Editing Deme (section)

{{short description|Administrative unit in ancient Athens}}
{{other uses}}
[[Image:AGMA Pinakia.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Pinakion|Pinakia]], identification tablets (name, father's name, deme) used for tasks like [[jury]] selection, Museum at the [[Ancient Agora of Athens]]]]
In [[Ancient Greece]], a '''deme''' or '''{{Transliteration|grc|demos}}''' ({{langx|grc|δῆμος}}, plural: '''''demoi''''', δήμοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of [[Classical Athens|Athens]] and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, but did not acquire particular significance until the reforms of [[Cleisthenes]] in 508 BC.  In those reforms, enrollment in the citizen-lists of a deme became the requirement for citizenship; prior to that time, citizenship had been based on membership in a [[phratry]], or family group. At this same time, demes were established in the main city of Athens itself, where they had not previously existed; in all, at the end of Cleisthenes' reforms, [[Classical Athens|Athens]] was divided into 139 demes.<ref name=T76>, {{harvnb|Traill|1975|p=76}}</ref> Three other demes were created subsequently: Berenikidai (224/223 BC), Apollonieis (201/200 BC), and Antinoeis (AD 126/127). The establishment of demes as the fundamental units of the state weakened the ''[[genos|gene]]'', or aristocratic family groups, that had dominated the phratries.<ref>J.V. Fine, ''The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History''</ref>

A deme functioned to some degree as a [[polis]] in miniature, and indeed some demes, such as [[Eleusis]] and [[Acharnae]], were in fact significant towns. Each deme had a ''[[demarchos]]'' who supervised its affairs; various other civil, religious, and military functionaries existed in various demes. Demes held their own religious festivals and collected and spent revenue.<ref>David Whitehead, "Deme" from the ''[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]]'', Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, ed.</ref>

Demes were combined within the same area to make ''[[trittys|trittyes]]'', larger population groups, which in turn were combined to form the ten tribes, or ''[[phylai]],'' of Athens. Each tribe contained one ''trittys'' from each of three regions: the city, the coast, and the inland area.