Clarots
The Clarots were a group of people who lived on the island of Crete in Greece from the 6th to 4th centuries BC . According to Pollux, the clarots had the status between a free man and a slave . If you believe this source, the Clarots in Crete were not full citizens, but were in the service of a master, but they were not slaves either.
There are different approaches to the exact definition of the Klarotes, but most of them say that the Klarots were unfree peasants who were in the service of a free full citizen, their master. The name "Klaroten" originated from the fact that the Cretans had thrown their slaves over the lot, which was called "Klarotai". The use of the term Klaroten was one way of describing the unfree peasants of the Cretans.
However, these have many other names, and we learn different names for these unfree farmers from different sources. Apart from the name Klaroten dive for them, the terms Perioeci , mnoia on chrysonetaoi and aphamiotai.
In contrast to other unfree people, the Klaroten never rebelled against the masters. Whether the names just mentioned were actually exactly the same as the clarots cannot be scientifically proven with absolute certainty, but it is very likely. The terms chrysonetaoi and aphamiotai developed as a kind of subdivision of the clarots. According to Athenaios, the Chrysonetaoi were the slaves who lived in the city, while the aphamiotai were those who lived in the country. The Clarots were not free, since they were subordinate to a master, they were unfree. However, they were better off than the slaves in Athens, as they had more rights, which is covered in the Gortyn law .
By using the word slave it becomes clear that there were and are different definitions of the class of the clarots. The Clarots could marry and acquire property, but everything was subject to their master. But whether they actually had rights and a better life than other unfree people or slaves becomes clear in the law of Gortyn. The Law of Gortyn describes the rights and laws in the Greek Crete and makes particular reference to family life. The law contains rules and regulations for free as well as for the clarots. However, the Klaroten are not called Klaroten in the legal text, but doloi and woikeis . The question that arises here, of course, is whether the terms doloi and woikeis are to be used synonymously.
literature
- Michael Gagarin: Sers and Slaves at Gortyn. Vienna, 2010.
- Reinhard Koerner : Inscribed legal texts of the early Greek polis. Cologne, 1993.
- Stefan Link : The Greek Crete. Investigations into its state and social development from the 6th to 4th century BC Chr. Stuttgart, 1994.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ilker Iscan: Slaves on Crete in antiquity. Groups of lesser rights and unfree. Retrieved February 8, 2018 .