BŌĒ (Gk. Boēs), the name of two of Kavād’s (r. 488-96 and 498-531) generals. The patronymic Bōyān is found on a Sasanian bulla from Qaṣr-e Abū Naṣr: bwlcwy Y mgw Y bwyʾn “Burzōy, the magian, son of Bōy” (see Gignoux).
1. A general charged by Kavād with negotiating an armistice with the Roman Celer (505) but who died before the conclusion of peace (Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite, pars. 59, 80, 81, 95, 97, 98; tr. pp. 50, 64-65, 72-77, 74-75). Joshua the Stylite attributes to him the title astabid, which he interprets as “magister (i.e. militum) of the Persians,” however, the Byzantine chroniclers call him Aspabedes (Procopius, 1.9.24), Aspetios (Theophanes, ed. Classen and Bekker, I, p. 228), or Aspevedes (Procopius apud Photius, Bibliotheca 63, ed. Henry, I, p. 66). See astabed.
2. A general sent in 523 against King Gurgen of Iberia, who had rebelled (Procopius, 1.12.10). This Bōē carried the title or dignity (doubtless hereditary) of Vahriz (cf. Ensslin, “Wahriz, no. 5,” in Pauly-Wissowa, VIIA/2, col. 2088). He was probably different from the Vahriz who was one of Ḵosrow II’s generals in 551.
A derived form of Bōē, *Bōyak, survived in Persian as Būya, the name of the eponym of the Buyid dynasty, Būya, son of Fanā-Ḵosrow (see buyids), and in the Armenian patronymic Boyekan.
Bibliography:
Christensen, Iran Sass., p. 336, n. 6. Ph. Gignoux, in Iranisches Personennamenbuch II/2, 1986, p. II/59 (with refs.).
The Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite, ed. and tr. W. Wright, Cambridge, 1881.
Justi, Namenbuch, p. 70. Photius, Bibliotheca 63, ed. R. Henry, I, Paris, 1959.
Procopius, De bello persico, ed. J. Haury, Leipzig, 1905-13.
Theophanes, Chronography, ed. J. Classen and I. Bekker, I, Bonn, 1839.
(Marie Louise Chaumont)
Originally Published: December 15, 1989
Last Updated: December 15, 1989
This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 3, p. 318
