The Rise of Polis-society and its Change

1991 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 02610181
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: History of Europe and America
• Research Institution: Meiji University
• Principal Investigator: BABA Keiji Meiji Univ., Literature, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (90139436)
• Project Period (FY): 1990 – 1991
• Keywords: Athenian Democracy / Reform of Kleisthenes / metic-status / funeral-epigram

Research Abstract

My research has resulted in the essay titled " Athenian Democracy and the Formation and Disappearence of Metic-status". Its summary is as follows :
The author analyses, at first, the late sixth century B. C. funeral epigram of Anaxilas the Naxian. He discovered an Attic letter-cutter's error and, thus, recovered from the epigram the oldest Attic word "muepsilontaualphaomicroniotakappaomicrons" which means an immigrant/metic(muepsilontauomicroniotakappaomicrons). And then, he pays his attention to the phrase "'ALPHATHETAepsilonnualphaiotaomicroniota tauiotaepsilonsigmakappaomicronnu " (the Athenians praised) and does suspect this 'ALPHATHETAepsilonnualphaiotaomicroniota-clause to have been a reproduction of an official document, e. g. a decree of the boule and/or the demos. If so, it should be noted, the attested word "muepsilontaualphaomicroniotakappaomicrons" was in reality an officially recognised technical term for the metic-status. This implies that the Anaxilas-epigram gives us ter minus ante quem for the date of the official formationof the Athenian metic-status. So the date of the Anaxilas-epigram becomes a crucial point of the argument. The author connects it with the war the Athenians fought c. 506 B. C. for their own new-born democracy against the Boeotians and Chalkidians and, later, also against the Aeginetans. The Akropolis-monument of the dekate from the Boitians and Chalkidians relates clearly to this war. But, the author suggests that "Treasury of the Athenians" and " Stoa of the Athenians ", the Athenian dedications both in the Delphic sanctuary, should be set in the same historical context. They show how great was the significance this victory had for the Athenians under the Kleisthenic democracy. The 'ALPHATHETAepsilonnualphaiotaomicroniota-clause of Anaxilas-epigram should be taken for an evidence of Kleisthenes' Reform and the formation of Athenian metic-status.
As for the disappearence of Athenian metic-status, the author examined a number of inscriptions dated to the third century B. C., i. e. decrees with the grant of epsilongammagammakappatauetasigmaiotas ; records of confiscation ; honorary decrees related to the Revolt of Athens (287 B. C.). Comparing with the recognised land-credit activities of the foreigners at Thisbe in the Roman times, the author suspects that similar situation should have began to appear also at Athens at the beginning of the second century B. C.