Dorian tribesNICHOLAS F. JONES

“Tribes” is the conventional but misleading

rendering of Greek phylai (singular, phyle),

the principal units segmenting the populations

and/or territories of many, perhaps originally

all, city-states. Just as in the case of the four

ancestral phylai of the Ionians (see IONIAN

TRIBES), Dorians inherited a set of three phylai,

with an attested historical distribution among

the Peloponnesian city-states and their colo-

nial foundations, on the islands of the south-

ern Aegean, and along the southwestern

seaboard of Asia Minor.

Among Peloponnesian city-states, SPARTA

received an organization of phylai and obai

(originally the four contiguous villages plus

a fifth, Amyklai) supposedly on the advice of

an oracle delivered to Lycurgus; and

from a fragment of Tyrtaios the phylai can be

identified as the Dymanes, Hylleis, and

Pamphyloi (here, in their official order of pre-

cedence). At SIKYON, the triad underwent

reform by the tyrant Kleisthenes, who renamed

the phylai and added (or renamed) a fourth,

Archelaoi (later changed to Aigialeis).

Epidauros, too, reformed by dropping

Pamphyloi and adding two new phylai plus

a multitude of territorial sub-units. Similarly,

ARGOS added a fourth, Hyrnathioi, and sub-

divisions grew to include phatrai, Fifties,

and village komai. MEGARA, while also preserv-

ing the triad, eventually added a fourth,

Hadrianidai (after the Roman emperor), plus

the Greek-era Hundreds and komai. At

TROIZEN, two of the three are separately named

by a lexicographer, while an innovating phyle,

Scheliadai, occurs in the enrollment clause of

a citizenship decree. The Dorian tribes fail to

surface in CORINTH’s sparse record, but among

the city’s colonies vestiges are found at CORCYRA

(the Hylleis) and SYRACUSE (where the three

unnamed phylai are designated by ordinal

adjectives and subdivided by phatriai). The

triad is found intact on ISSA; the Hylleis appear

at Akragas (see AKRAGAS (AGRIGENTUM)); and

unidentified threefold systems survive at

Akrai (a colony of Syracuse) and Lokroi

Epizephyrioi.

Among Aegean islands, each of the three is

named in separate inscriptions on THERA. But on

CRETE, while all three phylai fail to be attested in

any single city-state, we frequently find inno-

vating phylai alongside the old representing

pre- or non-Dorian population elements. On

KOS, the tripartite division endures notwith-

standing the addition of territorial demes

plus numerical Ninths, Thirties, Fifties, and

Hundreds. On nearby KALYMNA, a local organi-

zation is later overlaid by the Dorian triad,

possibly upon incorporation by Kos. Along

the opposing Anatolian coast, a single Dorian

phyle is fragmentarily attested at Kedreai,

HALIKARNASSOS, and Theangela (see THEANGELA/

SYANGELA).

Elsewhere, a Dorian city-state’s record reveals

only a reformed organization or, as often, is

entirely silent on this head. Nonetheless, the

distribution of the Dorian Urdivision is so

wide as to guarantee, as a first generalization,

its original presence at every foundation. Early

on, often under a tyrant, the inherited system

underwent major reform, but rarely through

the wholesale abolition of the Dymanes,

Hylleis, and Pamphyloi. Rather, a fourth phyle

was appended to the triad (or, with the loss

of one, two new phylai were created) and

new sub-units, frequently of numerical

nomenclature, were added to the organization.

Finally, the reformed organizations, whatever

nomenclature was employed locally, often

incorporated an overlapping of territorial and

associational segmentations.

Throughout their history, these Dorian

“tribal” organizations, like those in other

city-states, performed a dual function. State-

wide, the phylai and sometimes the lower-level

segments served to distribute over the citizen

population the business of government,

whether strictly constitutional, judicial, mili-

tary, or cultic. Meanwhile, the several units

were internally organized as free-standing

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 2211–2212.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah04091

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associations with their own infrastructure,

administrative apparatus, official functions,

and calendars of activities. Statewide applica-

tions are clear at Argos, Sparta, and Kos, while

the internal associational organization is abun-

dantly documented only on Kos.

SEE ALSO: Kleisthenes of Sikyon; Lycurgus,

Spartan legislator; Phratry.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Hansen, M. H., and Nielsen, T. H., eds. (2004) An

inventory of Archaic and Classical poleis. Oxford.

Jones, N. F. (1980) “The order of the Dorian

phylai.” Classical Philology 75: 197–215.

Jones, N. F. (1987) Public organization in ancient

Greece: a documentary study. Philadelphia.

Jones, N. F. (1991) “Enrollment clauses in Greek

citizenship decrees.” Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie

und Epigraphik 87: 79–102.

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