HECTEMO´RII
HECTEMO´RII (
ἑκτημόριοι), a name given to a class of cultivators in Attica
before the time of Solon.
We have examples, among the unenfranchised classes in Greece, of
agriculturists who had to pay a fixed quantity of produce and take all the
risks of bad seasons: such were the Perioeci and Helots in Laconia [
DECUMAE
init.
HELOTES]. We also find what is
now known as the
métayer system, under
which landlord and tenant divide the produce in a certain proportion. The
landlord's share was called
μορτή, and land
held under
métairie was
ἐπίμορτος γῆ (Pollux, 7.151, quoting Solon).
The
ἑκτημόριοι were
métayers who, according to some ancient authorities,
paid a sixth portion to their masters and retained five-sixths for
themselves (
Plut. Sol. 13;
hesych. sub voce
ἐπίμορτος): according to others, they
received only a sixth part (
hesych. sub voce
ἑκτήμοροι: Phot. s. v.
πελάται: Eustath.
ad
Hom. Od. 19.28, p. 1854). The correctness of
the latter view, first insisted upon by Schömann
(
Assemblies, p. 362), is now generally admitted; had the
tenants paid only a sixth, they would have been much better off than the
landowners, whereas all the accounts testify to a state of oppression to
which Solon applied a remedy. Boeckh, who in his first edition (
P.
E. p. 494) held that the cultivators paid the sixth part, afterwards
came round to the opinion of Schömann (
Sthh.3 1.578). The
ἑκτημόριοι belonged to the class of
θῆτες, though probably not all
θῆτες were
ἑκτημόριοι
(Schömann,
Antiq. 1.323 n.). They were also
sometimes called
πελάται, i. e. clients or
dependents (Plat.
Euthyphr. 4 C, with Schol.).
(Schömann,
Assemblies, p. 362;
Antiq. Jur.
Publ. p. 169;
Antiq. 1.323, E. T.; Hermann,
Staatsalterth. § 100 n. 16, 101 n. 10;
Büchsenschütz,
Besitz und Erwerb, p. 49 f.;
Gilbert,
Staatsalterth. 1.125. f.)
For the Roman
mëtayers, called
partiarii, see
AGRICULTURA p. 60
a;
and cf. Gaius,
Inst. 2.254, and ap.
Dig.
19,
2,
25;
pecora partiaria, i.e. the same system applied to
the increase of cattle, Cod.
Just. 2,
3,
8. [
W.S] [
W.W]
(Appendix). The following
passage confirms the view taken in the text:
καὶ δὴ
καὶ ἐδούλευον οἱ πένητε[ς τοῖς] πλουσίοις καὶ αὐτοὶ [καὶ τ]ὰ
τέκνα καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες, καὶ ἐκαλοῦντο πελάται καὶ ἑκτημόροι:
[ἐπὶ] ταύτης γὰρ τῆς μισθώσεως [εἰ]ργάζοντο τῶν πλουσίων τοὺς
ἀγρούς (
Ἀθ. πολ. 100.2).
Thus the
ἑκτημόριοι or
ἑκτημόροι (the latter form, given also by
Hesychius, seems the correct one)
received only a
sixth part of the produce:
ἀντί, however,
rather than
ἐπί, seems the preposition to
be supplied.