Geomoroi

landowners (small, medium, and large holdings) in ancient Greece.

(1) In Athens the geomoroi were farmers who constituted one of the three groups of the free population (along with the eupatridae and the demiurgoi) that developed, according to tradition, during the reign of Theseus (approximately in the 13th century B.C.). Gradually the geomoroi lost their plots of land and fell into debt slavery. The reforms of the archon Solon (sixth century B.C.) restored most of their farms to the geomoroi, who, along with the urban demos, became a bulwark of the Athenian slaveholding democracy. By the fourth century B.C. the majority of the geomoroi had again been ruined.

(2) In Syracuse and on the island of Samos the geomoroi were aristocrats and large landowners.