Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T13:09:24.843Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Athenian demography and military strength 338–322 BC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

N. V. Sekunda
N. V. Sekunda
Affiliation:
Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, Oxford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article seeks to construct a life table for the population of Athens during the Lycurgan period (338–322 BC). The total male citizen population in their twentieth year or above is mentioned in literary texts, and the number of ephebes in their nineteenth year can be calculated from the inscribed ephebic catalogues. The conclusions are that the total citizen population of Athens, male and female, may have been about 58,000, the average age at death was 54.11 years, and the growth rate was slightly more than 0.5 per cent.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 87 , November 1992 , pp. 311 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 e.g. Beloch, K. J., Die Bevölkerung der griechisch-römischen Welt (Leipzig, 1886)Google Scholar; id., ‘Die Bevölkerung Attikas’, Griechische Geschichte iii. 2, 2nd edn (Berlin and Leipzig, 1923), 386–418; Meyer, E., Forschungen zur alten Geschichte, ii (Halle, 1899), 149 ff.Google Scholar; Gomme, A. W., The Population of Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC (Oxford, 1933)Google Scholar, with review by de Sanctis, Riv. Fil. 65 (1937), 288–98; Jones, A. H. M., Athenian Democracy (1955), 7–10Google Scholar; 76–83; 161–80; Gomme, , ‘The Population of Athens again’, JHS 79 (1959), 61–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ruschenbusch, E., Athenische Innenpolitik im 5. Jh. v. Chr.: Ideologie oder Pragmatismus? (Bamberg, 1979), 133–52Google Scholar; id., ‘Die soziale Herkunft der Epheben um 330’, ZPE 35 (1979), 173–6; Rhodes, P. J., ‘Ephebi, bouleutae, and the population of Athens’, ZPE 38 (1980), 191–201Google Scholar; Ruschenbusch, , ‘Epheben, Buleuten und die Bürgerzahl Athens um 330 v. Chr.’, ZPE 41 (1981), 103–5Google Scholar; Patterson, C., Pericles' Citizenship Law of 451–50 BC (New York, 1981), ch. 3Google Scholar; Ruschenbusch, , ‘Noch Einmal die Bürgerzahl Athens um 330 v. Chr.’ ZPE 44 (1981), 110–12Google Scholar; Hansen, M. H., ‘Demographic reflections on the number of Athenian citizens 451–309 BC’, AJAH 7 (1982), 172–89Google Scholar; Ruschenbusch, ‘Die Diaitetenliste IG II/III2 1927, zugleich ein Beitrag zur sozialen Herkunft der Scheidsrichter und zur Demographie Athens’, ZPE 49 (1982), 267–81; Williams, J. M., ‘Solon's class system, the manning of Athens' fleet, and the number of Athenian thetes in the late fourth century’, ZPE 52 (1983), 241–5Google Scholar; Ruschenbusch, , ‘Zum letzten Mal: Die Bürgerzahl Athens im 4. Jh. v. Chr.’, ZPE 54 (1984), 253–69Google Scholar; Hansen, , Demography and Democracy: The Number of Athenian Citizens in the Fourth Century BC (Herning, 1985)Google Scholar; Strauss, B. S., Athens After the Peloponnesian War: Class, Faction and Policy 403–386 BC (London and Sydney, 1986), 70–86Google Scholar; 179–82; Hansen, , Three Studies in Athenian Demography (Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk-filosofiske Meddelelser, 56; Copenhagen, 1988).Google Scholar

2 Coale, A. J. and Demeny, P. with Vaughan, B., Regional Model Life Tables and Stable Populations, 2nd edn (Princeton, 1983).Google Scholar

3 Ibid. 29.

4 Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 11.Google Scholar

5 Coale and Demeny (n. 2), 24–5.

6 Hansen, ‘Demographic reflections’ (n. 1), 175; id., Three Studies (n. 1), 9.

7 See Strauss (n. 1), 85 n. 49, on a possible distinction in meaning between these two terms.

8 Tod ii 144 = Harding, P., Translated Documents of Greece and Rome, ii: From the End of the Peloponnesian War to the Battle of Ipsus (1985), no. 56, lines 28–9.Google Scholar

9 Strauss (n. 1), 55–6.

10 Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 10–11.Google Scholar

11 Frier, B., ‘Roman life expectancy: the Pannonian evidence’, Phoenix, 37 (1983), 328–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 SIG 3 276; PA 10640; Cargill, J., GRBS 24 (1983), 327.Google Scholar

13 See e.g. Gilbert, G., The Constitutional Antiquities of Athens and Sparta (English edn, 1897), 197.Google Scholar

14 Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 35.Google Scholar

15 A point noted by Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 49.Google Scholar

16 Cargill, J., ‘IG II2 1 and the Athenian kleruchy on Samos’, GRBS 24 (1983), 324–5.Google Scholar

17 Schweigert, E., ‘The Athenian cleruchy on Samos’, AJP 61 (1940), 194–8.Google Scholar

18 Hereward, D., ‘Notes on an inscription from “Hesperia”’ AJA 60 (1956), 172–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Demography (n. 1), 103 n. 170.

20 Lewis, D. M., CR 23 (1973), 254–6.Google Scholar

21 Cf. Cobet, C. G., Mnemosyne, 3 (1875), 204Google Scholar, who notes that the manuscript reading is χαὶ τότε ἔτι

22 Taylor, A. E. (trans.), Plato: Timaeus and Critias (London, 1929), 115.Google Scholar

23 Ibid. 101.

24 Crosby, M., Hesp. 19 (1950), 255Google Scholar, no. 18, line 18, with p. 257.

25 APF 167.

26 Crosby (n. 24), 199–200.

27 ‘Epheben’ (n. 1), 104; ‘Zum letzten Mal’ (n. 1), 258.

28 Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 45–6.Google Scholar

29 This passage is also given by Harpocration, s.v. ὁμοῦ.

30 Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 27Google Scholar; cf. Ruschenbusch, ‘Zum letzten Mal’ (n. 1), 262–3.

31 Cf. e.g. Vince, J. H., Demosthenes, iii (Loeb edn, 1935), 515.Google Scholar

32 See e.g. Jones, , Athenian Democracy (n. 1), 76Google Scholar; cf. Beloch, , Griechische Geschichte, iii, 2 (n. 1), 404Google Scholar; Gomme, , Population (n. 1), 18Google Scholar; id., ‘The population of Athens again’ (n. 1), 67; Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 28–9.Google Scholar

33 Strauss (n. 1), 177.

34 Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 28–9Google Scholar; 96 n. 86; Hornblower, J., Hieronymus of Cardia (Oxford, 1981), 110Google Scholar (‘Textual error in Diodorus is probably the explanation here’); cf. Ruschenbusch, ‘Epheben’ (n. 1), 104; ‘Zum letzten Mal’ (no. 1), 253; 257–8.

35 Discussed by Gomme, , Population (n. 1), 18 ff.Google Scholar; Ruschenbusch, ‘Epheben’ (n. 1), 104; ‘Zum letzten Mal’ (n. 1), 257; Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 29–36.Google Scholar

36 Griechische Geschichte, iii. 2 (n. 1), 405.

37 Cf. Gomme, , Population (n. 1), 21 n. 1.Google Scholar

38 FGH 245 fr. 1; commentary, p. 813.

39 Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 103 n. 163.Google Scholar

40 Mitchel, F. W., ‘The cadet colonels of the ephebic corps’, TAPA 92 (1961), 347–57.Google Scholar

41 e.g. Meritt, B. D., Hesp. 9 (1940), 65CrossRefGoogle Scholar; AJP 66 (1945), 234; McLeod, W. E., Hesp. 28 (1959), 124CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pritchett, W. K., in Commemorative Studies in Honor of Theodore Leslie Shear (Hesp. suppl. 8; 1949), 277 (‘taxiarch of the phyle’).Google Scholar

42 von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, U., Aristoteles und Athen, ii (Berlin, 1893), 164Google Scholar; Rhodes, P. J., A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia (Oxford, 1981), 685.Google Scholar

43 Cf. Strauss (n. 1), 24; Hanson, V. D., The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Ancient Greece (1989), 122.Google Scholar

44 Develin, R., Athenian Officials 684–321 BC (Cambridge, 1989), 75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 Whitehead, D., The Demes of Attica 508/7–c.250 BC (Princeton, 1986), 224–6.Google Scholar

46 Lacey, W. K., The Family in Classical Greece (1968), 96Google Scholar; Osborne, R., Demos: The Discovery of Classical Attika (1985), 81.Google Scholar

47 Westlake, H. D., ‘Overseas service for the father-beater’, CR 4 (1954), 90–94.Google Scholar

48 Murray, A. T., Demosthenes, vi (Loeb edn, 1939), 128–9, note a.Google Scholar

49 On the date see Gernet, L., Démosthène: plaidoyers civils, iii (Budé edn; Paris, 1959), 100–1Google Scholar; cf. Ober, J., Fortress Attica: Defense of the Athenian Land Frontier 404–322 BC (Mnemosyne suppl. 84; Leiden, 1985), 217.Google Scholar

50 Cf. Ober (n. 49), 98.

51 Kock, T., Comicorum atticorum fragmenta, i (Leipzig, 1880), 4Google Scholar (= PCG iv, p. 72, fr. 1).

52 Hanson (n. 43), 121–4; Osborne (n. 46), 42; 82–3.

53 Strauss (n. 1), 122.

54 Petrakos, B., PAE 1984 A, 197–8, pl. 122 bGoogle Scholar, no. 92. For the date of this expedition see Wade-Gery, H. T., JHS 71 (1951), 217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55 For dedications of spoil (from this campaign made by the Athenians on the Acropolis and at Olympia, see Lazzarini, M. L., Le formule delle dediche votive nella Grecia arcaica (Rome, 1976), nos. 988, 991.Google Scholar

56 Eliot, C. W. J., The Coastal Demes of Attika: A Study of the Policy of Kleisthenes (Phoenix suppl. 5; 1962), 144Google Scholar; 148.

57 Bicknell, P. J., Studies in Athenian Politics and Genealogy (Historia Einzelschrift 19; Wiesbaden, 1972), 21 and n. 67Google Scholar; Siewert, P., Die Trittyen Attikas und die Heeresreform des Kleisthenes (Vestigia, 33; Munich, 1982), 143.Google Scholar

58 IG i2 897–901; cf. Meritt, , Hesp. 8 (1939), 50–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar, no. 16; Hesp. 9 (1940), 53–7.

59 Cf. E. L. Wheeler, in Hanson (n. 43), 135, suggesting that both trittys and trittyarch could antedate Cleisthenes.

60 Thompson, W. E., ‘Τϱιττὺς τῶν πϱυτάνεων’, Historia, 15 (1966), 1–10.Google Scholar For further references see Rhodes (n. 42), 533.

61 Cf. Dow, S., ‘Thucydides and the number of Acharnian hoplitai’, TAPA 92 (1961), 66–80.Google Scholar

62 IG ii2 1187; Mitchel, F. W., Hesp. 33 (1964), 341–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; APF 98; Whitehead (n. 45), 247.

63 Mitchel (n. 40), 357 n. 13.

64 Sekunda, N. V., ZPE 83 (1990), 153.Google Scholar

65 Ibid. 152 ff.

66 Mitchel (n. 40), 356–7.

67 Reinmuth, O. W., TAPA 79 (1948), 216Google Scholar; 216–18 n. 17; 229.

68 Cf. Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 18–21.Google Scholar

69 SIG 3 957 n.

70 Population (n. 1), 67.

71 Pélékidis, Ch., Histoire de l'éphébie attique: des origines à 31 av. J.-C. (Paris, 1962), 121.Google Scholar

72 BCH 13 (1889), 263; cf. Reinmuth, O. W., The Ephebic Inscriptions of the Fourth Century BC (Mnemosyne supp. 14; Leiden, 1971), 7.Google Scholar

73 Traill, J. S., Demos and Trittys (Toronto, 1986), 8.Google Scholar

74 Clinton, K., ‘The ephebes of Kekropis of 333/2 at Eleusis’, Arch. Eph. 1988, Mel. 19–30, at p. 27.Google Scholar

75 Hansen, , Three Studies (n. 1), 3–4 n. 4Google Scholar; Traill (n. 73), 13.

76 Clinton (n. 74); cf. Mitchel (n. 40), 354; Pélékidis (n. 71), 119 n. 1; Reinmuth (n. 72), 16; Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 109 n. 237Google Scholar; Traill (n. 73), 6.

77 The figure 52, which is the total number of preserved names, is given by Hansen (n. 75) and by Reinmuth (n. 72) 16. Clinton (n. 74), 22, notes that it would be possible to restore a further two names, with crowding, at the bottom of the deme-contingent for Halai. On the basis of the size of this deme-contingent for the preceding and following years, however, the lower figure of 52 seems preferable. By an inexplicable lapse Reinmuth (n. 72), 107, also gives the figure 48, but this can be safely disregarded.

78 Cf. Osborne (n. 46), 70.

79 Traill (n. 73), 1–13.

80 In his table on p. 13 Traill (n. 73) lists Halai as having an estimated 13 ephebes and Athmonon 8; yet only 12 and 7 respectively are allowed for in the reconstruction on pp. 3–4. I assume a line has dropped out of the reconstruction.

81 Reinmuth (n. 72), 108.

82 SEG xxxi 162.

83 Palagia, O. and Lewis, D. M., ‘The ephebes of Erech-theis 333/2 BC and their dedication’, BSA 84 (1989), 333–44.Google Scholar

84 Reinmuth (n. 67), 225.

85 Pélékidis (n. 71), 284.

86 Traill, J. S., The Political Organization of Attica (Hesp. supp. 14; 1975), 32 n. 20Google Scholar; his criticisms are accepted by Hansen, , Three Studies (n. 1), 4Google Scholar (‘The evidence we have for Pandionis, on the other hand, is too fragmentary to be of any value’).

87 Pritchett (n. 41), 277, considered this Philippos to be a repetition of Philippos of Acharnai, whom he considered to be the taxiarch. He consequently considered Naukydes son of Diogenes, who seems to be the taxiarch, to be a lochagos.

88 Mitchel (n. 40), 355; Reinmuth (n. 72), 48.

89 Cf. Reinmuth (n. 72), 44.

90 Reinmuth (n. 72), 45–6; cf. IG ii2 1492, 100–1.

91 Contra Reinmuth (n. 72), 23; 49; 107.

92 Cf. Mathieu, G., Rev. Phil. 55 (1929), 172Google Scholar; Reinmuth (n. 72), 60. Pritchett (n. 41), 276 n. 12, followed by Reinmuth (p. 60), thought the name could have been a late addition to the list of lochagoi.

93 Reinmuth (n. 72), 64.

94 Mitchel (n. 40), 355; Reinmuth (n. 72), 60; 63; 67; 125–6.

95 Reinmuth (n. 72), 126.

96 I can state from my own military experience that when brothers serve together they often make good soldiers, for the natural sense of competition which exists between them as brothers spurs them both on to perform their duties as well as they are able.

97 Cf. Reinmuth (n. 72), 108; 110.

98 Willigan, J. D. and Lynch, K. A., Sources and Methods of Historical Demography (New York and London, 1982), 46–9.Google Scholar

99 OCD 2 s.v. Sophocles; Hansen, P. A., Carmina Epigraphica Graeca, ii (Berlin and New York, 1989), nos. 531, 757.Google Scholar

100 Rhodes, P. J., The Athenian Boule (Oxford, 1972), 1–3.Google Scholar

101 Rhodes, ‘Ephebi’ (n. 1); id., ‘More members serving twice in the Athenian Boule’, ZPE 41 (1981), 101–2.

102 Gomme, , Population (n. 1), 10Google Scholar; Jones (n. 1), 82; Ruschenbusch, ‘Soziale Herkunft’ (n. 1), 175; Osborne (n. 46), 44.

103 Lewis, D. M., ‘Notes on attic inscriptions XXIX: the diaitetai of 330–29’, BSA 50 (1955), 27–36, esp. pp. 28–9.Google Scholar

104 Ibid.

105 Ibid.; E. Ruschenbusch, ‘Diaitetenliste’ (n. 1).

106 Ruschenbusch, E., ‘Die Diaiteteninschrift vom Jahre 371 v. Chr.’, ZPE 54 (1984), 247–52.Google Scholar

107 Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 100 n. 126.Google Scholar

108 Develin (n. 44), 343.

109 Pritchett, W. K., The Greek State at War, ii (1974), 88.Google Scholar

110 Develin (n. 44), 346–7.

111 Kroll, J. H., ‘Some Athenian armor tokens’, Hesp. 46 (1977), 141–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

112 Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 37.Google Scholar

113 Ibid. 17.

114 Ibid. 18–19.

115 Ibid. 71–2.

116 Cf. Hansen, ‘Demographic reflections’ (n. 1), 180–1.

117 Demography (n. 1), 38.

118 There is a textual problem with the actual numbers involved, which are transposed in the manuscript text. Wesseling's emendation is now generally accepted (cf. Ashton, , BSA 72 (1977), 5.Google Scholar

119 Cf. Walek, T., ‘Les opérations pendant la guerre lamiaque’, Rev. Phil. 48 (1924), 23–30, at p. 24 n. 2.Google Scholar

120 Cf. Ashton, , BSA 72 (1977), 8 n. 59Google Scholar; Welwei, K. W., Unfreie im antiken Kriegsdienst, i (Wiesbaden, 1974), 103 n. 147.Google Scholar

121 Beloch, K. J., Griechische Geschichte, 2nd edn, iv. 2 (Berlin and Leipzig, 1927), 236–7.Google Scholar

122 Dinsmoor, W. B., The Archons of Athens in the Hellenistic Age (1931), p. xivGoogle Scholar; cf. Beloch (n. 121), 237 (30 July).

123 Cf. the tombstone, found at Bandirma, of one Demetrios, who may have died in the sea battle at Abydos (Vierneisel-Schlörb, B., Glyptothek München: Katalog der Skulpturen, iii: Klassische Grabdenkmäler und Votivreliefs (Munich, 1988), no. 11Google Scholar; cf. Hansen (n. 99), no. 730).

124 IG ii2 493, χαὶ ὲπὶ τοῦ πολέμου τοῦ προτέρου τῶν ἐχ τῆς ναυμαχίας πολλοὺς τῶν πολιτῶν συνδιέσῳσεν χαὶ ἐφόδια δοὺς ἀπέστειλεν εἰς τὴν πόλιν

125 Johnson, A. C., ‘A new inscription from Athens’, AJA 17 (1913), 506–19, at p. 511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

126 IG ii2 398a, dated by Kirchner (ad. loc.) to the Lamian War; cf. Osborne, M. J., ‘Notes on Attic inscriptions 2: IG ii2. 398’, BSA 66 (1971), 323–5.Google Scholar

127 Johnson (n. 125), 516.

128 IG ii2 505, 17 ff.; cf. Walek (n. 119), 26 n. 2.

129 Jacoby, , FGH 239Google Scholar, B 9 ( = Harding (n. 8), no. 2).

130 Plut. Mor. 799 f–800 f; Demetr. 11. 4–5.

131 Ashton, N. G., ‘The naumachia near Amorgos in 322 BC’, BSA 72 (1977), 1–12.Google Scholar

132 Schaefer, A., Demosthenes und seine zeit, iii, 2nd edn (Leipzig, 1887), 382 n. 1.Google Scholar

133 Ferguson, W. S., Hellenistic Athens (London, 1911), 16Google Scholar; Johnson (n. 125).

134 Walek (n. 119), esp. p. 27.

135 Cf. Ashton (n. 131), 7 n. 52.

136 Johnson (n. 125), 515.

137 Ashton (n. 131).

138 Ibid. 9; cf. Hansen, , Demography (n. 1), 39.Google Scholar

139 Ashton, N. G., ‘How Many Pentereis?’, ORBS 20 (1979), 237–42.Google Scholar

140 Morrison, J. S. and Williams, R. T., Greek Oared Ships 900–322 BC (Cambridge, 1968), 289.Google Scholar

141 Morrison, J. S., ‘Hyperesia in naval contexts’, JHS 104 (1984), 48–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

142 Wallinga, H. T., ‘The trireme and its crew’, in den Boeft, J. and Kessels, A. H. M. (eds.), Arctus: Studies in Honour of H. L. W. Nelson (Utrecht, 1982), 463–82.Google Scholar

143 ML 23, line 32 ( = Fornara, C. W., Translated Documents of Greece and Rome, i: Archaic Times to the End of the Peloponnesian War (1977), no. 55Google Scholar).

144 Wallinga (n. 142), 473.

145 IG ii2 554, 12–14 ( = SIG3 329).

146 Welwei (n. 120), 102–3.

147 Whitehead, D., The Ideology of the Athenian Metic (PCPS supp. 4; 1977), 81Google Scholar; 85; 112.

148 Perhaps to be identified with the Pamphilos who, together with one Dareios, extended a mercantile loan to Dionysodoros and Parmeniskos to bring a load of grain from Egypt c.323–322 BC (Dem. lvi. 60).

149 IG ii2 505.

150 Welwei (n. 120), 103.