Penests
Penestae (πενέστης, Pl. Πενέσται, poor people ) were in ancient Thessaly members of a social class of tenant farmers . Their social role corresponded roughly to that of the Helots in Lacedaemon , but the Penestians enjoyed greater freedom than they did. Pollux describes their position as something in the middle between free and slaves.
The Penestians were the original population of the Thessalian landscape, who were subjugated by the later immigrants of Thessaly.
The term is derived from πενέσθαι (penestai) work, serve, be poor or needy.
literature
- Karl-Wilhelm Welwei: New research on the legal position of the penests . In: Peter Mauritsch u. a. (Ed.): Ancient worlds. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 393-412 (with further references).
- Robert Whiston: Penestae . In: William Smith (Ed.): Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 3rd American edition, carefully revised. Harper and Bros., New York NY 1870, pp. 882-883, digitized ( October 1, 2014 memento on the Internet Archive ).
- Gustav E. Benseler , Karl Schenkl : Benseler's Greek-German and German-Greek school dictionary. Edited by Adolf Kaegi . 12th, enlarged and much improved edition. Teubner, Leipzig et al. 1904.
Individual evidence
- ^ Pollux : Onomastikon 3, 83.
- ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Tittmann : Representation of the Greek state constitutions. Weidmann, Leipzig 1822, p. 628, digitized