Otherness and the Problem of Freedom of Movement in Classical Athens
Otherness and the Problem of Freedom of Movement in Classical Athens

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses the problem of freedom of movement in classical Athens through the prism of others and Otherness in the ancient world. Migration is just a small segment of total mobility. People move for different reasons, and they can be classified into different categories. It is more important that this leads to the formation of a cosmopolitan, racially/ethnically, and culturally mixed society against the background of intensive civilizational exchanges. However, these processes are also reflected in acute social conflicts and confrontations.Archaic societies did not elaborate on the legal foundations of the freedom of movement, which presuppose an international community of states based on the general recognition of the principles of territorial sovereignty and equality of independent states before the law. That was to become possible with the emergence of the modern European state system. The problem of the free movement of people and its relevance to migration as a form of mobility in antiquity has many aspects. The present paper analyses the issue of identity, which is closely related to the issues of Otherness and the big theme of the control over mobility by generating a restrictive system vis-à-vis the alien and the foreigners through a precise model of inclusion and exclusion from the political and social community.

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