FREE SPACES: IDENTITY, EXPERIENCE AND DEMOCRACY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS

Abstract

Most modern works on Greek history accept a categorical distinction between different identities and statuses in classical Athens: there was a deep chasm between the male citizens' club and those excluded: foreigners, slaves and women; and the identity of male citizen, slave, foreigner and woman was clear, well defined, easy to establish, immutable and unchallenged. 1 Admittedly, this is not simply a modern construction: there are innumerable references in the ancient texts, which present this view of identity and make it a legitimate perspective for modern scholars to adopt. 2 These images created by ancient sources became acceptable to scholars belonging to very different traditions and schools. For those scholars who believe that politics can be best understood through a study of institutions, what matters primarily is the distinction between those who have the right to participate in these institutions and those who do not. 3 Accordingly, it was easy to accept the existence of a clear distinction between the citizens and everybody else. For those who accept a structuralist perspective, the polarities between citizen and metic, free and slave, Greek and barbarian, or men and women offered a fruitful way to apply their approach to Greek history. 4 For those who accept status and order as essential categories of analysis, the distinction between different status groups becomes essential in an analysis of Greek society. 5 Finally, for those who work within a tradition of legal history, the clear legal distinctions are the essential means of interpretation. 6 It is the aim of this article to challenge these long-entrenched assumptions. I want to argue that the distinction between citizens, metics and slaves was often difficult to establish in Athens; that this was connected to the functions of Athenian democracy; that citizens, metics and slaves formed mixed and interacting cultures in collaboration and conflict; and that these interactions were created and enabled by what I will call free spaces. This discussion will raise a second important issue: the interpretation of Athenian democracy. I will argue that many of the current approaches to Athenian democracy have a strong elitist perspective and that we have to turn our attention to a bottom-down perspective; the concept of free spaces can play an important role in changing perspective.