Rights and Obligations of Citizens
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ScribdTranslationsRights and Obligations of Citizens
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ScribdTranslationsPOLITICAL PREROGATIVES
Political prerogatives correspond to the right of the citizen to
participate in the management of public affairs:
meeting in the
Assembly of the
people (Ekklesía in
Athens or Apella in
Sparta) or in the
councils (Athenian
Boulé or Spartan
Gerousía).
exercising the
magistracies or other
offices that the
people have
entrusted to him
(functions of archon,
strategist, treasurer,
epimeleta, etc.)
dispensing justice in the courts.
These prerogatives go far beyond politics in the strict sense of the
term, since the citizen participates in the deliberative power, the
executive power and the judicial power.
LEGAL PREROGATIVES
The right to property
One of the essential privileges of the citizen is the right to property,
more specifically the right to own a piece of land within the city. This
is what official documents translate as the expression enktésis gès kai
oikias, the right to own land and a house. This privilege inherent to
citizenship is lost when a citizen who has committed a serious offense
has his property confiscated, while his religious and judicial privileges
are withdrawn. In Athens this civic degradation was called atimia.
RELIGIOUS PREROGATIVES
The citizen is not only the one who participates in the arkhé, but the
one who has the privilege of participating fully in all the
manifestations of the civic religion. He has the right to participate in
sacrifices, to take an active part in religious festivals and to exercise a
priesthood.
SOCIAL BENEFITS
The city reserved for the citizen a certain number of benefits that
were expressly conferred to facilitate his attendance at public
festivals and to allow him to meet his vital needs, if he had limited
means.
a) In Athens, citizens received compensation for attending shows that
took place during religious festivals such as the Dionysia.
b) In times of scarcity, when wheat becomes more expensive, the
State distributes it free of charge to citizens or sells it at low prices.
TAX OBLIGATIONS
The citizen had to participate in the tax
burdens that the community
demanded from each of its members in
proportion to their resources. In
Athens, for the purposes of assessing
these obligations, citizens were divided
into four census classes according to
their wealth: the first class, the
pentacosiomedimnos, included citizens
who had earned an income of at least
500 medimnos of grain or 500
metretas of oil; the second class, the
hippeis, included citizens whose
income was equal to or greater than
300 medimnos or 300 metretas; the
third class, the zeugites, included
those with an income of 200 medimnos
or more; the fourth class, the thetes,
included those with an income of less
than 200 medimnos or metretas.
MILITARY OBLIGATIONS
The citizen was obliged to perform military service, and this obligation
seemed, in some respects, a privilege reserved for him. In principle,
the city only exceptionally cut the number of non-citizens (resident
foreigners or slaves) and when necessary, enrolled them in different
units. Not all citizens were equal in terms of military obligations,
because in most cities they fulfilled them according to their fortune.
In Athens, all citizens aged 20 to 49 could be called up to go on
military campaigns. Before the age of 20, young Athenian citizens
completed a period of civic and military training during which they
were quartered in various fortified points and patrolled the chora.
From the age of 50 to 59, citizens could be required to secure the
walls in times of war. But the membership of citizens was based on
their resources, since they had to arm and equip themselves at their
own expense.
