Athenians of the Classical period mainly thought of their city as the sum of its citizens, not as a geographical area: for that there were separate terms: asty (town) to refer to Athens, or chora (country) to refer to the remainder of Attica. At its peak, the population of Attica was somewhere in the region of 300,000 to 350,000. The distinction between one inhabitant of Athens and another rested on whether he had the ability to exercise civic rights. Pericles' citizenship law of 451 B.C. meant that any adult male whose parents originated from an Athenian deme qualified for citizenship. But the citizens can never have numbered more than 50,000 at most as the bulk of the population -women, metics and slaves- had no civic rights. There was also a secondary distinction, based on origin: men, women and children of Athenian origin were known as astoi (townspeople). |
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