The concept of ancient citizenship differed by culture and over time, and it is an obvious subject where our own ideas might easily muddy the waters. At its most basic level, citizenship defines who belongs, and who doesn’t, in a community. Assyrian kings defined it in a very simple way: a citizen was someone living in one of their cities who fulfilled their tax obligations.
The understanding of citizenship obviously requires a certain volume of sources for us to be able to analyze it. It is thus hardly a surprise that much ink has been spilled over the Athenian version. That is largely due to Aristotle’s work , which defines a citizen as a member of a community, the , who takes part in its political life and holds office. As women were excluded from that part of civic life, this would seem to limit Athenian citizenship to men born from citizen parents,
