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Athenian citizenship

349-300 BCE, Athenian citizenship, citizenship legislation, Literary source, religious institutions and citizenship

Demosthenes 57.41; 57.54. Citizenship Evidence in Against Eubulides: The Role of the Engye and Oral Testimony (345 BCE)

The speech Against Eubulides (Demosth. 57) is a crucial source for understanding how civic identity was defined and contested in Athens during the second half of the 4th century BCE....

449-400 BCE, Athenian citizenship, granting of citizenship, Literary source, religious institutions and citizenship

Thucydides 3.55.3. Granting of Athenian citizenship to the Plataeans

Thucydides is the first author to report a rare case of Athenian citizenship being granted to an entire community, that of the Plataeans. The event is reported in the section...

599-550 BCE, Athenian citizenship, Epigraphic source, lexicon on citizenship, non-citizens

IG I3 1194bis (= IG I2 976 = CEG 13). Tettichos’ monument (575-550 a. C. ca.)

The epitaph for Tettichos, dated between 575 and 550 BCE, represents the oldest surviving example of an Attic funerary epigram. Discovered in a private garden in Sepolia, near Athens, the...

449-400 BCE, Literary source, non-citizens

[Xenophon], Ath. 10-12. The difficulty of distinguishing citizens from non-citizens in Athens (years 20s of the 5th century BCE)

This text comes from a pamphlet that was erroneously attributed to Xenophon in the manuscript tradition. Its anonymous author strongly disapproves of Athenian democracy. However, he explains to a fictitious...

449-400 BCE, Athenian citizenship, lexicon on citizenship, Literary source, non-citizens

Euripides, Heracl. 181-200. Exile as Loss of Citizenship (430 BC)

When Euripides premiered the Heracleidai, likely in 430 BC, the Peloponnesian invasion of Attica had already occurred. The Athenian audience had witnessed firsthand a Peloponnesian army follow the same path...

499-400 BCE, lexicon on citizenship, Literary source, non-citizens

Aristoph. Pax 292–299 (ed. Wilson); Lys. 574–584 (ed. Perusino) – Metoikos, xenos, and astos in Two Comedies of Aristophanes (421 BCE; 412/411 BCE)

The two comedies considered here allow us to address the long-standing question regarding the position of the metoikoi within the spectrum of Athenian citizenship—namely, whether they were conceptually associated by...

449-400 BCE, Athenian citizenship, granting of citizenship, Literary source, religious institutions and citizenship

Thucydides 2.29.1-7. Granting of Athenian Citizenship to the Thracian Sadokos (431 BC)

At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, in the summer of 431, the Athenians entered into an alliance with the Thracians. The symmachia with King Sitalkes, son of the powerful...

449-400 BCE, Athenian citizenship, decree, Epigraphic source, non-citizens

CGRN 43 (IG I3 82; AIO 1304). Decree concerning the festival of Hephaistos (421/0 BCE)

This fragmentary stele contains a decree approved by the Athenian Council and the People making provisions for the celebration of religious festivals, most likely the Hephaistia, honouring of the god...

400-450 BCE, Athenian citizenship, cultic provisions, deme decree, Epigraphic source, non-citizens

IG I³ 244 (Osborne – Rhodes, GHI 107). Cult provisions of the deme Skambonidai (475-450 BCE)

Thick stele or post inscribed on three sides (A-C). Face C (see below) was so designated before being recognised as the front side, with which the whole document opens. Variously...

400-450 BCE, Athenian citizenship, lexicon on citizenship, Literary source

Aeschylus, Eumenides 487–488, 690–693, 696–698, 707–708, 804–807 (ed. Page).The Citizens, the Areopagus, and the Laws (c. 460 BCE)

At vv. 690–692 of the Eumenides, Athena speaks of the reverence and fear that the Areopagus would henceforth inspire in the astoi, but immediately afterwards (v. 693) the goddess clarifies...