## HETAIREIAI : 'LE DEGRÉ ZÉRO' OF ASSOCIATIONS?

By Ilias N. Arnaoutoglou

Summary: Aim of this contribution is to evaluate the nature of Athenian hetaireiai of the classical era on the basis of the essential criteria of private associations in Greco-Roman antiquity. This investigation demonstrates that hetaireiai display only a handful of the seven criteria and therefore should be regarded and treated not as fully-blown associations but as groups with a low degree of corporateness.

## I ntroduction 1

In  1892  Ioannes  Pantazides  (an  otherwise  little-known,  German-educated, Greek classicist) was elected Chancellor of the University of Athens. He devoted his inaugural speech to political hetaireiai in ancient Athens, a rather dull and uncritical exposition of the evidence on hetaireiai to  the  end  of  the  fifth  century.  For  Pantazides,  they  were  groupings around prominent figures quite widespread since every rich and powerful gentleman could allow or tolerate the formation of a group of friends. Hetaireiai promoted the self-interest of their members thus corrupting the  polity  and  destroying  social  cohesion  and  solidarity.  Pantazides adopted the anachronistic division into aristocratic and oligarchic hetaireiai ,  on  the  basis  of  the  leanings and policies of their main figures. Nevertheless, this approach was deeply influenced by the political environment in which Pantazides was operating; since 1863 the kingdom of

- 1 I am deeply honoured by and grateful to the organizers of the meeting on Vincent Gabrielsen's genethlios hemera for their invitation. My first encounter with Vincent was in a taverna, on a chilly January afternoon in Athens just before the launching of his brainchild the Copenhagen Associations Project. Since then we kept regular contact, in Athens and in Copenhagen, and I have enormously profited from our occasional disagreements mainly on the extent one can qualify a group as an association. I have decided to keep the oral character of my presentation. All dates are BCE unless stated otherwise.

Greece, at that time a constitutional monarchy, was led by George I, the Danish-born prince Christian, son of Christian IX, king of Denmark. The political life of the kingdom was dominated at the time by two political factions qua parties  known  by  the  names  of  their  leaders,  Charilaos Trikoupis and Theodoros Diliyannis, Trikoupikoi and Diliyannikoi respectively. 2 It was, therefore, more than facile for Pantazides to project his contemporary experience of politics to classical Athens.

Pantazides was not a lonely voice; most of the relevant literature in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century convey the same impression. Even George Miller Calhoun in his 1913 exhaustive and still useful study of political clubs adhered to such a vision. Calhoun 1913: 15-17 put forward  an  evolutionary  model  of hetaireiai from  Homeric hetairoi 3 to fifth-century Athens. His account was rightfully criticized, as far as hetaireiai and the manipulation of the Athenian legal system by them is concerned, by Nicholas Jones in his 1999 monograph on associations as an alternative to democracy. He observed that for most of the discussed features of the hetaireiai 's judicial function, there is no evidence for direct involvement of 'political clubs' in such practices, a point that Calhoun himself conceded several times. 4

Given the prolific literature on Athenian hetaireiai , I do not intend to engage  with  their  role  in  the  establishment  of  oligarchic  regimes  in 411/10 and 404/3. 5 We have the excellent concise commentary of Simon Hornblower  on  the  Thucydidean  passages,  Douglas  MacDowell's  commentary on And. 1 ( On the Mysteries ), three monographs in Italian (Sartori

- 2 For a summary account see Glogg 1979; a more detailed account in Κ ostes 2013: 43744.
- 3 See Chroust 1954, Welwei 1992, and Esposito 2015.
- 4 See Calhoun 1913: 48 (friendly prosecutions), 54 (counter suits), 56 ( antidosis ), 63 (assassination), 75 (influence on juries), 93 (information regarding opponent's case)). Note, however, that in the most recent treatment of cooperation in litigation, Rubinstein 2000, there is no reference to hetaireiai . See also Anastasiadis 1999, on the historiography of political parties in classical Athens in connection to contemporary political thinking.
- 5 Note, however, that in Andocides' narrative about the profanation of the Mysteries there is no reference to hetaireiai ; perhaps this is deliberate since hetaireiai by 399 had already acquired a 'bad name.' The casual atmosphere is indicated by the fact that Andocides' father Leogoras was present but asleep, And. 1 ( On the Mysteries ) 17.

1957; Ghinatti 1970; Pecorella Longo 1971) discussing thoroughly the evidence for the archaic and classical Athens, and a French prosopographical study (Aurenche 1974). More recently scholars focused on hetaireiai as attempts to appropriate 'the social ties that the Mysteries provided' (McGlew 1999), as an agent promoting the regime change through vote rigging in elections and law courts (Bearzot 1999 and Bearzot 2013), and as  posing  a  symbolic  challenge  to  the  dominant  position  of  the demos (Rosenbloom 2004). 6

All the above focus on the function of hetaireiai in  classical  Athens, while ignore their fundamental, I would dare say 'structural', elements. What is more pressing, I think, is reconsidering the tedious but crucial question 'Can hetaireiai be regarded as associations?' and if so what kind of association? 7 To my knowledge recently only Jones 1999: 223 grappled

- 6 An interesting strand of scholarship compares Athenian with Cretan hetaireiai, Talamo 1998 or Lesbian hetaireiai (Dimopoulou 2015: 60ff. and Caciagli 2016); others investigate other polities using hetaireiai as a heuristic tool, Mattaliano 2006: 49-64.
- 7 My impression is that while an hetaireia consists of hetairoi , hetairoi do not necessarily and always form an hetaireia ; companion or comrade: Athens: Agora XVII 1034 (1st c. BCE/1st c. AD); IG i 3 1329 (late 5th c.); IG ii 2 3743 (imp.); IG ii 2 4826 (3rd-4th c. CE); IG ii 2 7839a (1st c. CE); IG ii 2 13129/30 (1st c. CE); IG iv 395 (Korinthos, 1st/2nd c. CE); IG iv 800 (Troezena); SEG 32.605 (Larissa, end 2nd c. CE); IG x(2) (1) 630 (Thessaloniki, end 2nd c. CE); SEG 56.714 (Neapolis, end 4th c.) ; IGBulg ii 714 (Nikopolis ad Istrum); IG x(3) (3) 1, 57 (= I.Callatis 69) (end 1st c. CE) ;  I.Rhénée 143 & 348 (2nd/1st c.); IG xii(5) 676 (Syros, 2nd/3rd c. CE); IG xii(4) 2471 (= IG ix(1) 2 (2) 579) (Kos, 3rd c.) . Asia Minor: Robert, Carie ii no. 88 (Herakleia Salbake, 2nd c.) ; I.Iasos 116; SEG 4.167 (Caria, Thyssanous, 3rd c.); I.Erythrai 9  (c.  350-344); I.Ephesos 3466A (Metropolis, 3rd /2nd c.); I.Ephesos 3466B (Metropolis, 3rd /2nd c.); I.Ephesos 3488 (Metropolis) ; I.Smyrna 512 (3rd c.); TAM 5.477 (Kollyda, 240/1 CE); ΕΦΣΚ 7 (1872/3) 23 (Kyzikos?, 37 CE); I.Prusa 24 (1st c. CE) ; SEG 35.1337 (Amastris); St. Pontica iii 86 (Neoklaudioupolis); MAMA 4.299 (Dionysopolis-Phrygia, 1st-2nd c. CE) ; MAMA 9.86 (Aizanoi, 130 CE); Hierapolis di Frigia I 600 no. 1 (2nd c.); Hierapolis di Frigia XIV.2 947 no. 3 (2nd c. CE); SEG 57.1371 (Hierapolis, 2nd c. CE); SEG 41.1260 (Termessos); SEG 57.1446 (Termessos, after 212 CE); I.Kibyra 364 ; SEG 53.1642 & 1645 (NE Lycia); SEG 52.1440 (Pamphylia); Heberdey - Wilhelm, Kilikien , 96 no.  179  (Kelenderis); JHS 12  (1891)  265  no.  56  (Dioskaisareia-Cilicia); SEG 60.1583 (Elaioussa Sebaste, Imp.); Marek, Pontus-Bithynia Nord-Galatia 172 no. 57 (Amastris) . Syria: IGLS 4.1848 (230 CE); SEG 66.2091 (Tyre, 28/29 CE); RA 1904 III 236 no. 2 (Sidon, Hell.). Arabia: IGR iii 1342 (Gerasa). Egypt: I.Egypte métriques 68 (Memphis, 1st/2nd c. CE);  94  (Leontopolis,  1st  c.). SEG 20.745  (Cyrene,  6th  c.).  Italy: SEG 43.661  (Rome,

with the question; but even he did not answer directly. He situated hetaireiai in the context of his four-axis scheme 8 of constituent elements of associations, in which hetaireiai are classified as private, 9 voluntary, temporary, and possibly instrumental groups. If hetaireiai can be regarded as fully fledged associations their corporate element is expected to be pronounced; 10 if not, then hetaireiai may designate sometimes an association but also may point to a different (but need not be primitive or elementary) way of organizing collective action. Therefore, hetaireiai could be inserted at the lower end of the continuum of Greco-Roman corporate activities.

My engagement with the Copenhagen Associations Project led me to apply the criteria devised for assessing the corporate element in associations (name, descriptive term, members, composition of membership, durability,  foundation,  organization,  property,  dissolution)  in  other words the degree of 'corporateness,' on Athenian hetaireiai .

## Proper name

This is a particular verbal identifier used either by the group to distinguish itself or by other social actors to label it. The identifier may be a word describing cultural ( κοινὸν Σαραπιαστῶν ), professional ( κοινὸν τῶν ἐργαζομένων ), ethnic ( Ἀδωνιασταὶ Ἀφροδισιασταὶ Ἀσκλαπιασταὶ Σύριοι ), geographical ( ἡ σύνοδος τῶν ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείαι πρεσβυτέρων ἐγδοχέων ),  personal ( θίασος ὁ Φαινομάχου ) or any combination of the above (e.g. κοινὸν Βηρυτίων Ποσειδωνιαστῶν ἐμπόρων καὶ ναυκλήρων καὶ ἐγδοχέων ) elements of the group. However, there is no self-designation of hetaireiai since no

2nd/3rd c. CE) ; IGUR iii 1181; 1210; 1256 (Rome) ; IG xiv 2251 (Umbria). So, it would be unwise to postulate behind each and every reference to hetairos the existence of an hetaireia , Isoc. 4 ( Panegyricus ) 79, 174 and 4L ( To Philip ) 87.

- 8 Jones 1999: 30-33 underlines that these categories do not represent absolute and rigid categories but a 'continuum of infinite gradations'.
- 9 See the crucial remark by Canevaro 2016: 61-63 of the private character of hetaireiai in Athens and their public character in Sparta or Crete.
- 10  With the term corporate I mean the degree or the extent to which an organization supersedes the total of its members and acts or is treated as something different from it.

documents issued by them survive (if they have ever been issued). The term hetaireiai is used by historians, orators, philosophers, 11 or intellectuals of the Roman period, 12 each of them with his own agenda. These designations rarely go beyond the expression hetaireia h ē plus a personal name in genitive. In this respect the modern tendency to label groups calling themselves αὐτολήκυθοι , ἰθύφαλλοι , 13 Τριβαλλοί , 14 κακοδαιμονι -

- 11  Historians: Hdt. 5.66; Thuc. 8.92.4; X. Hell . 2.3.46; AthPol 20.1 with Rhodes 1981: 243-4 and Caciagli 2016: 39; AthPol 34.3 with Pecorella Longo 1971: 25-29; Rhodes 1981: 42931. Orators involved in the events of the turbulent late fifth century, e.g. And. 1 ( On the Mysteries ) 100, Lys. 12 ( Against Eratosthenes ) 55, Isoc. 16 ( On the team of horses ) 6 used the term with its political connotation, while others like Isoc. 4 ( Panegyricus ) 79 & 174 represented them as part of a lost golden age. In passages from the Demosthenic corpus the term has retained some of the earlier politically tainted implications, D. 21 ( Against Meidias ) 139; [D.] 58 ( Against Theocrines ) 42. Philosophers: Arist. Pol. 1306 a32; 1313a 39-b8 with Jordovic 2011: 12-14; Pl. Lg. 9.856 b-c; R. 2.365d; Anaximenes, Rhetorica ad Alexandrum 38.18.
- 12  E.g.  Appian, BC 3.10.75;  D.S.  10.11.1;  D.H. RA 3.72.5;  D.  Chr.  4.132;  D.  Cassius  3035.109.15; Plu. Alc. 13.4; Per. 14.2.
- 13  [D.] 54 ( Against Konon ) 16: ἰθυφάλλοις δὲ καὶ αὐτοληκύθοις συγχωροῦμεν εἶναι τοῖς υἱέσι τοῖς τούτου , καὶ ἔγωγ᾽ εὔχομαι τοῖς θεοῖς εἰς Κόνωνα καὶ τοὺς υἱεῖς τοὺς τούτου καὶ ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦθ᾽ ἅπαντα τρέπεσθαι ('This man's sons are welcome, so far as I  am  concerned, to be ithyphalloi and autolekythoi ;  I  only  pray  the  gods  that  these things and all similar things may recoil upon Konon and his sons' - transl. DeWitt in Loeb).
- 14  [D.] 54 ( Against Konon ) 39: τὴν δὲ τούτου πρὸς τὰ τοιαῦτ᾽ ὀλιγωρίαν ἐγὼ πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐρῶ : πέπυσμαι γὰρ ἐξ ἀνάγκης . ἀκούω γάρ , ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί , Βάκχιόν τέ τινα , ὃς παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ἀπέθανε , καὶ Ἀριστοκράτην τὸν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς διεφθαρμένον καὶ τοιούτους ἑτέρους καὶ Κόνωνα τουτονὶ ἑταίρους εἶναι μειράκι᾽ ὄντας καὶ Τριβαλλοὺς ἐπωνυμίαν ἔχειν· τούτους τά θ᾽ Ἑκαταῖα κατεσθίειν , καὶ τοὺς ὄρχεις τοὺς ἐκ τῶν χοίρων , οἷς καθαίρουσιν ὅταν εἰσιέναι μέλλωσιν , συλλέγοντας ἑκάστοτε συνδειπνεῖν ἀλλήλοις , καὶ ῥᾷον ὀμνύναι καὶ ἐπιορκεῖν ἢ ὁτιοῦν ('The contempt, however, which this fellow feels for all sacred things I must tell you about; for I have been forced to make inquiry. For I hear, then, men of the jury, that a certain Bacchius, who was condemned to death in your court, and Aristokrates, the man with the bad eyes, and certain others of the same stamp, and with them this man Konon, were intimates when they were youths, and bore the nickname Triballoi; and that these men used to devour the food set out for Hecate and to gather up on each occasion for their dinner with one another the testicles of the pigs which are offered for purification when the assembly convenes and that they thought less of swearing and perjuring

σταί , 15 as hetaireiai is unhelpful, since members of these groups explicitly adopt a distinct particular name; paragraph 14 from the pseudo-Demosthenic speech Against Conon is eloquent: 'He will tell you that there are many people in the city, sons of respectable persons, who in sport, after the manner of young men, have given themselves nicknames, such as ith-

- themselves than of anything else in the world' - transl. DeWitt in Loeb). See Calhoun 1913: 31-33 and Taddei 2007: 289.
- 15  Lys.  fr.  195  (Carey) apud Ath.  12.551d-f: ὅτι δὲ ἦν ὁ Κινησίας νοσώδης καὶ δεινὸς τἄλλα Λυσίας ὁ ῥήτωρ ἐν τῷ ὑπὲρ Φανίου παρανόμων ἐπιγραφομένῳ λόγῳ εἴρηκεν , φάσκων αὐτὸν ἀφέμενον τῆς τέχνης συκοφαντεῖν καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου πλουτεῖν . ὅτι δὲ ὁ ποιητής ἐστι καὶ οὐχ ἕτερος , σαφῶς αὑτὸς ὢν σημαίνεται ἐκ τοῦ καὶ ἐπὶ ἀθεότητι κωμῳδούμενον ἐμφανίζεσθαι καὶ διὰ τοῦ λόγου τοιοῦτον δείκνυσθαι . λέγει δ᾽ οὕτως ὁ ῥήτωρ· θαυμάζω δὲ εἰ μὴ βαρέως φέρετε ὅτι Κινησίας ἐστὶν ὁ τοῖς νόμοις βοηθός , ὃν ὑμεῖς πάντες ἐπίστασθε ἀσεβέστατον ἁπάντων καὶ παρανομώτατον ἀνθρώπων γεγονέναι . οὐχ οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τοιαῦτα περὶ θεοὺς ἐξαμαρτάνων ἃ τοῖς μὲν ἄλλοις αἰσχρόν ἐστι καὶ λέγειν , τῶν κωμῳδοδιδασκάλων < δ᾽ > ἀκούετε καθ᾽ ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτόν· οὐ μετὰ τούτου ποτὲ Ἀπολλοφάνης καὶ Μυσταλίδης καὶ Λυσίθεος συνειστιῶντο , μίαν ἡμέραν ταξάμενοι τῶν ἀποφράδων , ἀντὶ δὲ νουμηνιαστῶν κακοδαιμονιστὰς σφίσιν αὐτοῖς τοὔνομα θέμενοι , πρέπον μὲν ταῖς αὑτῶν τύχαις· οὐ μὴν ὡς τοῦτο διαπραττόμενοι τὴν διάνοιαν ἔσχον , ἀλλ᾽ ὡς καταγελῶντες τῶν θεῶν καὶ τῶν νόμων τῶν ὑμετέρων . ('But that Cinesias was a man of delicate health, and badly off in other respects, we are told by Lysias the orator, in his oration inscribed, 'For Phanias accused of illegal decree,' in which he says that he, having abandoned his regular profession, had taken to trumping up false accusations against people, and to making money by such means. And that he means the poet here, and no one else, is plain from the fact that he shows also that he had been attacked by the comic poets for impiety. And he also, in the oration itself, shows that he was a person of that character. And the words of the orator are as follows: - 'But I marvel that you are not indignant at such a man as Cinesias coming forward in aid of the laws, whom you all know to be the most impious of all men, and the greatest violator of the laws that has ever existed. Is not he the man who has committed such offences against the gods as all other men think it shameful even to speak of, though you hear the comic poets mention such actions of his every year? Did not Apollophanes, and Mystalides, and Lysitheos feast with him, selecting one of the days on which it was not lawful to hold a feast, giving themselves the name of Kakodaimonistai instead of Noumeniastai, a name indeed appropriate enough to their fortunes. Nor, indeed, did it occur to them that they were really doing what that name denotes; but they acted in this manner to show their contempt for the gods and for our laws' - transl. Yonge in Loeb). See also Harp. s.v. Kinesias.

yphalloi , or autolekythoi , and that some of them are infatuated with mistresses'. 16 The naming process echoing contemporary preoccupations is best reflected in a passage of Plu. Per. 16.1, who reports that certain comedians maliciously labelled the comrades ( hetairoi )  of  Pericles as neoi Peisistratidai . 17 In this case a distinct name is devised by sharp-tongued satirists  suggesting  an  affinity  of  Perikles'  supporters  with  the  Peisistratean  regime.  I  would  be  even  more  skeptical  in  labelling  similar groups as associations; four men meeting a few times a year to dine and challenge traditional norms (Lys. frg. 73 (Thalheim); [D.] 54.39), hardly constitute an association. These occasional gatherings of certain individuals, I think should be treated as ad hoc groupings.

## Descriptive term

It means a term shared by several other associations on record. Actually, most of the testimonies about hetaireiai fall into this category; one may include the abstract noun τὸ ἑταιρικόν attested twice in Thuc. 3.82.5-6 (a passage concerning stasis in  Korkyra and 8.48.3-4) and in the reported

- 16  [D.] 54 ( Against Konon )  14: καὶ ἐρεῖν ὡς εἰσίν ἐν τῇ πόλει πολλοί , καλῶν κἀγαθῶν ἀνδρῶν υἱεῖς , οἳ παίζοντες , οἷ ' ἄνθρωποι νέοι , σφίσιν αὐτοῖς ἐπωνυμίας πεποίηνται καὶ καλοῦσι τοὺς μὲν ἰθυφάλλους , τοὺς δὲ αὐτοληκύθους , ἐρῶσι δ ' ἐκ τούτων ἑταιρῶν τινες ('He will tell you that there are many people in the city, sons of respectable persons, who in sport, after the manner of young men, have given themselves nicknames, such as Ithyphalli or Autolecythi, and that some of them are infatuated with mistresses' - transl. DeWitt in Loeb). Also [D.] 54 ( Against Konon ) 20: εἶτ᾽ ἐν μὲν τοῖς νόμοις οὕτως· ἂν δ᾽ εἴπῃ Κόνων ' ἰθύφαλλοί τινές ἐσμεν ἡμεῖς συνειλεγμένοι , καὶ ἐρῶντες οὓς ἂν ἡμῖν δόξῃ παίομεν καὶ ἄγχομεν ', εἶτα γελάσαντες ὑμεῖς ἀφήσετε ; ('This, then, is what is ordained in the laws; but if Konon says, 'we belong to a club of ithyphalloi and in our love-affairs we strike and throttle whom we please' are you, then going to let him off with a laugh?' - transl. DeWitt in Loeb). See Taddei 2007: 289.
- 17  Plu. Per .  16.1: καίτοι τὴν δύναμιν αὐτοῦ σαφῶς μὲν ὁ Θουκυδίδης διηγεῖται , κακοήθως δὲ παρεμφαίνουσιν οἱ κωμικοί , Πεισιστρατίδας μὲν νέους τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸν ἑταίρους καλοῦντες ('Of his power there can be no doubt, since Thucydides gives so clear an exposition of it, and the comic poets unwittingly reveal it even in their malicious gibes, calling him and his associates 'new Peisistratidai'' - transl. Perrin in Loeb). See Calhoun 1913: 5, 7, 18, 24.

law on eisangelia by  Hyp.  4  ( For Euxenippos )  7-8.  However, the term hetaireia did not designate only an association but went well beyond that; it was so versatile that it could be used as a cult epithet of Zeus, 18 to signify subgroups of citizens in archaic and classical Crete, 19 a type of friendship, 20 prostitution 21 or even herds of animals. 22 In one occasion it is used as substitute of a group of individuals willing to testify in favour of Meidias,  D.  21  ( Against  Meidias )  139: 23 μαρτύρων συνεστῶσ᾽ ἑταιρεία ,  in  an crafty way to associate the hybristic behaviour of Meidias with anti-democratic leanings. This kind of metaphor was used by Aristophanes in his Knights , 255: ὦ γέροντες ἡλιασταί , φράτερες τριωβόλου . The usages of the term hetaireiai , hetairoi 24 as  groups  throughout  Greco-Roman  antiquity shows that they are clustered in three distinct areas and two different

- 18 I.Oropos 675 with SEG 53.467 (3rd c.): θεσμὸν ἑταιρε [ ίου Ζηνός ]; Pollux i 24.
- 19  E.g. I.Cret. I ix 1 (Dreros, 3rd /2nd c.) and I.Cret. iv 72 (Gortyn, beg 5th c.). See Gagarin & Perlman 2016: 92.
- 20  X. Hell . 2.4.21; Arist. Rh. 1381b, 34: Εἴδη δὲ φιλίας ἑταιρεία οἰκειότης … and Poll. iii 61; v 113-4. The use of the term by Bissa 2008 to describe partnerships to exploit silver mines is rather misleading.
- 21  Artem. Oneirocriticon 4.4: ἑταίρα ἔδοξεν εἰς τὸ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος ἱερὸν εἰσεληλυθέναι καὶ ἠλευθερώθη καὶ κατέλυσε τὴν ἑταιρείαν . Οὐδὲ γὰρ εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν πρότερον εἰσέλθοι ἄν , εἰ μὴ καταλύσειε τὴν ἑταιρείαν ('A courtesan imagined that she had entered the shrine of Artemis and she was freed and left behind her life as a courtesan. For one would not enter the shrine unless one had left behind one's life as a courtesan' transl. D. E. Harris-MaCoy, Oxford 2012).
- 22  Arist. HA 8.5.1 (611b): Αἱ δὲ βόες καὶ νέμονται καθ ' ἑταιρείας καὶ συνηθείας .
- 23  See MacDowell 1990: 356-7; Bearzot 1999: 300; Rubinstein 2000: 74, and Hendren 2015: 21-43. Similarly in [D.] 58 ( Against Theokrines) 42 and Is. frg. 23 ( Ὑπὲρ Καλυδῶνος πρὸς Ἁγνόθεον ) 2 (Thalheim) apud D.H. de Is. 8 but in D. 21 ( Against Meidias ) 20 the term to describe the companions of Meidias imposing a change of mind is hetairoi .
- 24  Three early epigraphic attestations of the term hetairoi in CEG I 335 ( ZPE 13 (1974) 264 no. 3) (Ptoion-Boiotia, c. 550-500): [ ἄ ] ν̣δρες ἑταῖροι Δ [ ο͂ρος Ἀλέχσανδρός τε Φίλο̄ν τε ] |  [ ἄνθεσαν , Ἄπολλον , τόδε σ ] οὶ περικαλλὲς ἄγ [ αλμα ]; IG i 3 1329 (Peiraieus, c. 420400?): Ἀνθεμίδος τόδε σῆμα· κύκλωι στεφα | νοῦσ < ι > ν ἑ̣ταῖροι | μνημείων ἀρετῆς | οὕνεκα καὶ φιλίας . Ἀνθεμίς . | Ἡρόφιλε ; and SEG 20.745 (Cyrene, early 6th c.): ἔστασαν ἑταῖρο̣ [ ι ---].  See  Sartori  1958:  171,  who  distinguishes  three different meanings of both terms in Plato: friendship, communione dottrinale, cooperazione occulta contro lo stato, followed by Aurenche 1974: 19.

periods, classical Athens, Roman Asia Minor 25 and Middle East. In the last two areas they are also attested epigraphically; at Elaioussa of Cilicia in late 1st c. BCE or early 1st c. CE there are two references to an hetaireia of Sambatistai , while at Dura-Europos, on the West-bank of the Euphrates, synetairoi , 26 among them an archetairos, contributed to the development of a plot of land devoted to a goddess and recorded the fact on a stele in 37 CE. 27 It  seems odd but the term is not used by Hellenistic authors, I could find only one reference to it in Polybius regarding a Celtic tribe living in northern Italy. 28 This semantic plasticity allowed Greek authors of the Imperial era to coin the term for the followers of eminent Romans of the Respublica thus the term became synonymous of unrest, strife and sedition in the Roman mindset. 29

- 25  D. Chr. 4.132 ( μερίδος καὶ ἑταιρείας ἀριθμεῖσθαι ); 32.70 ( Σιμάριστοι καὶ τοιαῦθ ' ἕτερα ἑταιρειῶν ὀνόματα ); 38.36 ( τῆ Νικαέων ἑταιρείᾳ ); 45.8 ( μηδὲ καθ ' ἑταιρείας πολιτεύεσθαι ); 50.3 ( μήτε ἑταιρείᾳ τινι πεποιθώς ).
- 26 Synetairoi also in GVI I 1270 ( CIJud 2.1612); I.Egypte métriques 94 (Leontopolis (Egypt), 14 BCE?); IG xii (5) 1104 (Syros, 2nd c.).
- 27 SEG 54.1481 (Anazarbos-Cilicia, 110 CE): ἡ ἑταιρεία Ἀθηνοδώρου ; JHS 12 (1891) 236 no. 17 (Kanytela-Cilicia, 1st c. BCE/1st c. CE): ἡ ἑταιρεία τῶν Σαμβατιστῶν see also LSAM 80: ἑταῖροι καὶ Σαμβατισταί ;  SEG 34.1298  (Hierapolis-Phrygia,  2nd-3rd  c.  CE): ἡ ἑταιρεία Ἀρζιμνέων περὶ Στρατόνεικον ; SEG 54.1381 (Termessos-Pisidia, beg. 3rd c. CE): ἑταιρείην ; SEG 56.1920 (Gerasa-Arabia, end 2nd c.): οἱ τῆς τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ Αμμανα ἑταιρείας ; Excavations at Dura-Europos 5, 114 (Dura-Europos, 54 CE): ἑταιρεία see also YCS 14 (1955) 129 no. 2 (Dura-Europos, 37 CE): συνεταῖροι , ἀρχέταιρος .
- 28  Plb. 2.17.12: περὶ δὲ τὰς ἑταιρείας μεγίστην σπουδὴν ἐποιοῦντο διὰ τὸ καὶ φοβερώτατον καὶ δυνατώτατον εἶναι παρ ' αὐτοῖς τοῦτον , ὃς ἂν πλείστους ἔχειν δοκῆ τοὺς θεραπεύοντας καὶ συμπεριφερομένους αὐτῶ ('They (sc. Senones) made a great point, however, of friendship for the man who had the largest number of clients or companions in his wanderings, was looked upon as the most formidable and powerful member of the tribe' - transl. Shuckburgh in Loeb).
- 29  Appian, BC 3.10.75 ( τὴν Καίσαρος ἑταιρείαν ); 3.11.81 ( τῆς Πομπηϊανῆς ἑταιρείας ); D.S. 10.11.1;  25.8.1;  D.H. RA 3.72.5;  4.38.6  ( τῆς περὶ Ταρκύνιον ἑταιρείας );  9.41.5;  11.3.3; 11.5.1; 11.23.6 ( ἀριστοκρατικῶν ἑταιρειῶν ); 12.1.11; D. Cassius 30-35.109.15; 37.45.2; 37.54.3 ( ἐς δὲ τὴν πόλιν ἐσελθὼν καὶ ἐπαγγειλάμενος τὴν ἀρχὴν οὕτω τούς τε ἄλλους καὶ τὸν Πομπήιον τόν τε Κράσσον ἐξεθεράπευσεν , ὥστε δι᾽ ἔχθρας ἀλλήλοις ἔτι καὶ τότε αὐτοὺς ὄντας καὶ τὰς ἑταιρείας ἔχοντας ); 52.36.2; 60.6.6-7; Pliny, Letters , 10.

## Membership

Individuals participating in associations must be committed in pursuing a common, enduring goal. What is worth further investigation is not the obvious i.e.  did hetaireiai have  members  but  how  one  could  become  a member, how membership was delineated, the mechanism(s) of extracting  or  expressing  consent  and  commitment.  There  is  no  information about the way(s) in which one could join an hetaireia , whether there were any formal or informal requirements. We do not know whether the social background or personal characteristics -especially age- of the candidates influenced their decision to join and the resolution of the group to accept them. Of course, the reference of Herodotus to the comrades of Cylon as h ē liki ō tai indicates or implies an age group, what remains uncertain is whether the group was called hetarei ē or this is a Herodotean projection. 30 As for the mechanism, we can only speculate about the existence of an oath of allegiance, 31 a duty of silence, 32 a ritual of some kind (e.g. initiation  that  may  include  acts  flouting polis -law  or  the  established  social norms). 33 The sense of belonging could have been enhanced by orchestrating and performing similar acts. One of the links that glued together (even  temporarily)  members  was  allegiance  or  expectations  from  the prominent  figure,  apart  from  congeniality,  age,  and  mutual  interests (Calhoun 1913: 38-39). These various mechanisms show a reliance on pistis among individual members on a one-to-one basis and subsequently through networking, something that implies a resounding lack of corporate spirit. The size of hetaireiai is difficult to define in exact terms; scholars based on the evidence from Andocides and the Attic stelai ( IG i 3 421ff.)

- 30  See Chroust 1954: 281, Jones 1999: 224; cf. Calhoun 1913: 14.
- 31  On oaths see the rather speculative discussion in Calhoun 1913: 34-35 and most recently Mitchell 2014: 69. An oath is mentioned in the koinon of Eikadeis in IG ii 2 1258, 2-3 (324/3).
- 32  Disapproval of Andocides for testifying against his comrades, And. 1 ( On the mysteries ) 54,  63,  67.  See  also  Lys.  6  ( Against Andocides )  23;  12  ( Against Eratosthenes )  43-47;  13 ( Against Agoratos ) 18-22; [D.] 54 ( Against Konon ) 25, 33, 37, [D.] 57 ( Against Euboulides ) 17-18.
- 33  See Calhoun 1913: 35-37 for initiation in [D.] 54 ( Against Konon ) and Furley 1996: 5859.

have suggested that they were rather small groups, between 10-30 individuals, 34 and if we are to believe Lysias frg. 73 there were only four or a few more in [D. 54] (see above). It is a fair inference that, at least in late fifth-century Athens, they were all upper-class men of about the same age, 35 notwithstanding the references to Andocides' father or Konon of [D.] 54.

## Organization (Officials - laws)

Private associations have, at least, rudimentary organization, that is an articulated modus  operandi involving  a  division  of  labour  and  duties among its members, rank and file personnel, and fixed deliberation processes. Hetaireiai do not seem to have had anything similar. What do we know about their decision-making processes? Assuming that one of their main function was drinking parties (a glimpse is provided by And. 1 ( On the Mysteries ) 61 when he describes how he managed to call off an earlier attempt at parodying the Eleusinian Mysteries) or other informal meetings in a private place, then one should not expect to find any formal way(s) of deliberation but rather informal consultations over a cylix of wine. 36 In  this  case  spontaneity  and  sentimental  reaction  may  have played a decisive role. Even the terms implying some sort of magistrates, such as archetairos are late appearances. 37

- 34  So Calhoun 1913: 29-30, club of Andocides included c. 23 individuals. Aurenche 1974 suggested that the group of Leogoras did not have more than 40 members, Alcibiades' group 21, and Teucros 13 members; see also Connor 1971: 27-28, Furley 1996: 59, Rosenbloom 2004: 328. The average size of private religious associations in Hellenistic Athens included between 20 and 50 members ( IG ii 2 1297; 1325; 1335; 2343; 2347).
- 35  Connor 1971: 29; Aurenche 1974.
- 36  And. 1 ( On the Mysteries ) 61: διὰ ταῦτα εἶπον τῇ βουλῇ ὅτι εἰδείην τοὺς ποιήσαντας , καὶ ἐξήλεγξα τὰ γενόμενα , ὅτι εἰσηγήσατο μὲν πινόντων ἡμῶν ταύτην τὴν βουλὴν γενέσθαι Εὐφίλητος , ἀντεῖπον δὲ ἐγώ , καὶ τότε μὲν οὐ γένοιτο δι᾽ ἐμέ ('I therefore informed the Council that I knew the offenders, and showed exactly what had occurred. The idea, I said, had been suggested by Euphiletus at a drinking-party; but I opposed it, and succeeded in preventing its execution for the time being' - transl. Maidment in Loeb). See Calhoun 1913: 6, 9, 24, 83, 113-14; MacDowell 1962: 137; Pecorella Longo 1971: 41ff.; Furley 1996: 57.
- 37 Archetairos : YCS 14 (1955) 129 no. 2 (Dura-Europos, 37 CE).

## Durability

It  is  possible  to  argue  that hetaireiai were intended to endure in time, even if that meant the life span of the individual around whom the group orbit. For example, we assume that Alcibiades' hetaireia (Plu. Alc. 13.4) was intended  to  last  as  long  as  Alcibiades  was  alive,  but  we  do  not  know whether his hetaireia survived the reversals of his career. We also know the fate of the hetaireia of Thucydides, son of Melesias after his ostracism, it was 'disbanded' by Perikles (Plu. Per . 14.2). In that sense, I think that hetaireiai were structurally unstable groups; they were more than ad hoc groups but, at the same time, they were not designed to outlive its central figure. 38 The  Thucydidean xyn ō mosiai convinced  by  Peisandros  to  join forces and bring an end to the democratic regime in 411 were apparently more enduring groups (8.54.4: αἵπερ ἐτύγχανον πρότερον ) since their aim was to influence judicial proceedings and elections of magistrates but how far back this goes we cannot know.

## Foundation - Dissolution

This feature remains largely unascertainable; we may surmise that, at least sometimes, the central figure was instrumental in setting up the group or at least signal his condescensation in forming one. In fourthcentury Athens, the groups of Ithyphalloi , Kakodaimonistai did not proceed to a foundation act; they simply got together on certain occasions. Since in  most  Greco-Roman associations dissolution remained a de  facto imposed eventuality, hetaireiai understood as an inherently unstable collectivity would have been dissolved as soon as their central figure(s) lost interest, retired or passed away. No formal declaration or decision of its members was needed.

## Property

There is no indication that hetaireiai owned any premises; most of their meetings and banquets took place in the houses of their members, e.g. And. 1 ( On the Mysteries ) 11-18 and the reports in the same speech that the profanation of Mysteries occurred in houses as far apart as the deme of Themakos (in the southern slopes of Hymettos), in the area of Olympieion and the house of Poulytion. 39

This rapid survey has demonstrated, I hope, that hetaireiai display only three out of nine defining elements of an association. They may have had a proper name, used a descriptive term and attracted members; but they appear to have only limited durability, not to have been organized with officers and by-laws, not to acquire property, and no formal foundationdissolution processes. To my mind this suggests that they were not fully fledged associations; it is more likely that they were what I prefer to call low-corporateness associations. 40

Even if regarding hetaireiai as informal groups with a low corporateindex is increasingly acceptable, 41 it does not explain its perseverance in fourth-century Athens. Despite hetaireiai 's tight association with the enemies of the demos , 42 structurally similar groups continued to spring up. A different perspective to the investigation may be provided if we consider the collocation 'le degré zéro de l'écriture.' The phrase was coined in literary theory by Roland Barthes in 1950s to signify the implicit but changing over time requirements that écriture was conforming to. In a similar manner, we may reconsider whether the structural elements of hetaireiai (name, designation, membership) provided a template of collective action. In other words, were hetaireiai an organizational model, providing principles on how to organize collectivities, competing or even averse to the rule of the demos or a response to demos and its subdivisions as N. Jones put it? Does the subsequent prevalence of the 'democratic'

39  Themakos, house of Pherekles; Olympieion, house of Charmides, and the house of Poulytion, Isocr. 16 ( On the team of horses ) 6; Plu. Alc. 22.3. See Connor 1971: 27-28.

40  Similar assessment by Connor 1971: 26.

41  E.g. Mitchell 1997.

42  E.g. Anaximenes, Rhetorica ad Alexandrum Pol. 1305b 32.

38.18, with Pecorella Longo 1971: 26; Arist.

template, as the numerous decrees of public and private associations 43 with a well-defined organizational apparatus and thus detectable in the epigraphic  radar,  mean  that  the  organizational  pattern  of hetaireiai proved to be an impasse?

If the above questions sound plausible, then, we may speak of two distinctly different modes of organizing collective action; on the one hand an informal, with an embryonic articulation, centred round dominant personalities  (i.e.  powerful  individuals  providing  access  to  resources, wealth, power, influence), with membership consisting of individuals of the same age or so (but not necessarily), with fuzzy or unclear rules of joining, at least to the outsiders. On the other hand, there was available a mode with a set of fixed rules of admission and concerted action (deliberation procedures, magistrates, regulations), sometimes even acquiring their own premises, transparency guaranteed by holding assemblies of their  members, enhanced by the public display of their decisions (inscription  on  stone),  use  of  writing,  and  appropriation  of  the polis -discourse both on the level of rhetoric as well as of symbols (crowning, monumental character of the publication).

## Concluding Remarks

Bypassing the fruitless discussion of whether hetaireiai were something equivalent to modern political parties, 44 hetaireiai in classical Athens appear both as low-corporateness associations and as a model to organize collective action. The involvement of, at least, some of them in the political upheaval of the last decade of the fifth century, certainly discredited them. Nevertheless, their structural plasticity made them an attractive proposition.  Thanks  to  their  conceptual  and  organizational  elasticity, they may have been functioning under a different name (or no name at all, since the descriptive term was telling enough!), adapted to a new social  setting  (in  a  symbiotic  or  parasitic  relation),  undetectable  in  our

- 43  Such  as  demes,  phratries, phylai , koina of orge ō nes , thiasotai , eranistai , Askl ē piastai, Sarapiastai or other similarly labelled cult groups.

44  See Connor 1971, Aurenche 1974, Hansen 1991; Mitchell 1997, Anastasiadis 1999, and most recently Hansen 2014, Piovan 2015, and Anderson 2022.

sources. 45 The advent and eventual domination of the democratic polis -based model of collective action has obscured this aspect of hetaireiai and instead focused on their anti-democratic, destabilising function, a feature that survived well into the Imperial era.

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