L' imposta del metoikion ad Atene: uno strumento per il controllo dell’immigrazione?

  • Marcello Valente Università degli Studi di Torino

Abstract

Although today the metoikion paid by the metics of Athens is considered by
universal consent as a pure symbolic tool useful to reaffirm the distance between
the metics and the citizens, its fixed amount, without any proportionality or even
less progressive taxation, inevitably affected especially the lower incomes, thus
leading to the belief that it was actually a very concrete tool to discourage foreigners in humble circumstances from settling down in Athens. It was therefore
a functional tool to select immigrants who took their abode in Attica, favoring
those capable of carrying out a profession that allowed them to support themselves
without burdening the community and better still to bring benefit with
their work to the polis that welcomed them.

Published
2022-07-30
Section
Saggi