Metics and the Athenian Phialai-inscriptions

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Beneath the shining world of Classical Athens lay the perilous realm of the metic, a resident foreigner. A defining aspect of their status was the obligation to pay a special metic tax, the metoikion. Failure to pay this tax could lead to enslavement, a fate not faced by citizens. In the late fourth century BC, as economic recession prompted many metics to leave Athens, legal reforms were introduced to improve their situation and encourage their return. This volume explores the context of these reforms, arguing that a notable set of fourth-century BC Athenian inscriptions, known as the "Attic Manumissions," is linked to this period. Traditionally thought to document the freeing of slaves, these inscriptions are published here as a corpus for the first time. The argument presented is that they actually record prosecutions of metics for failing to pay the metoikion. In the pro-metic climate of the 330s BC, individuals who sued metics without securing a conviction faced fines to deter frivolous lawsuits, with part of these fines dedicated to divinity in the form of a phiale.