Michael McGlin (Temple University)
This paper investigates practices and behaviors related to private property ownership on the island of Delos during the period of its political independence (314-167 BCE). Previous work on property and property ownership on Delos has explored several different arenas. It has established the existence of private property on the sacred island and the various forms of property offered as security for temple loans (Reger 1992). Housing in the urban setting of Delos has been investigated (Trümper 1998), and prosopographical research into the Delian population has revealed the major, elite families on the island alongside the offices and properties they held or rented (Vial 1984, 2008). Research into the socio-political status of the individuals and families renting property—primarily sacred estates from the sanctuary of Apollo—has been well-established in the literature (Kent 1948, Vial 1984, Reger 1994, Prêtre and Brunet 2002, Migeotte 2014), but this body of knowledge does not extend to the range of property owners themselves. This paper analyzes the epigraphic evidence of property ownership on Delos in order to understand the types of practices and attitudes that existed towards property ownership. Specifically, this paper will investigate (1) whether individuals owned one or more types of property (i.e. houses, gardens, workshops), (2) whether individuals’ property was located in one area of Delos or was scattered across the island, and (3) whether individuals engaged in other economic activity besides property ownership such as borrowing funds or renting other properties. The source material for this research has been collected from the annually inscribed records the sanctuary managers (hieropoioi) published that detail the sanctuary of Apollo’s inventory of dedications and financial transactions. In order to borrow money from the temple of Apollo, individuals had to offer a form of security—whether it was their own or provided by a third party—which the hieropoipoi recorded on the sanctuary accounts. Together, these records provide evidence of over 200 homeowners, and dozens of other owners of workshops, gardens, lands, and hotels (synoikiai). The preliminary results of this research begin to create a complex picture of property ownership on Delos. Individuals who owned homes typically did not diversify into owning other types of property; in contrast, owners of other types of properties such as gardens and workshops, do not appear as homeowners. Evidence reveals that individuals both had their properties located on one part of the island or scattered across Delos. Finally, for the homeowners who engaged in economic activity beyond property ownership, they were most likely to have rented sacred estates from the sanctuary of Apollo.