The supreme arbitrator and the dēmos: City founders and reformers

The supreme arbitrator of society -whether a ‘founder of a colony’ or a comprehensive political reformer -is a remarkable Greek phenomenon. Both are the founders or the re-founders of a political community; both work under the auspices of Delphi; and both enjoy supreme powers that usually vanish with the completion of the task at hand. Both address the question of comprehensive ‘sharing in the polis’ (metechein tes poleos)or citizen-integration, often in the sense of (re)distribution. Oikistai and comprehensive reformers appear as reconcilers, arbitrators, and mediators. The supreme status (autokrator) of a founder (oikstes, ktistes, archegetes) is contrasted with egalitarianism among new settlers, a status of community members understood as homoioi, equals. At Cyrene we find a striking overlap between the founder Battos I and Demonax of Mantineia, Cyrene’s reformer and re-founder. Both established a new, comprehensive, social and political order, and both followed an oracle from Delphi. The article further analyzes some general features, especially the ‘mixture’ of citizens, with a specific concentration on the reforms at Cyrene, its purpose and its instruments, such as the probability of the drawing of lots for the purpose of inclusion, recognition, and the distribution of citizens within the polis.