DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0071
OF THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS, 49
The sojourners (if I may speak my mind)
Are, as it were, the city's chaff and scum. j. a.
They were not allowed to act any thing, or manage any business in their
own names, but were obliged to choose out of the citizens one, to whose
care and protection they would commit themselves, and whose duty it
was to defend them from all violence and oppression. This is intimated
in Terence's Eunuchus, where Thais puts herself into the hands of Phae-
dria's family.
—i-CH. Turn autem Phadria,
Meofratri, gaudeo amorem, esse omnem in tranquillo, una est domv.s,
Thais patri se commendavit, in clientelam etfidem
Nobis deditse--(1).
Now I rejoice, my brother Phaedria's love
Is quietly secur'd to him for ever.
We're now one family : and Thais has
Found favour with my father, and resign'd
Herself to us for patronage and care. colman.
The person to whom they committed themselves, was called n£os-«rr(j,
and was allowed to demand several„services of them, in which if they
failed, or if they neglected to choose a patron, an action was commenced
against them before the Polemarchus, called ATrgos-as-ZB dUv, whereupon
their goods were confiscated.
In consideration of the privileges allowed them, the commonwealth re-
quired them to perform several duties ; for instance, in the Panathenaea,
a festival celebrated in honour of Minerva, the men were obliged to carry
certain vessels called Hxtiprii, whereby are meant not spades, as Meursius
and the translator of Harpocration have explained this word, but navicu-
l(B, little ships, which were signs of their foreign extraction, which few
have hitherto rightly understood. Hence they were termed (SkkQbU or
rfjca^j^ei, by the ancient writers of comedy. The women carried vomica,
vessels of water, or tfKictSetct, umbrellas, to defend the free women from the
weather, and are thence named vtyoLQogoi and Cxiae^^o*. This last cus-
tom was begun after Xerxes and the Persians had been driven out of
Greece, when the Athenians, becoming insolent with success, set a great-
er value 'upon the freedom of their city than they had formerly
done (2).
Besides this, the men paid an annual tribute of twelve drachms, though
Hesychius mentioneth ten only, and the women that had no sons, were
liable to be taxed six ; but such as had sons that paid, were excused.
This tribute was called.Mtrekiov, and was exacted not only of those that
dwelt in Athens, but of all such as settled themselves in any town of Atti-
ca, as appears from the instance given us by Lysius (3) in Oropus, which
was an Athenian town, situated upon the confines of Bceotia. About the
time of Xerxes's invasion upon Greece, Themistocles having by his emi-
nent service raised himself to great power in the commonwealth, prevail-
ed so far upon the Athenians, that they remitted this exaction, and con-
tinued the sojourners in the enjoyment of their privileges, without re-
quiring any such acknowledgment from them (4). How long they enjoyed
this immunity, I cannot tell, but it is certain they kept it not long, and
probably it might be taken from them, and the act repealed, a6 soon as
0) Act. u!t. seen. ult. (3) Orat. in Philonem-
(2) ^liani Varias Historic, lib, vi. cap. L (4) Diodor. SicuL lib. sL
7
The sojourners (if I may speak my mind)
Are, as it were, the city's chaff and scum. j. a.
They were not allowed to act any thing, or manage any business in their
own names, but were obliged to choose out of the citizens one, to whose
care and protection they would commit themselves, and whose duty it
was to defend them from all violence and oppression. This is intimated
in Terence's Eunuchus, where Thais puts herself into the hands of Phae-
dria's family.
—i-CH. Turn autem Phadria,
Meofratri, gaudeo amorem, esse omnem in tranquillo, una est domv.s,
Thais patri se commendavit, in clientelam etfidem
Nobis deditse--(1).
Now I rejoice, my brother Phaedria's love
Is quietly secur'd to him for ever.
We're now one family : and Thais has
Found favour with my father, and resign'd
Herself to us for patronage and care. colman.
The person to whom they committed themselves, was called n£os-«rr(j,
and was allowed to demand several„services of them, in which if they
failed, or if they neglected to choose a patron, an action was commenced
against them before the Polemarchus, called ATrgos-as-ZB dUv, whereupon
their goods were confiscated.
In consideration of the privileges allowed them, the commonwealth re-
quired them to perform several duties ; for instance, in the Panathenaea,
a festival celebrated in honour of Minerva, the men were obliged to carry
certain vessels called Hxtiprii, whereby are meant not spades, as Meursius
and the translator of Harpocration have explained this word, but navicu-
l(B, little ships, which were signs of their foreign extraction, which few
have hitherto rightly understood. Hence they were termed (SkkQbU or
rfjca^j^ei, by the ancient writers of comedy. The women carried vomica,
vessels of water, or tfKictSetct, umbrellas, to defend the free women from the
weather, and are thence named vtyoLQogoi and Cxiae^^o*. This last cus-
tom was begun after Xerxes and the Persians had been driven out of
Greece, when the Athenians, becoming insolent with success, set a great-
er value 'upon the freedom of their city than they had formerly
done (2).
Besides this, the men paid an annual tribute of twelve drachms, though
Hesychius mentioneth ten only, and the women that had no sons, were
liable to be taxed six ; but such as had sons that paid, were excused.
This tribute was called.Mtrekiov, and was exacted not only of those that
dwelt in Athens, but of all such as settled themselves in any town of Atti-
ca, as appears from the instance given us by Lysius (3) in Oropus, which
was an Athenian town, situated upon the confines of Bceotia. About the
time of Xerxes's invasion upon Greece, Themistocles having by his emi-
nent service raised himself to great power in the commonwealth, prevail-
ed so far upon the Athenians, that they remitted this exaction, and con-
tinued the sojourners in the enjoyment of their privileges, without re-
quiring any such acknowledgment from them (4). How long they enjoyed
this immunity, I cannot tell, but it is certain they kept it not long, and
probably it might be taken from them, and the act repealed, a6 soon as
0) Act. u!t. seen. ult. (3) Orat. in Philonem-
(2) ^liani Varias Historic, lib, vi. cap. L (4) Diodor. SicuL lib. sL
7