Cleruchy
A cleruchy (Greek: κληρουχία, klēroukhia) in Classical Greece, was a specialized type of colony established by Athens. The term comes from the Greek word κληροῦχος, klēroukhos, literally "lot-holder".
History
Normally,
Athenian citizenship, and the community remained a political dependency of Athens – a position reinforced by installing institutions of local government based on Athenian models, such as the council on Samos.[1]
According to Plutarch, cleruchies were assigned to poor Athenian citizens, who would then live overseas while retaining their Athenian citizenship.[1] However, epigraphical evidence suggests that Athenian cleruchs were more commonly wealthy, and continued to live in Athens while slaves worked on their overseas estates.[1] Cleruchies thereby became a significant source of private wealth in Athens – the 3,000 kleroi on Lesbos provided 100 talents a year, according to Thucydides.[1]
The first cleruchy is thought to have been
Peloponnesian war, and never reached this extent again, although some cleruchies were re-established in the fourth century, for example at Lemnos and Samos.[1]
References
Works cited
- Moreno, Alfonso (2013), "Cleruchy", in Bagnall, Roger S.; Broderson, Kai; Champion, Craige B.; Erskine, Andrew; Huebner, Sabine R. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Blackwell
Further reading
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 499–500. Endnotes:
- Gilbert, G. (1895). Constitutional Antiquities of Athens and Sparta (Eng. trans. ed.). London.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) — but Brea is wrongly given as an example, as it was not a cleruchy but a colony (Hicks and Hill, 41 [29]). - Greenidge, A.H.J. (1896). Handbook of Greek Constitutional Antiquities. London.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
- Gilbert, G. (1895). Constitutional Antiquities of Athens and Sparta (Eng. trans. ed.). London.