Page "Metic" Paragraph 5

Metics held lower social status but not on the basis of socio-economic class.

Some were poor artisans and ex-slaves, while others were some of the wealthiest inhabitants of the city.

As citizenship was a matter of inheritance and not place of birth, a metic could be either an immigrant or the descendant of one.

Regardless of how many generations of the family had lived in the city, metics did not become citizens unless the city chose to bestow citizenship on them as a gift.

This was rarely done.

From a cultural viewpoint such a resident could be completely " local " and indistinguishable from citizens.

They had no role in the political community but might be completely integrated into the social and economic life of the city.

In the urbane scene that opens Plato's Republic — the dialogue takes place in a metic household — the status of the speakers as citizen or metic is never mentioned.