Paroikoi: definition

aroikos literally means "someone who lives nearby", "neighbour". The word also referred to the stranger, the person who lived in a foreign land. In Byzantine society the term paroikos appeared in the 4th century and indicated the dependent provider of manpower.

Thus, during the late Byzantine period too, the term paroikos characterised literally all the inhabitants of villages and estates who were under the authority of a powerful pronoia holder and who were dependent on the latter for everything that had to do with taxes and legal matters, as well as for their protection. Even when an entire village was ceded as a pronoia, the social status of its inhabitants did not change. They remained free and the only thing that changed was that they now had to render the obligations incumbent on the land to the landowner and not to the state. Many of the paroikoi paid rent for the land they cultivated, that is their status was that of tenant-farmers, although this did not necessarily apply to all of them. Tenant-paroikoi are mentioned as existing as a social class from the end of the 5th century until the fall of Byzantium. It should be noted that the word paroikos in late Byzantine society usually characterises the permanent leaser of the land, whereas the rest of those who were simply in a relationship of dependent labour were given various names and belonged to the category of the landless and the poor.

In the late Byzantine period, however, the term paroikos could mean both the tenant and the small proprietor-farmer of the land, whose status, in the latter case, was equalled to that of the paroikos, since he, too, was under the authority of a powerful pronoiarios. Historical sources refer to them all as paroikoi, whereas normally it should be made clear whether a paroikos was a tenant or an owner of the land. Nevertheless,the impression one gathers from the study of documents of the time is that the small independent land-owning farmer had not entirely disappeared.