Search

[German version] (κρυπτεία; krypteía). There are two different versions regarding the institution called krypteia in Sparta. According to Plato, the krypteia was a military training under the harshest conditions in the open field, with the soldiers supplied only with small amounts of equipment. The goal was to increase the courage of the Spartans and their capacity to bear pain (Pl. Leg. 633b-c; cf. P Lond. 187). Plutarch, on the other hand, reports that young Spartans, solely provided with a sword and little food,…

(μέτοικος; métoikos). [German version] I. Definition Métoikoi, or metics, immigrant foreigners who lived in a Greek city without possessing rights of citizenship, were clearly distinguished from the citizens of a pólis in 4th cent. BC political theory, as is shown by the following: ‘But these are only citizens in the manner in which children who are as yet too young to have been renrolled in the list and old men who have been discharged.' This statement by Aristotle (Aristot. Pol. 1275a 14-16), who is the most famous metoikos of antiquity, being a citizen of Stagira living in Athe…

[German version] (ξεναγός; xenagós). The word xenagos was a Spartan technical term, literally a 'leader of foreigners' (ξένοι/ xénoi); this referred to the Greek allies of Sparta within the Spartan symmachy ( s ymmachia ). Originally, a xenagos was a high-ranking Spartan officer designated to take overall command of the troops of an allied city (Xen. Ag. 2,10; Xen. Hell. 3,5,7; 4,2,19). The post of xenagos, which is first documented for the opening phase of the Peloponnesian War (in 429 BC: Thuc. 2,75,3), was probably created soon after the Persian Wars or sh…

[German version] (νεοδαμώδεις/ neodamṓdeis), ‘those who have only recently become part of the people’). Etymologically the word neodamṓdeis is explained as a compound of νέος ( néos) and δαμώδης ( damṓdēs). Neodamṓdeis were one of the many social groups into which the Spartans were organised. Originally they were Helots, who had been set free by the Spartan polis. They did not, however, then become citizens with full rights (as Diod. 14,36,1 incorrectly assumes), but among the erstwhile Helots they may have been an elite. Neodamṓdeis are attested primarily for the period from 4…

[German version] (ἀγωγή; agōgḗ). Agoge meant education and instruction in general and philosophical literature except in Sparta (Pl. Leg. 659d; Aristot. Eth. Nic. 10,9,1179b). Agoge (from ἄγειν; ágein; cf. Latin educare) was also the technical term for the comprehensive, centrally organized military education and socialization in Sparta (Pol. 1,32,1; Plut. Lyc. 22,1; Ages. 1,2). The detailed literary representations (Xen. Lac. 2-3; Plut. Lyc. 16-21; Mor. 237-9) are supplemented by dedicatory inscriptions from the 4th cent. B…

[German version] (ἀγέλαι; agélai) like agōgḗ is derived from ἄγειν ( ágein). It is a collective term for herds (animals) and groups (humans, e.g. the choir of the parthenoi, Pind. fr. 112). In the complex socio-political system of Gortyn and other Cretan cities, agelai was a technical term for certain groups constituting age classes. The word agelai later became an unofficial and inexact synonym for the Spartan term boûai (βοῦαι; Plut. Lycurgos 16,4; Hsch. s. v. βοῦα), which derived from the educational system. In the end, the age classification in Sparta and Cr…

[German version] I. General remarks There are no easily accessible datasets for the ancient ST, as there are for the Atlantic slave trade of the early modern and modern eras [5]. Nor can we speak authoritatively of the factors affecting mortality in the ancient trade as we can of those (such as the process of capture, the march to the West African coast, time spent on the coast before sailing, time spent at port of arrival, and acclimatization and acculturation at point of destination) which contribu…

[German version] I. Greece Documents show two different terms for the concept of a freedman: ἀπελεύθερος ( apeleútheros) and ἐξελεύθερος ( exeleútheros); according to Harpocration (p.31 Bk), the latter referred not to those born as slaves, but to the freeborn sons of slaves. Pollux uses Demosthenes' terms nómoi exeleútheroi and nómoi apeleútheroi in his list of terminology on the topic of slavery. Thus, it is clear that the two terms refer to groups with different legal status. It also shows that private manumissions as well as other issues and …

[German version] (γυμνῆτες; Gymnêtes). Lightly-armed men. Pollux (3,83) describes the lower-ranking people in Argus as gymnetes and compares them with the  helots in Sparta, the  penestae in Thessaly and the  korynephoroi in Sicyon. However in Argus (as in Sicyon) they tended to be dependents rather than slaves, and Stephanus of Byzantium (s.v. χίος) probably describes them correctly as gymnḗsioi. The error of Pollux should perhaps be explained by the fact that the helots often fought as lightly-armed soldiers ( psíloi, Hdt. 9,29), for whom the Greeks used the term gymnetes. The gymne…

[German version] (Σκιρῖται; Skirîtai). The S., perhaps ethnically Arcadian, came from the sub-region or district (χώρα/ chṓra) of Sciritis in the Peloponnese (Diod. Sic. 15,64,3; cf. Thuc. 5,33,1), of which the principal fortified place in the 2nd quarter of the fourth cent. BC was Oeum (Xen. Hell. 6,5,24f.). At the battle of Mantinea in 418 BC, 600 S. fought on the side of the Spartans (Thuc. 5,67,1; 5,68,3; 5,71,2). By then, they had won the right to occupy the extreme left of the Lacedaemonian phálanx line (Thuc. 5,67,1; cf. Diod. Sic. 15,32,1); after 378,…

[German version] I. Definition The numerous literary sources regarding the history of the H. are often contradictory and inaccurate. In general the H. (εἵλωτες, εἱλώται, heílōtes, heilṓtai) are called by the usual Greek term for bonded persons, δοῦλοι ( doûloi), but there is no agreement about the form of their dependency. Now and then the H. are compared with other likewise dependent population groups, for instance with the  Penestae of Thessaly (Pl. Leg. 776cd; Aristot. Pol. 1269a 36-39). According to Pollux (3,83), the H. were between ἐλεύθεροι ( eleútheroi, ‘free persons’) and doûl…

(περίοικοι; períoikoi). [German version] I. Definition The word perioikoi literally means 'those living in the surroundings' and is formed according to the same rules as ap-oikoi, ep-oikoi, met-oikoi and par-oikoi. Like these terms, perioikoi has a literal - topographical - and a figurative - politico-legal - meaning. Three figurative meanings can be distinguished here: firstly, the word could refer to serfs - both purchased slaves and a dependent population comparable to helots or penéstai (Pl. Resp. 547c; Aristot. Pol. 1271b 30; 1330a 29). Secondly, dependent póleis which were …

[German version] I. Homoioi in Aristotle With the term homoioi (in Homer, in Ionian and in early Attic ὁμοῖοι/ homoîoi, later ὅμοιοι/ hómoioi, ‘equal ones’) Aristotle clearly describes, in a section regarding the prerequisites of political stability (Aristot. Pol. 1308a 11-13), an elite, i.e. a legally or socially defined ruling class that is clearly differentiated by birth or wealth. When many people belong to an elite of such kind, it represents, according to Aristotle, a type of people itself (ὥσπερ δῆμος ἤδη οἱ ὅμοιοι); it is then useful to involve, if possible, all homoioi in the g…

[German version] (μόθακες/ móthakes). The móthakes, first mentioned in Phylarchus (FGrH 81 F 43) and probably identical with the μόθωνες/ móthōnes, either belonged to the Spartiatae or formed their own social stratum below the Spartan elite. Presumably they were children of a Spartan father and a helot mother (Helots), but they are not necessarily identical with the νόθοι/ nóthoi ( Nothos ), who according to Xenophon had received a Spartan upbringing ( agōgḗ ) (Xen. Hell. 5,3,9). According to Aelianus, high Spartan officers were originally móthakes (e.g. Callicratidas [1], Gyli…

[German version] (ἀγαθοεργοί; agathoergoi). The five agathoergoí - Spartan office holders only mentioned in Hdt. 1,67,5 -- were elected from the citizens who left the association of the hippeis and acted as emissaries in their year of office. The hippeis (horsemen) were a 300-man strong elite unit of 20- to 29-year-old Spartans, who formed the residing king's bodyguard and despite their name fought on foot (Hdt. 8,124,3; Thuc. 5,72,4; Xen. Lac. 4,3).  Hippeis Cartledge, Paul A. (Cambridge)

[German version] (ἐνωμοτία; enōmotía). Literally a ‘sworn band’, the enomotia was the smallest unit in the regular Spartan army, allegedly instituted by Lycurgus (Hdt. 1,65,5) and consisting in principle of one Spartan from each of the 40 active service year-classes (aged 20-59). In practice, however, not only was the age distribution of the citizen population of military age imperfect but in response to the increasingly severe shrinkage of citizen numbers (ὀλιγανθρωπία, oliganthrōpía) from the mid 5th cent. BC onwards, the enomotia was brought up to an average strength of …

[German version] [1] Social class Penestai (πενέσται/ penéstai, sing. πενέστης/ penéstēs) is probably etymologically related to the word πένης ( pénēs), 'poor'. Penestai was applied as the collective term for the class of dependent Greeks who formed the economic and military foundation of the aristocracy in the towns of Thessaly (Crannon, Larissa, Pherae). Dionysius [18] of Halicarnassus compared them with the thétai and pelátai at Athens (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 2,9); they were thus accorded the social status of dependents or clientes. Most ancient authors, esp. Theopompus (FG…

[English version] (νεοδαμώδεις, “die erst seit kurzem zum Volk gehören”). Etym. wird das Wort n. als Zusammensetzung von νέος ( néos) und δαμώδης ( damṓdēs) erklärt. N. waren eine der vielen sozialen Gruppen, die den Spartiaten untergeordnet waren. Urspr. handelte es sich um Heloten, die von der Polis Sparta freigelassen worden waren; sie wurden damit jedoch nicht vollberechtigte Bürger (wie Diod. 14,36,1 fälschlich annimmt), stellten unter den ehemaligen Heloten aber vielleicht eine Elite dar. N. sind v.a. für die Zeit zw. 421 und 370/69 v.Chr. belegt. Die Gruppe der n. wurde von d…

[English version] (ἀγαθοεργοί). Die jeweils 5 a. - nur bei Hdt. 1,67,5 erwähnte spartanische Amtsträger - wurden aus den Bürgern ausgewählt, die aus dem Verband der hippeís ausschieden, und waren in ihrem Amtsjahr als Gesandte tätig. Die hippeís (Reiter) waren eine 300 Mann starke Eliteeinheit von 20-29jährigen Spartanern, die die Leibgarde des amtierenden Königs stellten und trotz ihres Namens zu Fuß kämpften (Hdt. 8,124,3; Thuc. 5,72,4; Xen. Lak. pol. 4,3). hippeis Cartledge, Paul A. (Cambridge)

[English version] I. Griechenland Für den F. sind zwei Begriffe belegt: ἀπελεύθερος ( apeleútheros) und ἐξελεύθερος ( exeleútheros); nach Harpokration (p.31 Bk) war letzterer der nicht als Sklave, sondern als Freier geborene Sohn des ersteren. In seiner Auflistung der gesamten in Zusammenhang mit der Sklaverei verwendeten Terminologie erwähnt Pollux die von Demosthenes gebrauchten Begriffe nómoi exeleútheroi und nómoi apeleútheroi. Damit kann als gesichert gelten, daß die zwei Begriffe sich auf Gruppen mit verschiedenem Rechtsstatus bezogen. Außerdem w…