Khoris oikountes and the obligations of freedmen in late classical and early hellenistic Athens

This article addresses the riddle of the identity of the khoris oikountes or 'dwellers apart' mentioned by Demosthenes (4.36-7) as a group subject to the navy draft. Many scholars view the term as a designation for slaves who lived separately from their owners; others argue that khoris oikountes was a general term for freed slaves. We show that two groups of freedmen existed in Athenian law, one bound to remain in their ex-owner's household and subject to post-manumission obligations, the other not. It is the latter group, which occupied a position vis-a-vis the state almost identical to that of metics, which is the most credible candidate for identification with Demosthenes' khoris oikountes. Included is an in-depth philological and historical analysis of the 'wills of the philosophers' in Diogenes Laertius