The Foreign Residents of Athens

Athens was a cosmopolitan city throughout antiquity but hitherto no serious attempt has been made to catalogue the foreign residents. In this important contribution the authors, who have recently catalogued the Athenian citizens, rectify this major desideratum by providing the first comprehensive lexicon of the attested foreign residents of Attica. There are more than 8000 constituents from all walks of life - free men and women, metics, freedmen and slaves - boasting origins in more than 380 cities or states. The entries are arranged by place of origin and they provide a fascinating and instructive insight into the pattern of migration to Athens over more than six centuries. The sources are extremely varied, but the bulk are funerary, indicating that the foreigners in question and their families resided in Athens on a long term basis. An index of names is included for onomastic purposes. In addition there is a brief appendix recording the names of Athenians who have come to light since the publication of the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names II: Attica (in 1994) in order to facilitate comprehensive coverage of the whole known population of Athens in antiquity. The volume will thus serve as an indispensable tool of reference for any serious study of the foreign component of the population of Athens.