from the times of the Roman empire the
βοαγοὶ are full-grown men. This is to be
explained by the fact that in those times it was merely a complimentary or
honorary title given to distinguished men, and held with the ephoralty and
other magistracies (
C. I. G. 1241, col. 1; 1245,
&c.), which of course would have been impossible in the old days
when the ephors had plenty to do as such. Sometimes a man is
βουαγὸς and holds no other magistracy (
C.
I. G. 1250). Cf. Boeckh,
C. I. G.
[p. 1.300]i. p. 612; G. Gilbert,
Handbuch der
griechischen Staatsalterthümer (1881), 1.67-8.
[
L.C.P]
