ABSTRACT
Every adult male Athenian was formally identified by his given name, patronymic, and demotic. So membership of a deme was fundamental to the identity of an Athenian citizen, yet the demotic is mentioned surprisingly rarely when individuals are named by speakers in the Athenian courts. Its use is not random, but deliberate and calculated: when it goes beyond the basic function of distinguishing between homonyms, the demotic tends to identify an individual as a legal personality such as an arbitrator, a surety, or a witness. It is also commonly used of someone involved in commercial or financial dealings, or for the assertion of a legal status such as marriage, and sometimes as a mark of respect. As to the wider implications of deme membership, the most salient characteristic of the ‘rhetorical deme’ is solidarity, as evidenced, especially, in the willingness of demesmen to testify in court on one another’s behalf.
