Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

S92 DEMUS. DEMUS.
off from the waste," just as our word town-comes, the public business of the demus, such as the leas.
according to Horne Tooke, from the Saxon verb ing of its estates, the elections of officers, the re" tynan," to enclose. (Arnold, ad Tluc. vol. i. vision of the registers or lists of Demnotae (.377uoaT),
Appendix, iii) It seems, however, more simple and the admission of new members. [DENARCHIo.]
to connect it with the Doric Ma for ya. In this l\Ioreover, each demus appears to have kept what
meaning of a country district, inhabited and under was called a rflvat KkcffcMl TKO'LS, or list of those
cultivation, 8iikos is contrasted with 7rdhts: thus Demotae wh'o were entitled to vote at the general
we have &sap&v 81.sA nse 7r6cAlv e (Hes. Op. et assemblies of the whole people. In a financial
Dies, 527); but the transition from a locality to point of view, they supplanted the old " naucraits occupiers is easy and natural, and hence in the ries " of the four tribes, each demus being required
earlier Greek poets we find 6ijlos applied to the to furnish to the state a certain quota of money,
outlying country population, who tilled the lands of and contingent of troops, whenever necessary.
the chieftains or inhabitants of the city; so that Independent of these bonds of union, each demos
66eos and 7roXAsal came to be opposed to each seems to have had its peculiar temples, and reliother, the former denoting the subject peasantry, gious worship (soervca Lsep'd, Paus. i. 31; Pollux,
the latter, the nobles in the chief towns. viii. 108), the officiating priests in which were
The Demi (of 8i/soL) in Attica were subdivisions chosen by the Demotae (Dem. c. Eubul. p. 1313);
of the tribes, corresponding to our townshtips or so that both in a civil and religious point of view,
htundreds. Their institution is ascribed to Theseus; the demi appear as minor commanities, whose mabut we know nothing about them before the age gistrates, moreover, were obliged to submit to a
of Cleisthenes, who broke up the four tribes of the oKcelaiea, in the same way as the public officers
old constitution, and substituted in their place ten of the whole state. But besides the magistrates,
local tribes (rpvXaL 7rtlcKaL), each named after some such as demarchs and treasurers (caltat), elected
Attic hero. (Herod. v. 66, 69.) These were sub- by each parish, we also read of judges, who were
divided each into ten demi *or country parishes, called imaosTavl icavh Vl3/ovs: the number of these
possessing each its principal town; and in some officers, originally thirty, was afterwards increased
one of these demi were enrolled all the Athenian to forty, and it appears that they made circuits
citizens resident in Attica, with the exception, through the different districts, to administer justice
perhaps, of those who were natives of Athens itself in all cases where the matter in dispute was not
(Thirlwall, Ilist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 74.) These more than ten drachmae in value, more important
subdivisions corresponded in some degree to the questions being reserved for the alatmvaf. (,HudtYauicpaplaL of the old tribes, and were, according walcker, p. 37.)
to Herodotus, one hundred in number; but as the On the first institution of the demi, Cleisthenes
Attic demi amounted in the time of Strabo (ix. p. increased the strength of the Bi/o.s, or commonalty,
396, c.) to 174, doubts have been raised about this by making many new citizens, amongst whom are
statement. Niebuhr has inferred from it that the said to have been included not only strangers and
tribes of Cleisthenes did not originally include the resident foreigners, but also slaves. (Arist. Paol.
whole population of Attica, and " that some of the iii. 1.)* Now admission into a demus was necesadditional 74 must have been cantons, which had sary, before any individual could enter upon his
previously been left in a state of dependence; by full rights and privileges as an Attic citizen; and
far the chief part, however, were houses (?ye'sv) though in the first instance, every one was enrolled
of the old aristocracy," which were included in the in the register of the demus in which his property
four Ionian tribes, but, according to Niebuhr, were and residence lay, this relation did not continue to
not incorporated in the ten tribes of the " rural hold with all the Demotae.; for since a son was
commonalty," till after the time of Cleisthenes. registered in the demus of his real or adoptive
This inference, however, seems very questionable; father, and the former might change his residence,
for the number of the demi might increase from a it would often happen that the members of a
variety of causes, such as the growth of the popu- demus did not all reside in it. Still this would
lation, the creation of new tribes, and the division not cause any inconvenience, since the meetings
of the larger into smaller demi; to say nothing of each demus were not held within its limits, but
of the improbability of the co-existence of two at Athens. (Dem. c. Eubu2l. p. 1.302,) No one,
different orders of tribes. " Another fact, more however, could purchase property situate within a
difficult to account for, is the transposition by demus to which he did not himself belong, without'which demes of the same tribe were found at op- paying to the demarchs a fee for the privilege of
posite extremities of the country." (Thirlwall, 1. c., doing so (e-yz7urijTCO'), wlhich would, of course,
and app. i. vol. ii.) The names of the different go to the treasury of the demus. (Biickh, Publ.
demes were taken, some from the chief towns in Econ. ofAthelens, p. 297, 2nd ed.)
them, as Marathon, Eleusis, and Acharnae; some Two of the most important functions of the
from the names of houses or clans, such as the general assemblies of the demni,' were, the admisDaedalidae, Boutadae, &c. The largest of all sion of new members and the revision of the
was the demus of Acharnae, which in the time of names of members already admitted. The register
the Peloponnesian war, was so extensive as to of enrolment was called Xf LeapX5Ktd,? ypa/t0areoe,,
supply a force of no less than three thousand because any person whose name was inscribed in
heavy-arled men. (Comp. Thuc. ii. 191.) it could enter upon an inheritance and enjoy a
In explanation of their constitution and relation
to the state in general, we may observe, that they ie- noXAos e&pvuXE-vse SEvovs cKal eoiAovs
formed independent corporations, and had each,ETofcKOuS. This passage has given rise to much
their several magistrates, landed and other pro- dispute, and has been considered by many critics
perty, with a common treasury. They had like- to afford no sense; but no emendation which has
wise their respective convocations convened by the been proposed is better than the received text. See
Demarchi (8mucspXoi), in which was transacted Grote, Ilistory of Greece, vol. iv. p. 170.