Δημοτευταί: Political Elite of Attic Demes in Early Classical Period {Statement of the Problem)
Surikov Igor E.
Deme was one of the most important structural units of the Classical Athenian state. Its institutions imitated those of the polis, including magistrates and assembly. Since there was political life of some kind in Attic demes, one may speak of political elite of the demes as distinct from the polis elite. In the first half of the 5th с. ВС this «second-level» elite was not yet in a position to rival traditional aristocratic leaders like Cimon, Xanthippus or Aristides, but it enjoyed great authority in local communities, especially in rural ones and those remote from the city). For a big part of ordinary citizens their demarchs and other members of the deme elite were more important and indispensable than polis magistrates. The principal point of the article is that many of the politicians mentioned on Athenian ostraka of the first half of the 5th с. ВС belonged to the deme elite. Their demesmen wrote their names on the potsherds simply because these names were much more familiar to them than those of the first-rank polis politicians. An inscription on an ostrakon bearing a name of a certain Isthmonicus gives the author grounds to call the members of this deme elite бгцхотешоа. Analysing relevant material of ostraka, he ventures some important conclusions about the status of this stratum among the Athenian citizens. Most demo-teutai belonged to rural demes: apparently, the inhabitants of urban demes were more actively involved in the work of structures of the whole state, and their horizon was not limited to their local communities. On the other hand, some demoteutai migrated to the city while trying to retain influence upon their demes. They were men of some ambition, but rather a moderate one. They participated in Panhellenic games, had guest-friends in other cities and gave noble (though not utterly noble) names to their children.