ATHENIAN ZEUGITAI AND THE SOLONIAN CENSUS CLASSES:NEW REFLECTIONS AND PERSPECTIVES* * We would like to thank Professor Peter Rhodes who kindly read a draft version of this text, and Professor Vincent Rosivach for sending us some texts not available in our libraries. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Of course, any mistakes are entirely our own. This research had the aid of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Projects HAR2009-07819 and HAR2008-04897. 1 We use the term "peasant" regarding the zeugitai because we do not think that the peasant has to be considered an exploited rural producer. On occasion we use "farmer" in a descriptive sense. See Gallego 2001; 2007.
In recent studies on the rural world in ancient Greece the application of the notion of peasant to the rural homestead has received several objections. Some scholars have preferred to use the notion of farmer to characterise the family smallholding. In this paper I first review these standpoints, and then reconsider the evidence concerning the Greek words georgos and autourgos and also concerning the patterns of settlement and agricultural systems produced by archaeological surveys. Finally, I offer my own view based on a model of multiple social and economic situations in which Greek smallholders could be involved along the family life cycle.
El artículo analiza el funcionamiento de la asamblea ateniense durante el siglo V a. C., tomando en cuenta los efectos del uso del discurso persuasivo, así como el proceso de pensamiento que se desarrollaba en ese espacio colectivo. En función de esto, se consideran las formas de participación del público, comparándolas con la actuación de la audiencia en el teatro. Se plantea asimismo la hipótesis de una homología entre asamblea y teatro. Finalmente se hace hincapié en el rol de lo emocional en la toma de decisiones.
Recibido: 31 de octubre de 2015 Aceptado: 8 de febrero de 2016 RESUMEN El artículo propone un estudio de la economía rural ateniense en el siglo IV a.C., asumiendo que las devastaciones durante la Guerra del Peloponeso no tuvieron efectos permanentes sobre la agricultura ática, que tuvo una rápida recuperación. En este marco, se examina la situación del campesinado en relación con los demás sectores socioeconómicos que pueden distinguirse dentro de la población de ciudadanos residentes en el Ática. Para sopesar el posible declive de la importancia del campesinado, que una visión ya tradicional asocia con las consecuencias inmediatas de la guerra, se formula un análisis cuantitativo de la distribución de la tierra. Se parte para ello de los datos sobre población y riqueza de los censos de Antípatro y Demetrio de Falero y se usa una equivalencia que se desprende de las rationes centesimarum. Esta información es compaginada con otra serie de datos en la que se incluye una inferencia sobre el reparto de las cargas de la eisphorá entre los tributarios. Los resultados obtenidos se ponderan mediante un cálculo del coeficiente de Gini y enfoques comparativos. La conclusión es que en la Atenas del siglo IV a.C. la distribución de la tierra era razonablemente equitativa, cotejada con otros casos, y que el campesinado continuó teniendo un rol protagónico.Palabras clave: Campesinado. Propiedad de la tierra. Riqueza. Población. Ciudadanía. Igualdad. Peasantry and the Distribution of Land in Fourth-Century B.C. Athens ABSTRACTThe article proposes a study of the Athenian rural economy in the fourth century B.C., assuming that devastations during the Peloponnesian War did not have permanent effects on Attic agriculture, which recovered quickly. In this context, the situation of the peasantry is examined in relation to the other socio-economic sectors of the citizen population living in Attica. A quantitative analysis of the distribution of land is formulated in order to weigh the possible decline of the importance of the peasantry (a traditional view that associates this with the immediate impacts of war). For this, information about population and wealth from the censuses of Antipater and of Demetrius of Phaleron is considered and a relative proportion emerging from the rationes centesimarum is used. The figures obtained are pulled together with other data series, including an inference about the burden sharing among taxpayers of the eisphora system. The results are weighted by calculating the Gini coefficient and by comparative approaches. The conclusion is that the distribution of land in fourth-century Athens was reasonably egalitarian, compared to other cases, and that the peasantry continued to have a significant role.Keywords: Peasantry. Landownership. Wealth. Population. Citizenship. Equality.Sumario: 1. Introducción. 2. Diferenciación social y distribución de la tierra. 3. Población y riqueza según los censos de Antípatro y Demetrio. 4. Un posible patrón entre valor monetario y unidad de superficie. 5. Calculando la di...
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