Redistribuzioni di terre nei giuramenti di cittadini tra aspirazione all’uguaglianza e protezione della politeia

By examining a number of key documents—primarily epigraphic—that shed light on the relationship between citizenship and land ownership, this paper explores the often ambiguous function of clauses commonly included in the foundation decrees of apoikiai, as well as in the oaths of citizens and magistrates, relating to the protection of agrarian property. The vocabulary and phrasing of these clauses suggest that, in some cases, they served as genuine deterrents against alterations to existing land ownership structures—both within the city and its chora. In other cases, particularly following the fourth-century BC theories concerning the negative nature and defining characteristics of tyranny, such clauses seem to take on a more formal and ideological role: that of discouraging any attempt to subvert the constitutional order of the poleis through proposals for land redistribution. Nonetheless, exceptions to this trend can still be identified well into the Hellenistic period.