Deme

Cleisthenes' reforms and modifications

First period: 508 – 307/306 BC

Cleisthenes divided the landscape in three zones—urban (asty), coastal (paralia) and inland (mesogeia)—and the 139 demes were organized into 30 groups called trittyes ("thirds"), ten for each of the zones and into ten tribes, or phylai, each composed of three trittyes, one from the coast, one from the city, and one from the inland area.

Cleisthenes also reorganized the Boule, created with 400 members under Solon, so that it had 500 members, 50 from each tribe, each deme having a fixed quota.

The ten tribes were named after legendary heroes and came to have an official order:

1. Erechtheis (Ἐρεχθηΐς) named after Erechtheus
2. Aigeis (Αἰγηΐς) named after Aegeus
3. Pandionis (Πανδιονίς) named after Pandion
4. Leontis (Λεοντίς) named after Leos, son of Orpheus
5. Acamantis (Ἀκαμαντίς) named after Acamas
6. Oineis (Οἰνηΐς) named after Oeneus
7. Kekropis (Κεκροπίς) named after Cécrops
8. Hippothontis (or Hippothoontis) (Ἱπποθοντίς) named after Hippothoon
9. Aiantis (Αἰαντίς) named after Ajax
10. Antiochis (Ἀντιοχίς) named after Antiochus, son of Heracles

Second period: 307/306 – 224/223 BC

In 307/306 – 224/223 BC the system was reorganized with the creation of two Macedonian Phylai (XI. Antigonis and XII. Demetrias), named after Demetrius I of Macedon and Antigonus I Monophthalmus, and an increase in the membership of the Boule to 600. Each of the ten tribes, except Aiantis, provided three demes (not necessarily one for trittyes); the missing contribution of Aiantis was covered by two demes of Leontis and one from Aigeis.

Third period: 224/223 – 201/200 BC

The Egyptian Phyle XIII. Ptolemais, named after Ptolemy III Euergetes was created in 224/223 BC and the Boule was again increased, this time to 650 members, the twelve tribes giving each a demos. A new village was created and named Berenikidai after Ptolemy's wife Berenice II of Egypt.

Fourth period: 201/200 BC – 126/127 AD

In 201/200 BC the Macedonian Phylae were dissolved and the villages (except the two given to Ptolemais) went back to their original tribes. In the spring of 200 BC Tribe XIV. Attalis, named after Attalus I, was created following the same scheme used for the creation of the Egyptian Phyle: each tribe contributed a deme and a new deme, Apollonieis, was created in honour of Apollonis, wife of Attalus I of Pergamum. As a consequence there were again 12 tribes and 600 members of the Boule. From this period onward, quotas were no longer assigned to the demes for the 50 Boule members from each tribe.

Fifth period: 126/127 – third century

The last modification was the creation in 126/127 of XV. Hadrianis, named after the Emperor Hadrian, following the same scheme: each tribe contributed a deme and a new deme, Antinoeis, was created in honour of Hadrian's favourite, Antinous. Each tribe contributed 40 members to the Boule.

Representation in the Boule

In the first three periods there it a more detailed system of fixed quotas which essentially remained unchanged. There is no evidence for a single general reapportionment of quotas within each of the first three periods, while there are evident small quota-variations between the first and the second periods.

More precisely in:

307/306 BC, 24 demes increased of 1 bouleutes, 13 of 2, 5 or 3, 6 of 4 and 1 (Lower Paiania) of 11 and there is not a single example of a decreased quota.

224/223 BC 4 demes increased of 1 bouletes

As regards the last two periods, the material illustrates the complete collapse of the quota-system from 201/200 BC.

Spurious and Late Roman demes

Some deme lists suggest extensions to the list of 139+3 Demes by adding 43 additional names, some of which have been considered by scholars as Attic demes. The criticism performed by John S. Traill shows that 24 are the result of error, ancient or modern, or of misinterpretation and 19 are well known chiefly from inscriptions of the second and third centuries AD, i.e. in the fifth period, and thus for political purposes they were originally dependent on legitimate Cleisthenic demes.

Homonymous and divided demes

There were six pairs of homonymous demes:

• Halai Araphenides (VII.Kekropis) and Halai Aixonides (II.Aigeis)
• Oion Dekeleikon (VIII.Hippothontis; later XIII.Ptolemais, XIV.Attalis) and Oion Kerameikon (IV.Leontis; affiliated with XII.Demetrias in the Macedonian period)
• Eitea: there were two demes of that name, but no modifier is known. One is associated to V.Acamantis, later XI.Antigonis and XV.Hadrianis; the other is associated to X.Antiochis
• Oinoe and Oinoe: again no modifier is known; one deme was associated to VIII.Hippothontis, later XII.Demetrias and XIII.Ptolemais; the other was associated to IX.Aiantis, later XIV.Attalis and XV.Hadrianis.
• Kolonai: again no modifier is known; one deme was associated to IV.Leontis; the other to X.Antiochis, later XI.Antigonis and XIII.Ptolemais.
• Eroiadai: again no modifier is known for these two demes associated to VIII.Hippothontis and X.Antiochis.

There were six divided demes, one composed of three parts:

• Agryle, Upper Agryle and Lower Agryle (I.Erechtheis); one of them, but there is no prosopographical information for identifying which, was transferred to XI.Antigonis and went back at the end of the Macedonian period; later one of them (again it is uncertain which) was transferred to XIV.Attalis.
• Lamptrai, Upper Lamptrai and Coastal/Lower Lamptrai (I.Erechtheis); Upper Lamptrai was transferred to XI.Antigonis and went back at the end of the Macedonian period.
• Pergase, Upper and Lower (I.Erechtheis); one of them (no prosopographical information allows to decide which) was transferred to XI.Antigonis and went back at the end of the Macedonian period.
• Ankyle: no special designations of either section are preserved, although they are presumed to have the regular Upper and Lower forms. One section, perhaps Upper Ankale, was transferred to XI.Antigonis and went back at the end of the Macedonian period.
• Paiania, Upper Paiania and Lower Paiania (III.Pandionis); Upper Paiania, was transferred to XI.Antigonis and went back at the end of the Macedonian period.
• Potamos has three sections, Upper Potamos, Lower Potamos and Potamos Deiradiotes (IV.Leontes); during the Macedonian period, Potamos Deiradiotes belonged to XI.Antigonis and Lower Potamos to XII.Demetrias.

List of Athenian demes according to tribes/phylai (φυλαί)

The ten Cleisthenic tribes

The Macedonian tribes

The later tribes

The ten tribes of Thurii

When the city was settled under the support of Pericles and the command of Lampon and Xenocritus the population was organized in ten tribes, following the Athenian organization: there were tribes for the population of 1. Arcadia, 2. Achaea, 3. Elis, 4. Boeotia, 5. Delphi, 6. Dorians, 7. Ionians, 8. population of Euboea, 9. the islands and 10. Athenians.

Demos as personification

The deme as the "body politic" began to be personified, typically as a bearded older man, in Greek art and literature of the early to mid-4th century BCE. Demos wears the himation garment and often holds a staff. He is usually standing; when seated, the figure can be ambiguous as to whether it represents Zeus. In Athens, thirty-two depictions of Demos, some arguable, occur within reliefs on honorary steles set up by the ekklesia, the democratic assembly of citizens. As a quasi-deity, Demos is neither the polis itself, which tended to be a female personification, nor its tutelary deity, but seems rather to have represented the political process as such. At times he is depicted with Boule, the personification of the citizens' administrative council of a city (boule), who is not known to have been depicted other than in the company of Demos. In the Hellenistic period, depictions of Demoi become more youthful, tending toward a similarity to the Genius of the Roman People.

In the play known in English as The Knights, Aristophanes satirizes the Demos of Athens as the master to whom politicians are enslaved. The play is set in the house of Demos. The "love of country" extolled by politicians was mocked by Aristophanes as a literal sexual relationship, with Cleon as erastes of Demos, who is susceptible to flattery and seduction.

The personification of the demos thus visualized the power of the people as consolidated in an individual — an image that could be manipulated by demagogues. In the Roman era, the demos of a particular place embodied could be integrated into imperial cult, as with the Demos of Ephesos represented at the Temple of Hadrian.

A bronze coin minted at Nîmes, France, has been interpreted traditionally as representing the "Demos" of Nemausus, the city's Latin name. On the reverse, a togate figure stands before a palm or evergreen branch, with an inscription AREC taken as an abbreviation for Arecomici. The head is not covered as would be expected for the depiction of libation or religious gesture, and no comparable coin is known. A head of the Diana type appears on the obverse with the inscription VOLCAE. The Volcae Arecomici were a Gallic people whose metropolis, in Strabo's terminology, was Nemausus. Although Nîmes had been integrated into the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul in the late 2nd century BC, during the time of Strabo (64/63 BC to AD 24) the Arecomici exercised authority over their twenty-four ethnically cohesive communities independent of direct Roman oversight. The "Demos" bronze unit is dated to 50–25 BC, just after the Gallic Wars, during which the Transalpine Gauls had maintained their Roman fealty despite provocations from the central Gauls. The coin may have been issued in 49 BC to mark Caesar's extension of Latin rights to the citizens of Nemausus, well before the town's formal refounding as a Roman colonia. The inscription asserts their localized identity, while the wearing of the toga represents their standing as a citizen body to participate in politics.

Later usage

The term "deme" (dēmos) survived into the Hellenistic and Roman eras. By the time of the Byzantine Empire, the term was used to refer to one of the four chariot racing factions: the Reds, the Blues, the Greens and the Whites.

In modern Greece, the term dēmos is used to denote one of the municipalities.