Definition of Deme

In Ancient Greece, a deme (plural demoi) was a subdivision of Attica, the region of Greece surrounding Athens. Demoi as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, but did not acquire particular significance until the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BC. In those reforms, enrollment in the citizen-lists of a deme became the requirement for citizenship; prior to that time, citizenship had been based on membership in a phratry, or family group. At this same time, demoi were established in the city of Athens itself, where they had not previously existed; in all, at the end of Cleisthenes' reforms, Attica was divided into 139 demoi. The establishment of demoi as the fundamental units of the state weakened the gene, or aristocratic family groups, that had dominated the phratries.