demes

demes (dēmoi), local communities or parishes in Attica, eventually numbering about 170. In the reforms of Cleisthenes (2), they replaced kinship groups as the basis of the democratic constitution in Athens. Cleisthenes arranged the demes into ten tribes (phylai) and each tribe into three trittyes (see TRITTYS); in each tribe one trittys comprised demes from the city region, another demes from the interior, and the third demes from the coast. In this way each tribe was made representative of the whole. Each deme had its own finances and its demarch (deme leader), elected by its assembly (agora) which dealt with local affairs. After Cleisthenes, membership of a deme was hereditary and did not change with change of residence. On reaching the age of 18 every male Athenian citizen was registered in his family deme.