Zeugitai in Fifth-Century Athens

Social and Economic Qualification from Cleisthenes to the End of the Peloponnesian War

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9306520
AutoresMiriam Valdés Guía (0000-0002-2910-0617, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, autor correspondente)
Ano2022
Volume1
Fascículo1
Páginas45-78
Data de publicação2022-03-28
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPnyx Journal of Classical Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2754-5725 • E-ISSN: 2754-5725
EditoraIsegoria Publishing Ltd (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.55760/pnyx.2022.4
OpenAlexW4221092279
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8

The status of zeugitai as middle-class hoplites has received considerable attention in recent decades regarding property requirements for inclusion into the hoplite rank and their expected role in the Athenian army. Accordingly, this paper re-examines the idea that since the time of Cleisthenes and throughout the fifth century, the zeugitai formed a census class of middling owners with an estate equivalent to at least 3.6 hectares. It argues that late-sixth century reforms converted the property holdings of zeugitai into a monetary equivalent (in drachmas) and used the census classes as an economic criterion for recruitment from the hoplite catalogue. Already in the sixth century but especially during the Pentecontaetia, the number of hoplites/zeugitai grew substantially due to economic prosperity and the foundation of colonies and cleruchies. Many citizens without landholdings but in possession of sufficient wealth were included in the zeugitai census class and, like the famous Anthemion ([Arist.] Ath. Pol. 7.4), could ascend even higher

Census · Economic history · Estate · Geography · Political science · Population · Possession (linguistics · Property (philosophy · Prosperity · Sociology · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Demography · Historical and Literary Studies · History · Law · Philosophy