Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

CITITAS.

91

CIYITAS.

notion of citizenship in the heroic ages only
existed so far as the condition of aliens or of
domestic slaves was its negative. The rise
of a dominant class gradually overthrew the
monarchies of ancient Greece. Of such a
class, the chief characteristics were good hirth
and the hereditary transmission of privileges,
the possession of land, and the performance
of military service. To these characters the
names gamori (ya/xopoi), knights (imrels), eu-
patridae (eimaTpCSai), &c. severally corre-
spond. Strictly speaking, these were the only
citizens ; yet the lower class were quite dis-
tinct from bondmen or slaves. It commonly
happened that the nobility occupied the forti-
fied towns, while the dermis (Srjuos) lived in
the country and followed agricultural pur-
suits : whenever the latter were gathered
within the walls, and became seamen or
handicraftsmen, the difference of ranks was
soon lost, and wealth made the only standard.
The quarrels of the nobility among themselves,
and the admixture of population arising from
immigrations, all tended to raise the lower
orders from their political subjection. It
must be remembered, too, that the possession
of domestic slaves, if it placed them in no
new relation to the governing body, at any
rate gave them leisure to attend to the higher
duties of a citizen, and thus served to increase
their political efficiency. During the convul-
sions which followed the heroic ages, natural-
isation was readily granted to all who desired
it; as the value of citizenship increased, it
was, of course, more sparingly bestowed. The
ties of hospitality descended from the prince
to the state, and the friendly relations of the
Homeric heroes were exchanged for the
■n-po^evCat. of a later period. In political inter-
course, the importance of these last soon be-
gan to be felt, and the Proxcnus at Athens, in
after times, obtained rights only inferior to
actual citizenship. [Hospiticm.] The iso-
polite relation existed, however, on a much
more extended scale. Sometimes particular
privileges were granted : as eniyanCa., the
right of intermarriage ; ey/cnjcris, the right
of acquiring landed property; are'Aeia, im-
munity from taxation, especially are'Aeia p.eT0i-
klov, from the tax imposed on resident aliens.
All these privileges were included under the
general term icroTeAfta, or i(T07roAtVeia, and the
class who obtained them were called icroTeAets.
They bore the same burthens with the citizens,
and could plead in the courts or transact
business with the people, without the inter-
vention of a 7rpoo-Tan)5, or patron, respecting
the division of the Athenian citizens into
tribes, phratriae and demes, see the articles
Teibus and Demus.—If we would picture to
jurselves the true notion which the Greeks

embodied in the word polis (toAi?), we must
lay aside all modern ideas respecting the
nature and object of a state. With us practi-
cally, if not in theory, the essential object of
a state hardly embraces more than the pro-
tection of life and property. The Greeks, on
the other hand, had the most vivid conception
of the state as a whole, every part of which
was to co-operate to some great end to which
all other duties were considered as subor-
dinate. Thus the aim of democracy was said
to be liberty ; wealth, of oligarchy; and edu-
cation, of aristocracy. In all governments
the endeavour was to draw the social union
as close as possible, and it seems to have been
with this view that Aristotle laid down a
principle which answered well enough to the
accidental circumstances of the Grecian states,
that a pohs must be of a certain size. This
unity of purpose was nowhere so fully carried
out as in the government of Sparta. The
design of Spartan institutions was evidently
to unite the governing body among themselves
against the superior numbers of the subject
population. The division of lands, the sys-
sitia, the education of their youth, all tended
to this great object. [Helotes ; Teeioeci.]
In legal rights all Spartans were equal : but
there were yet several gradations, which,
when once formed, retained their hold on the
aristocratic feelings of the people. First,
there was the dignity of the Ileraclide fami-
lies ; and, connected with this, a certain pre-
eminence of the Hyllean tribe. Another dis-
tinction was that between the Hotnoini (6p.oioi)
and llypomeinncs {ynofieLov^, which, in later
times, appears to have been considerable.
The latter term probably comprehended those
citizens who, from degeneracy of manners or
other causes, had undergone some kind of
civil degradation. To these the Somoioi were
opposed, although it is not certain in what
the precise difference consisted. All the
Spartan citizens were included in the three
tribes, Hylleans, Dymanes or Dymanatae, and
Famphilians, each of which was divided into
ten obes or phratries. The citizens of Sparta,
as of most oligarchical states, were landowners,
although this does not seem to have been
looked upon as an essential of citizenship.—
(2) Roman. Civitas means the whole body
of cives, or members, of any given state, and
the word is frequently used by the Roman
writers to express the rights of a Koman
citizen, as distinguished from those of other
persons not Itoman citizens, as in the phrases,
dare, civitatcm, donare civitate, vsurpare civi-
tatcm. Some members of a political commu-
nity [cives) may have more political rights
than others ; and this was the case at Home
under the republic, in which we find a dis-