DEME, I Gk. Sijp.os. di'mos. district 1. ()lie of the subdivisions of the ancient Attie t The word originally meant a country district, and w.is applied to the rural connimni• or 11/ t he Hying 111 111e country, in 11111 itm from those living in the city. 'The uos existed from in early pw riod. and. aecord ing to tradition, were made constituent parts of the \flit idan territory by The-ens. but they do not become historically important until the time of Clisthenes (BA:. 30S-507). When abolished. for all but religious purposes. the tour old Attic tribes, and substituted in their stead ten new tribes. he first divided the people territo rially into a hundred denies, and then formed his tribes by arbitrary groupings of these denies. The denies were thus the primitive political units of the state. The number of denies. Was subsequenfly increased: about B.C. 200 there were 174; the highest number known to have existed is 182.
They were variously named, some with gentile or patronymic names. sonic from the trades carried on in them, some from plants that grew in the neighborhood, and so on. Each deme had its presiding officer (37)p.apxos,dCznarchos)• its treasurer (raglas, tam ias ) . its controller (avrrypa ˘els, antigrapheus). and other officers. besides its assembly, which was convened by the deman'', and wherein was transacted the public business of the deme. There was also for each deme a register wherein were enrolled. for political and other purposes, all the members of that deme. Consult : Hermann, Griechisehc Alter/hunter Freiburg. ISS21; Leake, Demcs of Attica (Lon don, 18'2.0) ; Haussouillier. La ric municipale en Attique (Paris. 1883) ; Wachsinuth. Stadt Athol, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1890).