Any foreigner staying in Athens for more than a month had to register as a metic, and pay the metic tax - a tax of a drachma a month.

As a rule metics were not permitted to own land or work a mine. But there were always exceptions. We can see this from the case of a Thracian called Sokias, who had at his disposal a workforce of one thousand slaves at Laurion. There was no bar to a metic engaging in mining, since he could rent land in the Laurion area from the Athenian state, as the security required by the city could be property of any kind. The bulk of the metics and foreigners were actively engaged in trade.

There were however instances of metics being given the rights of isoteleia (the privilege of paying taxes equal to those paid by Athenians) and tenure [en-ktesis] of land and home (the privilege of owning real estate). These metics were, Demosthenes informs us, particularly anxious to keep their property 'visible', in other words to let the state and their fellow citizens see what it amounted to.

Most metics were successful workshop owners employing slaves. Kephalos from Syracuse and his sons Polemarchos and the orator Lysias were three metics of note. They had a shieldmaking workshop with a hundred and twenty slaves working for them.