Δημοποίητος
naturalized citizen
Translated by Debra Hamel17 Dec 1998Vetting: high6 revisions
Translation
[Meaning] one who is adopted by the demos and has become a citizen.
For Perikles, the son of Xanthippos,1 proposed a law that someone whose parents were not both citizens would not himself be a citizen. A short time later, Perikles lost his legitimate [sons].2 Against his will, groaning and breaking his own law and disgracing himself, at once an object of pity and of hate, he got what he wanted. He begged and bribed those who were alive at the time, and at length and with difficulty he made his bastard son by Aspasia of Miletus a demopoietos.3
A demopoietos, then, is one who is not a citizen by birth but is made a citizen by the demos.4
For Perikles, the son of Xanthippos,1 proposed a law that someone whose parents were not both citizens would not himself be a citizen. A short time later, Perikles lost his legitimate [sons].2 Against his will, groaning and breaking his own law and disgracing himself, at once an object of pity and of hate, he got what he wanted. He begged and bribed those who were alive at the time, and at length and with difficulty he made his bastard son by Aspasia of Miletus a demopoietos.3
A demopoietos, then, is one who is not a citizen by birth but is made a citizen by the demos.4