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In Ancient Greece, a deme or demos (Greek: δῆμος) was a suburb of Athens or a subdivision of Attica, the region of Greece surrounding Athens. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, but did not acquire particular significance until the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BC. In those reforms, enrollment in the citizen-lists of a deme became the requirement for citizenship; prior to that time, citizenship had been based on membership in a phratry, or family group. At this same time, demes were established in the city of Athens itself, where they had not previously existed; in all, at the end of Cleisthenes' reforms, Attica was divided into 139 demes[1] to which one should add Berenikidai, established in 224/223 BC, Apollonieis (201/200 BC) and Antinoeis (126/127). The establishment of demes as the fundamental units of the state weakened the gene, or aristocratic family groups, that had dominated the phratries.[2]
A deme functioned to some degree as a polis in miniature, and indeed some demes, such as Eleusis and Acharnae, were in fact significant towns. Each deme had a demarchos who supervised its affairs; various other civil, religious, and military functionaries existed in various demes. Demes held their own religious festivals and collected and spent revenue.[3]
Demes were combined with other demes from the same area to make trittyes, larger population groups, which in turn were combined to form the ten tribes, or phyles of Athens. Each tribe contained one trittys from each of three regions: the city, the coast, and the inland area.
trittyes ("thirtieth"), ten for each of the zones and into ten tribes, or phyle, each composed of three trittyes, one from the coast, one from the city, and one from the inland area.
Boule, created with 400 members under Solon, so that it had 500 members, 50 from each tribe, each deme having a fixed quota.
The ten tribes were named after legendary heroes and came to have an official order:
In 307/306 – 224/223 BC the system was reorganized creating the two Macedonian Phylay (XI. Antigonis and XII. Demetrias), named after Demetrius I of Macedon and Antigonus I Monophthalmus, and increasing the Boule to 600 members. Each of the ten tribes, except Aiantis, provide 3 demes (not necessarily one for trittyes); the missing contribution of Aiantis is covered by two demes of Leontis and 1 from Aigeis.
In connection the contribution of each village to the Boule is properly adapted.
The Egyptian Phyle XIII. Ptolemais, named after Ptolemy III Euergetes is created in 224/223 BC and the Boule increases to 600 members, the twelve tribes giving each a demos; moreover a new village is creatied and named Berenikidai, after Ptolemy's wife Berenice II of Egypt.
In 201/200 BC the Macedonian Phylae are dissolved and the villages (except the two given to Ptolemais) go back to the original tribe. Moreover, in spring 200 BC the tribe XIV. Attalis, named after Attalus I, is created following the same scheme used for the creation of the Egyptian Phyle: each tribe contributes a deme and a new deme, Apollonieis, is created in honour of Apollonis, wife of Attalus I of Pergamum. As a consequence we have again 12 tribeas and 600 members of the Boule.
From this period there are no more quotas assigned to the demes for the 50 Boule members of each tribe
The last modification is the creation in 126/127 of XV. Hadrianis, named after Hadrian following the same scheme: each tribe contributes a deme and a new deme, Antinoeis is created in honour of Hadrian's favorite, Antinous.
More over each tribe contributes 40 members to the Boule.
In the first three periods there it a more detailed system of fixed quotas which essentially remained unchanged. There is no evidence for a single general reapportionment of quotas within each of the first three periods, while there are evident small quota-variations between the first and the second periods.[5]
More precisely in:
As regards the last two periods, the material illustrates the complete collapse of the quota-system from 201/200 BC.[8]
Some deme lists suggest to extend the 139+3 list adding 43 other names some of which have been considered by scholars as attic demes.[9] The criticism performed by John S. Traill[10] shows that 24 are the result of error, ancient[11] or modern,[12] or of misinterpretation[13] and 19[14] are well known chiefly from inscriptions of the second and third centuries after Christ, i.e. in the fifth period, and thus for political purposes they were originally dependent on legitimate cleisthenic demes.
There are[15] 6 pairs of homonymous demes:
and 6 divided demes, one composed of three parts:
When the city was settled under the support of Arcadia, 2. Achaea, 3. Elis, 4. Boeotia, 5. Delphi, 6. Dorians, 7. Ionians, 8. population of Euboea, 9. the islands and 10. Athenians.[36]
The term "deme" (dēmos) survived into the Hellenistic and Roman eras. By the time of the Byzantine Empire, the term was used to refer to one of the four chariot racing factions, the Reds, the Blues, the Greens and the Whites.
In modern Greece, the term dēmos is used to denote the municipalities.
Greek alphabet, Greece, Cyprus, Armenia, Christianity
United Kingdom, Autonomous communities of Spain, Province, Village, Country
Central Macedonia, Turkey, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Thessaly, Western Macedonia
Greek language, Western Greece, Central Macedonia, Regional units of Greece, Prefectures of Greece
Spain, Balearic Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, Catalonia
Deme, Administrative division, Prefectures of Greece, Greek language, Administrative regions of Greece
Socrates, Deme, Cleon, Attica, Egypt
Deme, Socrates, Eros, The Frogs, Lysistrata
Deme, Epicureanism, Floruit, Epicurus, Hermarchus
Athens, Ancient Greece, Attica, Deme, Oligarchy