Status in classical Athens / Deborah Kamen.
Kamen, Deborah.
2013
DF275 .K28 2013 (Mapit)
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Title Status in classical Athens / Deborah Kamen.
Author Kamen, Deborah.
ISBN 9780691138138 hardcover alkaline paper
0691138133 hardcover alkaline paper
Published Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2013]
Language English
Description xiv, 144 pages ; 24 cm
Call Number DF275 .K28 2013
Dewey Decimal Classification 305.0938/5
Summary "Ancient Greek literature, Athenian civic ideology, and modern classical scholarship have all worked together to reinforce the idea that there were three neatly defined status groups in classical Athens--citizens, slaves, and resident foreigners. But this book--the first comprehensive account of status in ancient democratic Athens--clearly lays out the evidence for a much broader and more complex spectrum of statuses, one that has important implications for understanding Greek social and cultural history. By revealing a social and legal reality otherwise masked by Athenian ideology, Deborah Kamen illuminates the complexity of Athenian social structure, uncovers tensions between democratic ideology and practice, and contributes to larger questions about the relationship between citizenship and democracy. Each chapter is devoted to one of ten distinct status groups in classical Athens (451/0-323 BCE): chattel slaves, privileged chattel slaves, conditionally freed slaves, resident foreigners (metics), privileged metics, bastards, disenfranchised citizens, naturalized citizens, female citizens, and male citizens. Examining a wide range of literary, epigraphic, and legal evidence, as well as factors not generally considered together, such as property ownership, corporal inviolability, and religious rights, the book demonstrates the important legal and social distinctions that were drawn between various groups of individuals in Athens. At the same time, it reveals that the boundaries between these groups were less fixed and more permeable than Athenians themselves acknowledged. The book concludes by trying to explain why ancient Greek literature maintains the fiction of three status groups despite a far more complex reality." -- Publisher's description.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Record Appears in On-Campus Resources > Books
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Introduction: spectrum of statuses
Chattel slaves
Privileged chattel slaves
Freedmen with conditional freedom
Metics (metoikoi)
Privileged metics
Bastards (nothoi)
Disenfranchised citizens (atimoi)
Naturalized citizens
Full citizens: female
Full citizens: male
Conclusion: status in ideology and practice.

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