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Chapter 3 - Classical Athens and the Invention of Civic Euergetism

from Part II - Classical Benefactors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2021

By
Marc Domingo Gygax
Edited by
Marc Domingo Gygax  and
Arjan Zuiderhoek
Marc Domingo Gygax
Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey
Arjan Zuiderhoek
Affiliation:
Universiteit Gent, Belgium
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Summary

Athens represents a special case in the history of Greek public benefactions. It is probably the polis that most resisted the emergence of civic euergetism, that is, the establishment of an organized exchange of benefactions for honors between polis and citizens. At the same time, no other classical polis contributed so much to the development of the practice and to its transformation into a defining institution of the Hellenistic age. This chapter examines these two sides of the history of Athenian euergetism in order to explain the widespread integration of citizens into an institution born before the classical period to regulate the relationship between poleis and foreigners. It deals with the reasons for the opposition to donations and honors for citizens, the factors that contributed to overcoming resistance to euergetism, and the elitist content of classical civic euergetism. Finally, it discusses some developments that counterbalanced this elitist component: the ‘democratization’ of euergetism through grants of honors to non-wealthy citizens, the organization of epidoseis, and other measures that served to prevent the rise of a class of great financial benefactors, along with the relaxation of this policy in the time of Lycurgus.

Keywords

euergetismclassical AthensAthenian democracygift-exchangereciprocityliturgiespublic subscriptionspublic honorspublic discourseepidoseis
Type
Chapter
Information
Benefactors and the Polis
The Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the Homeric World to Late Antiquity
 , pp. 69 - 95
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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