EUPA´TRIDAE
EUPA´TRIDAE (
εὐπατρίδαι), the wellborn, is the name by which from very early
times the aristocracy of Attica was known. At the dawn of history, as in the
prehistoric age for which the Homeric poems are our evidence, we find
everywhere in Greece a privileged class, standing between the kings and the
people, and, on the decline of monarchy, succeeding to the power which had
formerly belonged to the kings. It is not necessary, therefore, to discuss
their origin. In the earliest state of society we find them gathered in
cities, and owning the lands which were cultivated for them by their
dependents (cf.
DEMUS 1st
paragraph). The memory of this fact was preserved to the latest times
(
Εὐπατρίδαι οἱ αὐτὸ τὸ ἄστυ οἰκοῦντες,
Etym. M. p. 395, 50); and the neighbourhood of the city
formed the district of the
Γελέοντες, the
noblest of the four old-Ionic tribes [
GELEONTES] The Attic Eupatrids included not only the
so-called autochthonous nobility, but also those noble gentes which had
immigrated: the two branches of the Neleidae, the Codridae, descendants of
the last king, and the Alcmaeonidae, had come originally from Messenia
(Schömann,
Antiq. 1.316, 321, E. T.;
Opusc.
Acad. p. 235). This phenomenon repeats itself among the Roman
patricians, e. g. the Claudii.
In the division of the inhabitants of Attica into three classes,
traditionally ascribed to Theseus, the Eupatrids were the first ; like other
aristocracies ancient and modern, they were entrenched behind a strong
rampart of privilege; they were in the exclusive possession of all the civil
and religious offices of the state, were the exponents of the law and the
authorised interpreters (
ἐξηγηταὶ) of
things human and divine (
Plut. Thes. 25 ;
Pollux, 8.111). The close correspondence of all this with the early
institutions of Rome is noticed by Dionysius, who however reckons only two
divisions of the Athenians,
εὐπατρίδαι and
ἄγροικοι, corresponding to his idea of
the patricians and clients (
Dionys. A. R.
2.8). The exact relation of the three Theseian classes to the four
old-Ionic tribes is still a matter of dispute, some scholars contending that
the tribes and phratries were divisions of the Eupatrids alone (Philippi,
Beiträge zu einer Gesch. d. Att.
Bürgerrechts, p. 276 ff.). The better opinion, that the
γεώμοροι (called also
γεωργοὶ) and the
δημιουργοὶ were also distributed among the tribes, rests on
the precise testimony of Aristotle (ap. Schol. Plat
Axioch.,
also in C. Müller,
Fragm. Hist. 2.106), supported by
various passages in the grammarians; and is defended by Gilbert on very
cogent grounds. The
φυλοβασιλεῖς were
necessarily Eupatrids (Pollux, 8.111), a fact which would not have been
mentioned if all members of the phylae had been such. And as regards the
phratries, the reconciliation (
αἰδεῖσθαι)
of cases of unintentional homicide was to be effected, in the absence of
near relations of the deceased, by ten phrateres chosen from the Eupatrids
by the Ephetae (Law [
θεσμὸς] of Draco, ap.
Dem.
c. Macart. p. 1069.57). This law is an exception to the
usual character of “inserted documents” in the Orators, as its
genuineness is proved by
C. I. A. 1.61; and it clearly
implies that there were other phrateres who were not Eupatrids (Gilbert,
Staatssalterth. 1.112).
The entire history of Athens down to the time of Pericles is the history of
the gradual curtailment of the privileges of the Eupatrids. The ordinances
of Draco were a concession to popular discontent, and exhibited in writing
for the first time the laws which the governing class had hitherto
interpreted as they pleased (Grote, pt. ii. ch. 10, 2.283). The would-be
despot Cylon, and the more successful Peisistratus, themselves both
Eupatrids, illustrate the tendency then prevailing in Greece to overthrow
oligarchy by accepting tyranny. The legislation of Solon made landed
property, not birth, the qualification for political power. For an account
of further changes see
ARCHON p.
166; AREIOPACUS, p. 177; and for the legislation
of Cleisthenes,
DEMUS pp. 614,
615. But as Solon, like all ancient legislators, refrained from touching
religion, certain priestly offices and ceremonial functions, involving no
political authority, remained with the Eupatrids down to a very late period
of Grecian history. (Schömann,
Antiq. Jur. Publ. pp.
77 ff., 167 ff.; EPHETAE; EUMOLPIDAE; EXEGETAE.)
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