Peter Jones

How the ancient Greeks defined citizenship

iStock 
issue 25 March 2023

In the ancient world, where life was insecure and refugees and asylum seekers not uncommon, there were no border posts, and free people could mostly come and go at will. But a concept of citizenship, technically differentiating ‘citizen’ from ‘non-citizen’, then emerged among the autonomous communities (‘city-states’: there were hundreds) of the ancient Greeks.

Take 5th century bc Athens.

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