Building Democracy in Late Archaic Athens by Jessica Paga;

Author:Jessica Paga;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OUP Premium
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

4

The Demes

Delineation and Interconnectivity

the polis of Athens included the vast territory of Attika, an area of nearly 2,500 km.2 with extensive coastal regions, fertile plains, and multiple mountain ranges (Map 1). A minimum of 5 demes were located within the bounds of the astu, which left the remaining 134 dispersed throughout the chora (territory or countryside) of Attika. The demes ranged in geographic size, population density, and relative level of significance, but each was an integral part of the broader polis organization—politically, economically, militarily, and ritually. Several existed in some form prior to the Kleisthenic reforms, many were created anew, but all were recognized and organized into the new system of phyle-trittys-deme in the years immediately following 508/7. Under the new political regime, the demes were thus fundamental units within the complex matrix of the Athenian state, semiautonomous but full participants in the broader polis. Citizenship depended entirely on deme affiliation, which validated the power of the demes and made their integration into the polis crucial to administrative functionality.

This chapter explores several of these individual demes in order to examine how the building activity documented in the previous chapters for the city center spilled out into the countryside during the late sixth and early fifth centuries. The sheer volume of deme construction activity in the Late Archaic period warrants this close look. The deme structures are not dissimilar from those in the astu: temples, altars, civic structures, gates, walls, and theatral areas all appear in the countryside. The materials and scale are also similar in many cases: marble makes an appearance, as do local stones, and the structures are primarily monumental in scope, if not always in size. The siting and visibility of, and access to, monuments plays an important role in the demes, just as they did in the city center, as does the multipurpose functionality of several of the structures in question. Overall, the deme buildings both complement and augment the construction activity identified in the preceding chapters. In particular, three main conclusions stand out from an analysis of deme construction in the Late Archaic period: the use of deme structures (both physical and organizational) to define the boundaries of the polis; the interconnectivity between demes (and between demes and astu); and the importance of locality and deme identity. These conclusions all highlight the important role the demes played in the successful implementation of the Kleisthenic reforms, both administratively and symbolically, in articulating a new conception of Athenian identity.

In what follows, the geography of Attika and its relation to nearby territories and islands are first considered in order to situate the region within a broader Greek and Mediterranean context. Examinations of individual demes follow, with particular attention to those with large-scale or monumental structures, or those that held special significance for the development of the polis under the new political regime. The individual demes are arranged in order of relative population size (roughly based on bouleutic quota) and extent of monumental construction in the Late Archaic period. Some demes are treated together, such as Piraeus and Phaleron, due to their interrelated functions.

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