Wandering Greeks (37 page)

The Legal Status of the Athenian Metic.
The verb
metoikein
is not commonly used of “being a metic” in the technical—that is, Athenian—sense of the word until the fourth century. Other words that describe a permanent immigrant include
epoikos, katoikos, paroikos
, and
sunoikos
. For discussion of the date of the introduction of official metic status in Athens, see Whitehead (1986b, 148). For the requirement to register as a metic, see Whitehead (1975, 94 with n. 3; 1986b, 146) and Cohen (2000, 72 with n. 154). For the prosecution of metics failing to register with a guardian or seeking to evade their responsibilities, see Lape (2010, 188–90). For metics granted
isoteleia
and other honors, see
IG
II/III
²
7862–81. In contrast to the relative frequency of honorifics awarded to metics, few foreigners were awarded citizenship. For discussion, see Baslez (1984, 93–109) and Demetriou (2012, 205–217). Cohen (2000, 72–73) asserts that “many individuals (or their offspring) ultimately became fully involved in Athenian life, and physically and culturally indistinguishable from the mass of
politai
[citizens].” The law forbidding metics to leave Athens during wartime was probably put into effect some time before the battle of Chaeronea in 338. For foreign deities worshipped in the Piraeus, see Garland (2001, table 3 [p. 109]) with the important revision by Demetriou (2012, 217–27). For leases of sacred properties, see Walbank (1983, part 4, table 1).

The Composition and Size of Athens's Metic Population.
Krentz (1980, 305) notes that 19 of the 69 metics whose profession is recorded in
IG
II
²
10 were involved in agriculture, 31 in small manufacturing, and 19 in commerce. These figures reflect the fact that the rebellion they joined began in a remote district of Attica. See Garland (2001) for the metic tomb in Kallithea (p. 62 with figure 11) and for the ethnic diversity of Athenian metics (pp. 62–67). For non-Greek metics, see Whitehead (1977, 109–14), who concludes, “The ethnic origin of a
metoikos
was ultimately less important,
de facto
as well as
de iure
, than the fact
that he was, precisely, a
metoikos
and not a
politês
, i.e., citizen.” No doubt, too, there were many short-term visitors, known as
parepidêmoi
or
parepidêmountes
, who had to register as metics. Finally, a few metics were former slaves who had been manumitted, though these constituted “a distinct subgroup within the metic category, at least socially and economically” (Lape 2010, 47). They include Pasion and Phormion, both of whom were later granted citizenship.

Prejudice against Immigrants.
David Whitehead suggests to me that [Xenophon]'s main gripe at
Ath. Pol
. 1.10 is with foreigners in general, rather than with metics per se. For the ideal metic and his opposite, see Baslez (1984, 130–32). Plu.
Sol
. 24.2 states that Solon trusted only “those who had by necessity been thrown out of their homes and those who had left their homes for some purpose.” Judging from the titles of their plays, it is probable that the comic dramatists occasionally ridiculed metics, especially those who were non-Greek. There are uncomplimentary references to the Thraco-Phrygian god Sabazius in four Aristophanic comedies, including one in which he and other foreign deities are expelled from Athens (Cic.
Leg
. 2.37). To escape the Thirty Tyrants, Lysias fled to Megara (12.7). When the democracy was restored, he returned to Athens and prosecuted Eratosthenes, one of the Thirty, for causing his brother's death. See Phillips (2008, 153–84) for full discussion of the speech. The verdict in the trial is unknown. Krentz (1982, 129) writes movingly of the metic contribution to the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants: “Men who did not have the vote fought to preserve Athenian democracy, not because they expected to become voting citizens, but because the radical restructuring of society intended by the oligarchs would have meant either their complete exclusion from Attica or their reduction to a subservient role.” For the decree dated ca. 401/400 granting citizen rights to metics who had fought against the Thirty, see
IG
II
²
10 = Harding 3; [Arist.]
Ath. Pol
. 40.2; Lys. 31.29. Krentz (1980, 303–4) tentatively suggests that they may have received
isoteleia
. Thrasybulus had originally proposed awarding them citizenship, but this had been blocked. Metic status evidently endured after death. In Eur.
Heracl
., when Eurystheus, king of Argos and Mycenae, requests burial in Athens, he promises “to
lie beneath the earth as a
metoikos
for all time and be hostile to the descendants of these people [viz the Spartans]” (ll. 1032–33). Demetriou's claim (2012, 199–200) that, “The arrival of these non-Athenians contributed to making Peiraieus a multicultural society that may have challenged the Athenian concept of citizenship” is somewhat exaggerated.

Emigrant Workers.
See MacDonald (1981, 159–68) and Hornblower (2011, 208–9).

Chapter 10. The itinerant

Itinerants in Archaic Greece.
For the Homeric
dêmiourgos
, see Baslez (1984, 50–53) and Finley (2002, 51–52). It is likely that Herodotus has retrojected the phenomenon of the public physician into the sixth century, since all other examples belong to the fifth century. See Cohn-Haft (1956, 21f., 26, 46f., 53) for physicians specifically.

Itinerants in Classical Greece.
See McKechnie (1989, 142–77). Seers have been the subject of a number of important recent studies, including those of Johnston and Struck (2005); Flower (2008); and Johnston (2008). For wandering female seers, see Flower (2008, 211–39).
Agurtês
, like
chrêsmologos
and
magos
, was a term of abuse when applied to a seer. For sophists as celebrity itinerants, see Garland (2006, 79–81). For the variety of cities to which the craftsmen working at Epidaurus belonged, see Burford (1969, 199–201).

Long-Distance Traders.
For the beginnings of long-distance trading in the Greek world, see Tandy (1997, 59–83). For evidence of trading contacts with Cyprus from around 1000 BCE onward at Lefkandi, see Popham (1994, 12f.). Winter (1995, 258) is of the opinion that the Phoenicians in the Homeric poems “must be seen as neither historical nor ethnographic entities, but rather as well-crafted literary tropes” (cited in Hall 2002, 117).

Pirates and Brigands.
See McKechnie (1989, 101–41); van Wees (1992, 207–17); De Souza (1999, 17–42), and Horden and Purcell (2000, 387–88). For the Phoenicians in the
Odyssey
, see Winter's important article (1995, 247–71), in which she argues that their portrayal is in part the product of “suspicion regarding the consequences of dispersal and mobility” (p. 264). She concludes, “‘Homer's Phoenicians' do not represent the world of the Phoenicians; rather, they present a masterful literary construct.” For Odysseus's Cretan guise as the son of Castor, see De Souza (1999, 18–21).

Mercenaries.
Both Polyb. 11.13.6–8 and Xen.
Hier
. 10 stress the dependency of tyrants on mercenaries. For hoplite mercenaries having to provide their own armor, see Whitehead (1991, 105–13). For the rise of mercenaries in the fourth century and the profound implications that this development had both for the life of the
polis
and for the structure of Greek society, see Marinovic (1988), who notes that this was fostered by “the semi-permanence of warfare, the recrudescence of social conflicts … and the impoverishment of the masses” (p. 3). See also Baslez (1984, 171–75). When Cyrus reviewed the Ten Thousand, they were all wearing crimson tunics (Xen.
Anab
. 1.2.16). For the ethnic composition of the Ten Thousand, see Roy (1967, 302–309) and Marinovic (1988, 32–34). For a vivid description of the rigors attendant upon life as a mercenary, see Lee (2007, 232–54). For the conditions of service, see Roy (1967, 312–16) and McKechnie (1989, 89–93). Hornblower (2011, 200) aptly describes mercenary service as “a kind of alternative to colonization, both being a form of emigration to escape poverty.” He suggests, perhaps somewhat fancifully, that it would have done much to erode racial prejudice among Greeks. For the fate of the mercenaries who served under Darius III following his defeat by Alexander, see Badian (1961, 25–28). For Alexander's mercenary settlements, see Bosworth (1994, 866–88). A major recruitment center for mercenaries from the 330s onward was the sanctuary of Poseidon of Taenarum, located at the tip of the Mani peninsula in the Peloponnese (D.S. 17.111.1; cf. RE,
s.v.
“Tainaron,” col. 2040f.; Badian 1961, 27–28; Schumacher 1993, 72–74).

Persons of No Fixed Abode.
For beggars, see Finley (2000, 52–53). For the poor, see Hands (1968, 62–72).

Chapter 11. Repatriation

LEsprit de Retour
.
“Nostalgia” first entered the English language in 1770 to describe what was identified as a disease among a ship's company longing for home (
OED
). Regarding the problem presented by returnees today, Long and Oxfeld (2004, 13) write: “While return is a way to reconcile and heal past conflict, it also gives rise to new tensions and boundaries, sometimes fueling ethnic hatreds”—a fitting comment on Hom.
Od
. 24. For the Paionians, see Demand (1988, 418–19). Xen.
Anab.
is also infused with
l'esprit de retour
. For the repatriation of the Athenian
dêmos
in exile, see Garland (2001, 32–37) and Wolpert (2002, 100–118). In 406 the Syracusan Assembly passed a decree recalling all exiles (D.S. 13.92.4–7).

The “Return” of the Messenians.
The invention of tradition to bolster claims of ethnic identity has been extensively researched by historians. A classic work is that edited by Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983). The most thorough investigation of the reality behind the claim of the Messenians to be the heirs of a venerable mythic and historical heritage is by Luraghi (2008, pp. 210–30 for the regional implications of the foundation of Messene; and pp. 245–58 for its ethnic composition). See also Shipley's important entry in Hansen and Nielsen (2004, 561–64).

Mass Enforced Repatriation.
See Loraux (2002, 242–44) for further discussion of the return of the exiles from Phlius.

The Exiles' Decree of Alexander the Great.
See Badian (1961, 28–31) and Poddighe (2011, 117–19). The claims put forward by Balogh (1943) that Alexander's decree shows him as “the protector of the unfortunate” (p. 68) and that “a serious social evil came to an end, or was at least considerably lessened” (p. 69) are implausible. For extensive discussion
of the Tegean Decree, see Heisserer (1980, 205–29) and Lonis (1991, 99–103). Heisserer (p. 221) points out that it implicitly sanctioned the return (among others) of those who had joined the revolt against Macedon orchestrated by Agis III of Sparta in 331 and whose leaders had been exiled in 330, following the suppression of the revolt by Antipater (Curt. 6.1.20). Courts consisting of foreign judges became increasingly common in the hellenistic period, evidence of their effectiveness as a way to settle disputes (Lonis, 1991, 108; Rhodes and Osborne, pp. 530–31). The inscription from Tegea is the only surviving document directly connected with the Exiles' Decree. Other
poleis
, however, may well have made similar pronouncements in an attempt to implement the terms of Alexander's mandate according to local conditions. The only comparable piece of legislation is a decree from Mytilene that was passed in 334 or perhaps a few years later when a change of government in favor of democracy occurred (Tod 201 = Heisserer 1980, 123–31 = Harding 113 = Rhodes and Osborne 85).

The Return of the Samians.
See Badian (1976, 289–94); Shipley (1987, 155–68); Habicht (1997, 30–35); and Poddighe (2011, 119–20). Iasus was merely one of several Greek communities that provided the Samian exiles with a refuge during their long years of banishment, as we know from the fact that many other individuals were honored by them (Shipley 1987, 161–63). Evidently their expulsion had caused deep offense throughout the Greek world. In fact even in Athens it had been controversial (Arist.
Rhet
. 2.1384b 29–36). Many Samians had taken refuge at Anaea, the mainland territory opposite the island, which was part of the Samian state. See Badian (1976, 289–94).

APPENDIX A

THE TERMINOLOGY OF DIASPORA

The contemporary debate about migration is bedeviled by semantic imprecision. There are no clear distinctions, for instance, between the terms “asylum-seekers,” “illegal” (or “irregular”) immigrants, and “refugees.” The attempt to establish a classificatory system based on motivation is also flawed, not least because many factors are regularly in play. It is often impossible to differentiate between voluntary and forced migration, or between migration that has a predominantly political motive and that which is fueled primarily by economic considerations. It is also unclear to what extent a collective need is the motivating factor and to what extent individual aspiration or ambition is to the fore.

The difficulties that beset the study of migration in antiquity are even greater, not least because Greek historians habitually fail to indicate whether individuals or groups who leave their homeland have been exiled or have fled voluntarily. This problem is compounded by the fact that the terminology for displacement and migration shows considerable overlap.
¹
There is no linguistic distinction between relocation and deportation, since Greek uses the portmanteau word
metoikêsis
to cover both conditions. Given the brevity of many of the accounts of mass movements in our sources, it is often impossible to determine whether such a movement was voluntary or forced.

The word “refugee,” too, is problematic. The 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as someone who has a “well-founded fear of being persecuted” in his or her country
of origin “for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion” (Article 1.A.2). As has been frequently observed, the Convention does not recognize as refugees those who are escaping from either civil war or famine. Many countries, therefore, have adopted a broader definition—one that includes those who flee from their homeland to escape any kind of violence or disturbance.