Zeugitai

Zeugitai were members of the third census division created by Solon's constitutional reforms in ancient Athens. The term appears to have come from the Greek word for "yoke", which has led modern scholars to conclude that zeugitai were either men who could afford a yoke of oxen or men who were "yoked together" in the phalanx—--that is, men who could afford their own hoplite armor. [Whitehead, "The Ancient Athenian ΖΕΥΓΙΤΑΙ", 282-3]

At the time of Solon's reforms, zeugitai were granted the right to hold certain minor political offices. [Fine, "The Ancient Greeks", 209] Their status rose through the years; in 463 BC they were granted the right to hold the archonship, [Fine, "The Ancient Greeks", 391] and in the late 5th century moderate oligarchs advocated for the creation of an oligarchy in which all men of hoplite status or higher would be enfranchised, and such a regime was indeed established for a time during the Athenian coup of 411 BC. [Kagan, "The Peloponnesian War", 398-399]

References

*Fine, John V.A. "The Ancient Greeks: A critical history" (Harvard University Press, 1983) ISBN 0-674-03314-0
*Kagan, Donald. "The Peloponnesian War" (Penguin Books, 2003). ISBN 0-670-03211-5
*Whitehead, David, "The Ancient Athenian ΖΕΥΓΙΤΑΙ", "The Classical Quarterly" New Series, Vol. 31, No. 2 (1981), pp. 282-286

Notes