This book presents a new understanding of the Classical Athenian concept of citizenship. In contrast to scholars who accept Aristotle's narrow political definition of a citizen as someone who participates in judicial and political office, B. instead suggests that participation in religious cult was equally, if not more, important. One striking result of this emphasis on the religious aspect of citizenship is that it includes women as citizens since they were active in religious cult, although barred from formal political activity.

B. describes her approach as the conventional ‘historical-philological’ method. This approach entails the close study of the semantic range of particular words and their development over time (Begriffsgeschichte). In addition, B. applies D. North's concept of institutions to explain how honour and citizenship interacted. The first of these approaches is deployed to unpack the meaning of what for B. is the key phrase at the core of Athenian citizenship, namely ‘sharing in the hiera kai hosia’ (p. 50). B. argues that the hiera are the things that belong to the gods as a gift from humans, including ‘animal sacrifice (thysia), libations and other offerings, but also votives of many kinds, hymns and songs, dances, music and athletic competitions, plots of land, buildings and money’ (p. 58). She concludes that the hiera could encompass the entire process of honouring, consecration and gift-giving to the gods, making the hiera the Greek word closest to ‘religion’ (p. 59).

Turning next to the hosia, she argues that this term denotes ‘the proper conduct and respect of humans towards the gods and towards other citizens’ (p. 63). B. observes that the adjective hosios is often associated with dikaios, and therefore also refers to proper conduct as articulated in human laws. In so far as just conduct is pleasing to the gods, hosia can also refer to ‘all human actions and property used to please the gods’ (p. 75). Taken together, then, the phrase hiera kai hosia refers to ‘the bond between humans and gods on which the well-being of the community depended’ and was comprised of ‘the polis's cults, customs, laws, obligations and social values’ (p. 75). B.’s interpretation of this key phrase runs counter to the standard view that hosia meant ‘secular’ as opposed to ‘sacred’ (hiera). B. convincingly maintains that there was no such division in ancient Greek culture. While the pairing does contain a distinction between human and divine, B. shows that human action as indicated by the term hosia is oriented towards ‘pleasing to the gods’, and therefore complementary and reciprocal, rather than opposed to the gods.

Chapter 3 turns to the criterion of descent for citizenship and argues that legitimate descent, that is birth from two citizen parents, who were formally betrothed, entitled one to both material and immaterial benefits of group membership, namely a share in hiera kai hosia. After tracing the development of the criterion of descent from Solon to Cleisthenes, B. argues that the religious basis of citizenship was not curtailed but actually expanded under the democracy. Contrary to some recent scholarship in which the role of documents in establishing citizen identity is stressed, B. maintains that citizen identity was established through narratives attesting to the performance of religious rituals such as the oath sworn by the father over a sacrificial animal in the presence of the phratry (pp. 123–4).Footnote ¹ B.’s argument is largely persuasive, if only to provide balance to the anachronistic tendency in scholarship to emphasise formal legal requirements over informal social processes in the regulation of ancient societies. Indeed, even in modern societies the performance of citizen roles rather than documented facts about identity can play an important role (see e.g. A.J. Gross, What Blood Won't Tell. A History of Race on Trial in America [2008]).

Chapter 4 examines the vocabulary for male and female citizens. B. demonstrates that the noun politai gradually replaced astoi as the most common term for the collectivity of citizens, and that it was only in the 420s bce that a separate female singular form of the term was developed (politis, politides). It is indeed striking that astos/astē is the preferred term in Aristotle's version of Pericles’ Citizenship Law dating to 451/0 and also appears in Herodotus’ Histories as the key word for citizenship (e.g. 4.146). Moreover, in citizenship and inheritance cases from the fourth century, the astos/astē terminology is still used. In fourth-century philosophical texts, the term politēs is mostly chosen where political rights are the concern, whereas astos is employed to indicate legitimate descent and to contrast citizens with foreigners. B. therefore concludes that in the fourth century ‘the difference between the two words remained a subtle one’ (p. 172).

Chapter 5 examines the role of public offices as the medium through which citizens participate in the polis. B. criticises scholars for focusing narrowly on purely political aspects of public office and insists that the connection with religious authority and responsibility be maintained. Although she concedes that there was some distinction between the two words for public office, archai and timai, she argues that archai were a subset of timai (the latter term including priesthoods). She notes that the holders of many archai (including the nine archons, the generals and members of the Boule) were responsible not just for ‘political’ duties but also for conducting sacrifices, caring for hiera and saying prayers (pp. 193, 211–17). Moreover, B. suggests that, although women had no access to archai, they nevertheless had responsibility for similar rituals on behalf of the city, and even held parallel types of public offices. For example, the wife of the archon basileus was integral to the rituals of the Anthesteria, and female office-holders (archousai) were in charge of the Thesmophoria.

Intriguingly, B. draws on D. North's concept of institutions to explain the economy of honour and its relation to citizenship in Classical Athens. For B., honour (timē) was an institution in North's sense, in so far as it represented the outcome of a game of reciprocity between citizen and city. Both archai and other timai were regulated by the rules of timē; hence women, not just men, had a share in the political economy. Moreover, participation in a cult itself, whether as an ephebe in the procession to Eleusis or as a young girl in the cult of Artemis at Brauron, conferred honour as a contribution to the polis. This is a clever argument that sidesteps any modern distinctions between politics and religion and explains how not only women, but also children, could be considered citizens.

The book concludes with an exploration of the implications of the new understanding of citizenship for other groups in Athens, especially honorary citizens and metics. B. suggests that naturalisation exemplifies the pattern of reciprocity that she has argued was central to citizenship: honorary citizenship was granted to those who conferred benefits on the city, such as military assistance or financial aid. Metics are an interesting challenge for B.’s model, since they were clearly included in some Athenian cults. Metics, for example, were enrolled in demes and participated in deme sacrifices, not to mention the Panathenaic procession. If participation in cults is the core of Athenian citizenship, why were metics included? B.’s conclusion, following the work of her student S. Wijma, is to argue that inclusion in cults marks metics as a ‘status close to but distinct from Athenian citizens’ (p. 270). While it is true that metics are sometimes assigned distinct roles and marked off in other ways such as clothing, there is at least some tension in categories here, if religion is indeed central to citizenship, as B. argues. On the other hand, B. rightly notes that metics were valued for their economic contributions and often for their financial donations and, in this sense, they approach citizens in the exchange of benefits for honour.

This is a meticulously researched and carefully argued book by a scholar at the peak of her powers. B. is to be congratulated for bringing a new perspective on a much-studied aspect of Classical Athens. In this reviewer's view, B.’s interpretation is much more in line with the ancient experience of citizenship than Aristotle's dry categories. This book deserves to be widely read.