Peasantry and the Distribution of Land in Fourth-Century B.C. Athens

Abstract

The article proposes a study of the Athenian rural economy in the fourth century B.C., assuming that devastations during the Peloponnesian War did not have permanent effects on Attic agriculture, which recovered quickly. In this context, the situation of the peasantry is examined in relation to the other socio-economic sectors of the citizen population living in Attica. A quantitative analysis of the distribution of land is formulated in order to weigh the possible decline of the importance of the peasantry (a traditional view that associates this with the immediate impacts of war). For this, information about population and wealth from the censuses of Antipater and of Demetrius of Phaleron is considered and a relative proportion emerging from the rationes centesimarum is used. The figures obtained are pulled together with other data series, including an inference about the burden sharing among taxpayers of the eisphora system. The results are weighted by calculating the Gini coefficient and by comparative approaches. The conclusion is that the distribution of land in fourth-century Athens was reasonably egalitarian, compared to other cases, and that the peasantry continued to have a significant role.