tax of one drachma per month and needed to be sponsored
by an Athenian citizen. Th e metic enjoyed the privileges of
residence at Athens—admission to theaters and festivals as
well as economic opportunity—but was also liable for mili-
tary service or (if wealthy enough) for expensive liturgies,
without the opportunity to have a voice in making the poli-
cies that might send him to war. Most metics were of mod-
est means—traders and craft speople, both male and female,
Greek and non-Greek—who had come to Athens to make a
better living. A few were wealthy and prominent, including
the orator Lysias (ca. 445–aft er 380 b.c.e.), whose father had
come to the city to set up a large shield factory. Th e literary
sources show wealthy metics moving easily among the upper
crust of Athenian society.
Th e status of women in Greek society presents several
paradoxes. Women were excluded from citizenship and were
thus automatically of lower political status than men, yet up-
per-class women enjoyed not only a comfortable standard of
living but also privileges appropriate to their class. Th e chorus
of women in Aristophanes’ (ca. 450–ca. 388 b.c.e.) Lysistrata
provides an example of the privileges enjoyed by wellborn
women, mainly holding certain religious offi ces and fulfi ll-
ing specifi c roles in the city’s religious festivals. Th ey go on to
make a further point: Women contribute sons to the city and
therefore have a share in the city’s well-being. Th e language
used is similar to that for citizenship and is designed to coun-
ter the argument (found in a variety of sources dating from
the time of Hesiod) that women are an economic burden to
the men who are responsible for them.
Indeed, women in Athens were treated as perpetual mi-
nors, unable to own property or exercise basic legal rights
and in need of a legal guardian if not under the control of
a husband or a father. However, while women could not be
citizens, it makes sense to speak of women of citizen class,
particularly in light of Pericles’ citizenship law of 451 b.c.e.
Under this law citizenship was restricted to those born of
two freeborn Athenian parents; thus, women were capable of
passing on citizenship to their sons but could not possess it
themselves. Needless to say, one eff ect of this law was to give
all metic women—who ranged in wealth and status from the
poorest vegetable seller to the most celebrated entertainer or
courtesan—the same permanent outsider status as male met-
ics. And, as noted, both women and slaves were characterized
by a lack of the basic freedoms that even the lowest freeborn
male took for granted.ROME
BY MICHAEL J. O’NEAL
Rome began its existence as a small settlement on the banks
of the Tiber River. Th e possibility that it would rule a territory
that stretched across the Mediterranean Sea and northward
into Europe was remote. Still, over a period of a millennium,
Rome would come to shape the culture, politics, and social
organization of a vast empire.THE LEGENDARY PERIOD OF KINGS
(753–509 B.C.E.)
Historians oft en refer to the time from 753 b.c.e., the fabled
year of the founding of Rome, to 509 b.c.e., the beginning of
the Roman Republic, as Rome’s “legendary period.” Th is pe-
riod of Roman history is not very well documented. Most of
what is known about the kings who ruled during this period
comes from the later writings of the Greek historian Herodo-
tus (ca. 484–ca. 430 b.c.e.). While much of the history of this
period is based on legend, including the story of the founding
of Rome by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, archaeo-
logical evidence suggests that at least some of what Herodo-
tus and others wrote was true.
Th e social organization of the earliest Romans was
strongly infl uenced by the Etruscans, who occupied a large
portion of the western coast of the Italian peninsula and
swatches of territory extending northward. Not much is
known about the origins of the Etruscans, but they interacted
with the earliest Romans and exerted considerable social
infl uence on them. Th e Etruscans were ruled by kings, and
cities were controlled by nobles. Etruscan women occupied
a place of equality relative to men. In the fi ft h century b.c.e.,
as Rome was extending its reach throughout the peninsula, it
defeated the Etruscans in a major sea battle, and the distinct
Etruscan culture began a slow decline as it was assimilated
into Rome.
During this early period Rome was principally an agrar-
ian society. Th e pillars of its society were family and religion.
Just as an absolute monarch ruled the state, so too the early
Roman family was ruled by the senior male, the paterfa-
milias, who wielded absolute power (patria potestas) for life.
Children and the fruits of their labor on a farm were regarded
as belonging to the father. A father had the legal right to kill
a son or sell him into slavery if he was guilty of disloyal be-
havior, and fathers frequently practiced infanticide when
children were born with deformities or illnesses. Th e father
was, in eff ect, the chief priest of his clan, and one of his ma-
jor roles was to foster worship of the gods. Romans during
this period tended to be conser vative, frugal people who lived
simple lives.
Despite the absolute power of the paterfamilias, evi-
dence suggests that families in early Rome were bound by
strong ties of loyalty and warm feelings. Th e family and clan
were the basic units of social organization. Divorce was un-
common, and women enjoyed privileges that were denied
to women in Greece, Rome’s rival but also its role model
at the time. Daughters inherited property equally with
sons, and aft er they married, they managed the household
with a level of authority that rivaled that of their husbands.
Households of the affl uent were likely to include slaves,
usually people who were captured in war or who were in
severe debt. Slaves were relatively well treated. Th ey could
save their own money and in many cases buy their freedom.
Slaves who were freed were granted citizenship, and manysocial organization: Rome 10350895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1035 1035 10/10/07 2:30:50 PM