Paroikoi: characteristics

he majority of farmers in the late Byzantine period were paroikoi.

The relationship between the landowner and the paroikos was initially a temporary one. It was only after thirty or more years that it became permanent. The paroikos would then be registered in the state tax lists and would acquire hereditary rights to the use of the land, from which he could not be evicted, but which, on the other hand, he could not abandon. However, he was a free man and his commitment concerned only the obligations incumbent on the land, that is taxes, rent, income from the land and private corvees (angareiai) which he was bound to render to the landowner. It was not absolutely necessary for him to live in the village where he was registered. He could live elsewhere as long as he fulfilled his obligations; he could even move to another place, so long as he made sure that his obligations were transferred to some other farmer. A paroikos also had the right to buy his own land.

Sources from the 11th century on already mention paroikoi with or without land. There are indications that the social status of a paroikos and his commitments in terms of work, until the 13th century, were passed down to all his descendants, something which seems not to be the case after the 14th century.

In spite of the burdens and the obligations that went with it, the position of the paroikos in the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire offered greater certainty than that of the independent farmer-owner. The situation of the latter during this period deteriorated to such an extent that his obligations could hardly be differentiated from those of the rest of the paroikoi. Thus, to move from the position of a free proprietor to that of a paroikos might be seen in most cases as an improvement in security and condition rather than as a misfortune.