Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens

Landed wealth was crucial for the economies of all Greek city-states and, despite its peculiarities, Athens was no exception in that respect. This monograph is the first exhaustive treatment of sacred and public - in other words the non-private - real property in Athens. Following a survey of modern scholarship on the topic, Papazarkadas scrutinizes literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence in order to examine lands and other types of realty administered by the polis of Athens and its constitutional and semi-official subdivisions (such as tribes, demes, and religious associations). Contrary to earlier anachronistic models which saw sacred realty as a thinly disguised form of state property, the author perceives the sanctity of temene (sacred landholdings) as meaningful, both conceptually and economically. In particular, he detects a seamless link between sacred rentals and cultic activity. This link is markedly visible in two distinctive cases: the border area known as Sacred Orgas, a constant source of contention between Athens and Megara; and the moriai, Athena's sacred olive-trees, whose crop was the coveted prize of the Panathenaic games. Both topics are treated in separate appendices as are several other problems, not least the socio-economic profile of those involved in the leasing of sacred property, emerging from a detailed prosopographical analysis. However, certain non-private landholdings were secular and alienable, and their exploitation was often based on financial schemes different from those applied in the case of temene. This gives the author the opportunity to analyze and elucidate ancient notions of public and sacred ownership.

2.1. - A preliminary note
2.2. - The landed wealth of Athena Polias and the Other Gods
2.3. - The sacred property of the Eleusinian Goddesses: administrative aspects
2.4. - The new polis-gods as proprietors of realty
2.5. - Athenaion Politeia 47.4-5 and the leasing of sacred lands in Classical Athens
2.6. - Investing sacred rentals
2.7. - The economic significance of sacred rentals
3.1. - The landed assets of the Attic tribes
3.1.i. - The early phase
3.1.ii. - The Athenian reacquisition of Oropos and the tribal land allotment
3.1.iii. - Administration of phyle-properties and tribal economics
3.2. - The real property of the Attic demes
3.2.i. - Prolegomenon
3.2. ii. - The mechanism of leasing
3.2.iii. - Other forms of deme property administration
3.2.iv. - Sales of lands controlled by demes
3.2.v. - Rentals, deme economics, and religion
3.2.vi. - Non-sacral deme property
3.2.vii. - Lessees and purchasers of deme properties
3.2.viii. - The territorial aspect of the Attic demes
3.2.ix. - Epilogue
4.1. - The real property of the Attic phratries
4.1.i. - Types of phratric realty
4.1.ii. - Exploitation of phratric realty
4.2. - The Attic gene and their landed property
4.2.i. - Introductory remark
4.2.ii. - The landed wealth of the Salaminioi: a case-study
4.2.iii. - Gentilician property: beyond the Salaminioi
4.2.iv. - An overview
4.3. - The real property of the Attic orgeones
4.3.i. - Leasing out orgeonic property
4.3.ii. - Sales of orgeonic property and the problem of alienation
4.3.iii. - Lessees and purchasers of orgeonic property: some considerations
4.4. - Other types of associations as property administrators
5.1. - The evidence
5.2. - An interpretative analysis
Appendix I: - The Sacred Orgas
Appendix II: - Moriai: Sacred arboriculture in Classical Athens
Appendix III: - IG II2 1593 revisited
Appendix IV: - The Theodoreion of the Prasieis
Appendix V: - The genos of the Pyrrhakidai
Appendix VI: - The split of the Salaminioi and the eponymous archon Phanomachos
Appendix VII: - Catalogue of lessees and guarantors of polis-controlled temene

Nikolaos Papazarkadas has taught at Oxford and Trinity College Dublin, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of California at Berkeley. He specializes in Greek Epigraphy and has published extensively on inscriptions from Athens and the Cyclades.