DOI Artikel:
Tarbell, Frank B.: The decrees of the Demotionidai: a study of the Attic Phratry
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8678#0185
THE DECREES OE THE DEMOTIOXIDAI.
A STUDY OF THE ATTIC PHRATRY.
In the Athenian State as constituted by Kleisthenes, every citizen
belonged to three subordinate political corporations; he was member
at once of a tribe, a deme, and a phratry. Of these three, the last
was the least conspicuous. The phratry did not rival the deme in the
frequency of its meetings and the importance of its affairs ; nor did it
enter, like the tribe, into the political and military organization of the
State. But it had in its keeping an important trust, that of prevent-
ing the intrusion of illegitimate members into the body politic. This
trust it shared in a measure, it is true, with the deme; but inasmuch
as both male and female children were received into the phratry, and
that, as a rule, in their earliest years, while the deme enrolled in its
register only males, receiving them at the age of seventeen, we can
hardly go wrong in regarding the phratry as the chief guardian of the
purity of Athenian citizenship. An acquaintance with it is thus essen-
tial to an understanding of Athenian political life.
Our principal literary sources of information on the subject are as
follows (1) Aristotle, in the 'A.8-qva[(ov HoXcre[a, gave an account
of the organization which he conceived to have existed at Athens be-
fore the profound reforms of Kleisthenes. The passage is preserved
in a more or less garbled form by Harpokration, Pollux, and other lexi-
cographers, and is given verbatim in the Patmian Scholia published in
the Bulletin dc Oarrespondance Hellemque (vol. i, p. 152). According
to this, each of the four original tribes consisted of three phratries,
each phratry of thirty gentes, and each gens of thirty men. This
account is so artificial in its numerical symmetry, and so fanciful in the
reasons assigned for it, as to excite the gravest doubts of Aristotle's com-
petence as a witness for the period in question. Where, indeed, could
he have obtained full and trustworthy information ? As to whether
the phratries were affected by the reforms of Kleisthenes, Aristotle has
'See especially Platner, Beitrage zur Kenntniss des attischen Sechts; Meier, T)e.
gentilUate atlica; Busolt, OrieehUehe Staals- unci Rechtsalteriiimer, $159, in Iwan Mid-
ler's Ilandbuch der klasslschcn Altcrtumswissenschaft, Ed. iv. I have not been able lo
see Sauppe, De phratriis atticis (Gottingen, 188G/7).
170
A STUDY OF THE ATTIC PHRATRY.
In the Athenian State as constituted by Kleisthenes, every citizen
belonged to three subordinate political corporations; he was member
at once of a tribe, a deme, and a phratry. Of these three, the last
was the least conspicuous. The phratry did not rival the deme in the
frequency of its meetings and the importance of its affairs ; nor did it
enter, like the tribe, into the political and military organization of the
State. But it had in its keeping an important trust, that of prevent-
ing the intrusion of illegitimate members into the body politic. This
trust it shared in a measure, it is true, with the deme; but inasmuch
as both male and female children were received into the phratry, and
that, as a rule, in their earliest years, while the deme enrolled in its
register only males, receiving them at the age of seventeen, we can
hardly go wrong in regarding the phratry as the chief guardian of the
purity of Athenian citizenship. An acquaintance with it is thus essen-
tial to an understanding of Athenian political life.
Our principal literary sources of information on the subject are as
follows (1) Aristotle, in the 'A.8-qva[(ov HoXcre[a, gave an account
of the organization which he conceived to have existed at Athens be-
fore the profound reforms of Kleisthenes. The passage is preserved
in a more or less garbled form by Harpokration, Pollux, and other lexi-
cographers, and is given verbatim in the Patmian Scholia published in
the Bulletin dc Oarrespondance Hellemque (vol. i, p. 152). According
to this, each of the four original tribes consisted of three phratries,
each phratry of thirty gentes, and each gens of thirty men. This
account is so artificial in its numerical symmetry, and so fanciful in the
reasons assigned for it, as to excite the gravest doubts of Aristotle's com-
petence as a witness for the period in question. Where, indeed, could
he have obtained full and trustworthy information ? As to whether
the phratries were affected by the reforms of Kleisthenes, Aristotle has
'See especially Platner, Beitrage zur Kenntniss des attischen Sechts; Meier, T)e.
gentilUate atlica; Busolt, OrieehUehe Staals- unci Rechtsalteriiimer, $159, in Iwan Mid-
ler's Ilandbuch der klasslschcn Altcrtumswissenschaft, Ed. iv. I have not been able lo
see Sauppe, De phratriis atticis (Gottingen, 188G/7).
170