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[German version] (ἱπποβόται; hippobótai). The hippobotai were the social elite in  Chalcis [1] on Euboea; the founding of Chalcidian   apoikiai in the 8th cent. BC is attributed to them (Str. 10,1,8). According to Aristotle, Chalcis was an equestrian oligarchy, whose power rested on its military supremacy (Aristot. Pol. 1289b 36-40); during the  Lelantine War, however, Chalcis could defeat the cavalry of Eretria only with the help of Thessaly (Plut. Mor. 760e-f; Str. 10,1,10; 10,1,12). However, b…

[German version] The closer the relationships within a society are and the more limited mobility is, the greater is the role played by neighbours (γείτονες/ geítones; Latin vicini) in the life of an individual or of individual families. In proverbs and figures of speech, which were current throughout antiquity, the significance of a good neighbour and the difficulties that could be caused by bad neighbours  were continually emphasised. Here it is presumably no accident that it is in early Greek literature and in texts dea…

(αὐτάρκεια; autárkeia). [German version] A. Economic The Greek term autarkeia means self-reliance or the ability to be self-sufficient, as practised by individuals and groups in a personal as well as economic sense, and is closely linked to the idea of   autonomia (αὐτονομία; autonomía). Autarkeia was an important concept in the history of Greek philosophy and Christian theology. The changeability of the weather and the unequal distribution of the raw materials necessary for a civilized lifestyle meant that self-reliance and self-sufficiency were idea…

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[German version] (συκοφάντης/ sykophántēs, 'sycophant'). The term first appears in Old Comedy (Aristoph. fr. 228, 427 BC). The origin of the word is unknown, with ancient conjectures on the etymology ( sykophantes as a man who 'reveals figs') being unconvincing. In Comedy, sykophantai are linked with threats, demands for money and extortion; their acting as prosecutors in court is also characteristic (Aristoph. Av. 1410-1469; Aristoph. Plut. 850-959). This perception of sykophantai is echoed in numerous mentions in the …

[German version] The contractually regulated leasing of land used in the agricultural economy was probably widespread in the Greek poleis; the designation ἑκτήμοροι ( hektḗmoroi ) indicates that even in archaic times, farmers were working land which did not belong to them. Leasing was forbidden to the klēroûchoi on Salamis by a people's decree of 510/500 BC (IG I3 1 = Syll.3 13; cf. for Lesbos Thuc. 3,50) - an indication that the leasing of land was entirely commonplace at this time. As well as agriculture, indenture of lease existed in connection with m…

[German version] (οἶκος/ oîkos; “house, household”). The Greek terms oîkos and oikía (οἰκία) were often used synonymously; however, in Attic Greek, oîkos was generally no longer used to denote the house as a building, but for the household, while oikía as a rule meant the building. The work oîkos encompassed the entire possessions of the household as well as the family (although in Athenian law the term seems never to have been applied to the family). In Aristotle, the oîkos to which the married couple, their children and slaves belonged became the most important element o…

[German version] I. Greece No Greek term corresponds exactly to the English word farmer. The Greek word γεωργός ( geōrgós) described someone who cultivated the land, whether landowner, simultaneously proprietor and farmworker, or merely a farmworker (Xen. Oec. 5,4); it thus applied to rich and poor, citizen and non-citizen, slave or free man. The relatively unusual term αὐτουργός ( autourgós) meant someone who worked for himself or with his own hands, and was restricted to free men; although it means ‘men who have no leisure’ (Thuc. 1,141,3-5), it relat…

[German version] (ἑκτήμοροι; hektḗmoroi) were tenants on agricultural land in Attica; their impoverishment was one of the most important manifestations of the social and economic crisis that  Solon as mediator (διαλλακτής, diallaktḗs) and archon was meant to settle. The spelling of the term (ἑκτήμορος in Aristot. Ath. Pol. 2,2 and in most lexicographers; ἑκτημόριος in Plutarch) was discussed in antiquity just as much as its meaning. According to Plutarch (Solon 13,4f.), the hektemoroi kept five-sixths of the yield from the land worked by them and had to give one six…

[German version] (σεισάχθεια; s eisáchtheia). Greek authors used the term seisachtheia (lit.'shaking off of burdens') from at least the 4th cent. BC to denote the abolition or mitigation of debts by Solon [1]. The portrayal of Solon's measures in Aristotle suggests that the word was in general use in the 4th cent. (Aristot. Ath. pol. 6,1). While according to Androtion (FGrH 324 F 34; Plut. Solon 15,4), it was coined by those who had been freed from part of their debts by means of a reduction in interest, D…

[1] Greece [German version] A. Introduction In the Linear B archives of the late Bronze Age a relatively detailed picture of land ownership and land use appears for the first time. This system was centrally supervised from the palaces. In Pylos, where the E-series clay tablets give comprehensive details, the land was divided into categories of which two can be reliably defined: ko-to-na ki-ti-me-na was farmed by private landowners or their tenants, ko-to-na ke-ke-me-na was common property and was mainly leased in small plots [3; 5]. Osborne, Robin (Oxford) [German version] B. Land dis…