Land and the Citizen in the Hellenistic Period

The article follows on, for the Hellenistic period, from Faraguna’s 2024 essay on land and citizenship in Archaic and Classical cities. As pointed out by F., the link between citizenship and land ownership has not been enough emphasised in recent scholarship. The question is what role it plays in the very definition of citizenship: either it remains a capacity that citizens have the right (but not the obligation) to exercise, or it is indispensable for establishing their legal status. Furthermore, certain individuals have access to ownership without entering politeia: foreigners with enktēsis, free peasants not citizens, beneficiaries of a dōrea. Finally, this chapter discusses the oliganthropic crisis/stasis of the second half of the 3rd century and its relationship with land ownership.