Clergy

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Decree on the cleruchies on Salamis
Athenian clergy

In classical Greece , a clergy was a settler who received a piece of land, which had often been conquered in war, from the state in a lottery . Such a lot of land was called kleros . Clergy retained the citizenship of their home community and remained obliged to pay taxes to their polis and do military service. In this way, citizens founded colonies were cleruchies (κληρουχία / klêrouchía) called. In contrast to the establishment of a regular colony, a cleruchy remained dependent on the mother city .

Athens

The beginnings of the Athenian clergy system are in the 6th century BC. With the establishment of clergy in Sigeion and Salamis . During the 5th and 4th centuries BC The settlement of clergy took place in Chalkis on Euboea (506), on Lemnos (around 499), Imbros (around 499), Skyros (476/75), in Hestiaia on Euboea (446), on Lesbos (427), Melos (416/15), Samos (365/64) and some other Aegean islands. The establishment of the clergy regularly went hand in hand with the expulsion, killing or enslavement of the previous population.

Even if a distinction was made in Athens between apoics and clergy ( e.g. on inscriptions), this differentiation is not infrequently blurred in the literary sources and was probably made in the 4th century BC Largely abandoned. In general, the Athenian Apoikien, were already very closely linked with Athens in spite of the different legal status, which is a special feature compared to Apoikien other poleis represents and not least due to the fact that Athens' cleruchies on the islands and on the coasts of Seebundsgebiets used to power backup . In contrast, the citizens of Athenian clergy had citizenship, but could hardly exercise it in Athens.

After the conquest of the cities of the Chalcidian League by Philip II of Macedonia , the Athenian clergy were expelled from Olynthus . After the Lamian War , the Athenian clergy were largely expelled from the island colonies by the Macedonian ruler Antipatros and his successors. B. from Samos .

Hellenism

New clergy also arose in Hellenism , but here it was mainly Macedonian mercenaries from the armies of the Diadochi who were settled.

Egypt

Macedonian clergy were also settled in the Egyptian Ptolemaic Empire , where they were also called Katoks . Clergy land was created because the Macedonian mercenaries could not be kept under arms permanently. However, they were not grouped together in separate colonies here, but rather settled in existing Egyptian villages: the kings gave land to men who temporarily served them as soldiers in exchange for lease and tax payments, which were to revert to the crown when the clergy died , but were often rented out during their absence. The Macedonian clergy, usually experienced in agricultural techniques, were responsible for the regular cultivation of the fields and were closely controlled; however, they were freer than the other king peasants. In the course of time, a kind of lower landed gentry developed out of the Katoks, who inherited their lands. Important civilian employees and military leaders were given larger goods as revocable gifts, the so-called Doreai . Since the end of the 3rd century BC BC Egyptians who were fully fit for military service were increasingly supplied with clerical land. In addition, the ancient Egyptian practice continued that the Egyptian militia members who were only called up in an emergency were provided with smaller landless people.

In Libya, under the Ptolemies, Jews were also provided with land as clergy in military settlements.

Seleucid Empire

In the Seleucids , the proportion of mercenaries was still higher than under the Ptolemies. Here (apart from the possibility of temporarily billeting large units of troops, which must be considered separately), Macedonian and other mercenaries were settled on a large scale in city-like colonies and provided with land. These settlements served the kings as a recruitment reservoir. Some Athenian clergy islands also took an oath on the Seleucid kings.

literature

  • Jack Cargill: Athenian settlements of the fourth century BC Leiden 1995.
  • Eberhard Erxleben : The clergy on Euboea and Lesbos and the methods of Attic rule in the 5th century, in: Klio 57 (1975), no. 1, pp. 83-100.
  • Christian Igelbrink: The clergy and apoics of Athens in the 6th and 5th centuries BC Legal forms and political functions of the Athenian foundations , Berlin 2015.
  • Alfonso Moreno: Feeding the Democracy. The Athenian Grain Supply in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC , Oxford u. a. 2007, esp. Pp. 77-143.
  • Alfonso Moreno: 'The Attic Neighbor'. The Cleruchy in the Athenian Empire, in: Interpreting the Athenian Empire , ed. by John Ma u. a., London 2009, pp. 211-221.
  • Nicoletta Salomon: Le cleruchie di Atene , Pisa 1997.
  • Fritz Uebel: The clergy of Egypt among the first six Ptolemies . Berlin 1968.
  • Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : The Greek Polis , 2. Erw. Stuttgart 1998 edition.
  • Karl-Wilhelm Welwei and Walter Ameling: Kleruchoi, in: Der Neue Pauly , Vol. 6, Stuttgart 1999, Col. 598-601.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Moreno: Feeding the Democracy , p. 140.
  2. ^ Moreno: Feeding the Democracy , p. 339; Cargill: Athenian Settlements , pp. 1-8, 12-21; Welwei / Ameling: Kleruchoi, here Sp. 598 f.
  3. ↑ Hdt. 5.77 (Chalkis), Thuk. 1,114.3 (Hestiaia), Thuk. 1.98.1 f. (Skyros), Thuk. 3.50.1 f. (Lesbos), Thuk. 5,116.3 f. (Melos)
  4. ↑ Welwei, The Greek Polis , pp. 214, 249. Cf. also Cargill, Athenian settlements , for the period of the 4th century and the second confederation.
  5. ↑ Welwei, The Greek Polis , pp. 214, 267.
  6. ↑ See Fritz Uebel; also Michael Rostovtzeff: Social and economic history of the Hellenistic world. Volume 1. Darmstadt 1998, p. 221 ff.
  7. ↑ Hans-Joachim Gehrke: History of Hellenism. Berlin, New York 2008, p. 57.