metics

Abstract A metic is a legal category encompassing resident foreigners, immigrants, refugees, and formerly enslaved people. Most of our evidence for metoikia (the system for managing metics) comes from Athens in the 5th and 4th centuries bce, but there is also evidence for such a system in Hellenistic Rhodes and possibly also in Cos, Delos, and Megara. Much of the evidence for metoikia is provided by inscriptions and knowledge of other such systems may emerge through further study. Metic populations in poleis where they were found were very ethnically diverse and included not only non-Greeks, but Greeks from throughout the Mediterranean. Being a metic came with a mixture of restrictions and privileges. Restrictions on metic populations would have been experienced differently based on socio-economic status and gender. Wealthy metics and those from certain poleis could achieve some level of parity with citizens, but for the majority, this was not possible.