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[German version] Initially the term hippeis (ἱππεῖς/ hippeîs, ‘rider’) denoted warriors who went into battle on horseback. In view of the great importance of hoplite warfare (  hoplítai ) during the archaic and classical periods, the hippeis did not play a substantial military role; often  horses were used only for the way to the battlefield. One reason for this was the fact that many areas of Greece provided only limited possibility to raise large numbers of horses (Hom. Od. 4,601ff.; Pl. Leg. 625d; cf. also Str. 8,8,1). Significantly, in areas where the situation was more suitable,  cavalry was more important, as in Boeotia (Hdt. 9,68f.; Diod. Sic. 12,70), in Syracuse (Pind. Pyth. 2,1ff.; Diod. Sic. 13,112,3; Plut. Dion 42,1ff.; …

[German version] I. General points The concept is derived from Greek   euergétēs (benefactor) and was coined as a scholarly term by A. Boulanger following the example of the comparable modern Greek euergetes […

(ἐφηβεία; ephēbeía) [German version] I. Definition The ephebeia…

Gehrke, Hans-Joachim (Freiburg) [German version] A. Introduction (CT) The meaning of the term 'historiographical methods' (HM) ranges from descriptions of certain techniques and work methods, almost in the sense of a craft, to discussions of fundamental (methodological) questions about the possibilities and modes of historical understanding. In the field of ancient history, which is both a historical discipline as well as the study of Antiquity in general, in addition to HM  those of the two mo…

[German version] (πεντακοσιομέδιμνοι/ pentakosiomédimnoi, literally 'five-hundred-bushelers') were the members of the uppermost census-class in Athens. It was probably Solon that added them to the existing groups ( hippeís , zeugítai , thetai ), which were formalised in respect to financial gradings (Aristot. Ath. pol. 7,3ff.; 47,1; Aristot. Pol. 1274a 15ff.; Pl…

[German version] I. Definition…

[German version] (θῆτες; thêtes). According to the oldest evidence (Hom. Od. 4,644; 11,489; Hes. Op. 602), members of the lower peasant class in Greek communities of the Archaic Period. In all likelihood they were freemen in the sense of personal law, living as d…

[German version] (γεωμόροι; geōmóroi, Dor. γαμόροι; gamóroi), technical term for the social elite in archaic and classical Samos and Syracuse. As is suggested literally in the name itself, the status of this elite was based on land ownership assumed to have been in this group's possession from the time of the earliest settlements. As the ruling class, the geomoroi probably enjoyed legal privileges for a while, a status clearly designated by the term. C. 600 BC or shortly thereafter, their pre-eminence was threatened on Samos (Plut. Quaest. Graec. 303e-304c), but they…

[German version] (παρθενίαι/ partheníai). The word partheniae is derived from Greek παρθένος/ parthénos, 'virgin', and designates a group of Spartans who left Greece and founded Tarentum (Taras) toward the end of the 8th cent. BC. Our oldest sources (Antiochus FGrH 555 F 13; Ephorus FGrH 70 F 216; Aristot. Pol. 5,7,1306 b 29-31) probably already knew no more than the name and the fact itself. We therefore find explanations derived from the word, according to which they were illegitimate Spartans, or classif…

[German version] (Εὐπατρίδαι; Eupatrídai). The term is a collective name initially for the nobility in Athens and it means descendants ‘of good fathers’. It reflects an important phase in the development of the social elite into an aristocracy, a phase in which there was less emphasis or not sole emphasis on the aspects of habitus, life style and wealth that were originally constitutive for the Greek nobility but rather an emphasis on aristrocratic descent that marked a clearer distinction. The E. consisted of lineages (γένη, génē) that were defined by patrilineal descent and di…

[German version] (γῆς ἀναδασμός; gês anadasmós). The term ges andasmos ( GA); (‘apportioning of land’, ‘land distribution’) was generally applied to a redistribution of agricultural land (‘land reform’). Such measures were important not only socially and economically but were also highly important politically, as landownership and citizenship were closely connected in the Greek polis. In the context of other measures, especially χρεῶν ἀποκοπή ( chreṓn apokopḗ, liquidation of debts) the ges andasmos was also the means and the objective in internal power struggles …

[German version] The word ὁπλίτης ( hoplítēs, pl. hoplítai) is derived from ὅπλον ( hóplon, ‘equipment, shield’; esp. in the pl. ὅπλα, hópla ‘weapons’) and describes heavily armed foot soldiers. Their bronze armament (panoply) consisted of a round shield of 0,9 m diameter with a vambrace (πόρπαξ, pórpax) in the centre and a handgrip (ἀντιλαβή, antilabḗ) at the edge, a helmet, a breastplate, greaves, which reached from the ankles to above the knees, a spear for thrusting as well as a short sword for close-quarters combat. There are archaeological re…

[German version] (πελάται/ pelátai, sg.: πελάτης, -τας/ pelátēs, - tas) is a general term in Greek for dependents. In the time of Solon (late 7th-early 6th cents. BC) it may have had a technical meaning analogous to hektḗmoroi in Athens (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 2,2) which, in any case, was lost. By the time of Plato (Plat. Euthyphr. 4c) pelátēs describes seasonal workers free by civil law (Poll. 3,82). The word thus had a meaning similar to thetes, and the two terms were often used synonymously. Pelátai further described certain people in relationships of dependency outside the Gree…

(τιμωρία/ timōría, τίσις/ tísis; Latin ultio, vindicta , poena). [German version] A. Social conditions Revenge, a regular central element of relationships in human social structure, is encountered in Graeco-Roman history in specific forms which are very similar in the two cultures. Revenge belongs in the general framework of an ethic of reciprocation, which shapes, both positively and negatively, mutual exchange between individuals and groups (exchange of gifts; Euergetism). Under these premises, in Greece it…

[English version] I. Allgemeines Der Begriff leitet sich vom griech. euergétēs (Wohltäter) ab und ist von A. Boulanger unter dem Eindruck des vergleichbaren Typus des neugriech. euergetes als wiss. Terminus geprägt worden [13. 22]. Er bezeichnet ein zentrales Phänomen innerhalb der für die griech.-röm. Zivilisation spezifischen Erwiderungsmoral, die in das ethnologisch-sozialanthropologische Konzept des Gabentausches gehört. Im Sinne strikter Reziprozität war jede auf eine Person oder Personengruppe bezogene Handlung, po…

[English version] Das Wort ὁπλίτης ( hoplítēs, Pl. hoplítai) ist abgeleitet von ὅπλον ( hóplon, “Gerät, Schild”; bes. im Plur. ὅπλα, hópla “Waffen”) und bezeichnet schwerbewaffnete Fußsoldaten. Ihre aus Bronze gefertigte Rüstung (Panhoplie) bestand aus einem runden Schild von 0,9 m Durchmesser mit Armschiene (πόρπαξ, pórpax) im Zentrum und Haltegriff (ἀντιλαβή, antilabḗ) am Rand, einem Helm, einem Brustpanzer, Beinschienen, welche von den Knöcheln bis über die Knie reichten, einer Stoßlanze sowie einem Kurzschwert für den Kampf auf engstem Raum…

[English version] (γεωμόροι, dor. γαμόροι) als technischer Ausdruck bezeichnet die soziale Elite im archa. und klass. Samos und Syrakus. Wie aus dem Namen selbst hervorgeht, beruhte der Status dieser Elite auf Grundbesitz, von dem offensichtlich angenommen wurde, er sei seit der Besiedlung im Besitz dieser Gruppe. Die G. waren wohl mindestens eine Zeitlang rechtlich privilegiert - etwa als herrschender Stand - und mit dem Begriff G. klar zu benennen. Auf Samos wurde ihre Vorrangstellung um oder ku…

[English version] (πεντακοσιομέδιμνοι, wörtl. “Fünfhundertscheffler”) waren die Angehörigen der obersten Schatzungsklasse in Athen. Diese wurden wahrscheinlich von Solon zu den bereits existierenden Gruppen ( hippeís , zeugítai , Theten) hinzugefügt, die ihrerseits im Hinblick auf die finanziellen Abstufungen formalisiert wurden (Aristot. Ath. pol. 7,3ff.; 47,1; Aristot. pol. 1274a 15ff.; Plut. Solon 18,1ff.). An die Zugehörigkeit zu dieser Klasse war die Wählbarkeit für bestimmte Ämter gebunden; dies galt im 4. Jh.v.Chr. noch für das Amt des Schatzmeisters (ταμίας/ tam…

[English version] (γῆς ἀναδασμός). Mit der Wendung g. a. (“Aufteilung von Land”, “Landverteilung”) wurde in der Regel Neuverteilung des Ackerlandes (“Bodenreform”) bezeichnet. Derartige Maßnahmen hatten nicht allein eine soziale und wirtschaftliche, sondern auch eine eminente polit. Bedeutung, da Landbesitz und Bürgerrecht in der griech. Polis eng verbunden waren. Im Kontext mit anderen Maßnahmen, insbes. der χρεῶν ἀποκοπή ( chreṓn apokopḗ, Schuldentilgung) war der g. a. auch Mittel und Forderung in internen Machtkämpfen und bei sozialen Unruhen und wurde …