A settlement or allotment of land given to citizens of ancient Greece (especially Athens) in exchange for military service and maintaining colonial control.
From Greek 'kleroukhia' (distribution of lots), from 'kleros' (drawn lot, allotment of land) and 'oikos' (house). It represents the Greek system of rewarding soldiers with conquered land.
Cleruchies reveal how ancient empires solved the dual problem of rewarding loyal soldiers and controlling distant territories—it's a military-economic system so effective that empires kept using variations of it for thousands of years.
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