The Polis – also known as the city-state – was the ancient Greek city-state. The word politics comes from this Greek word. In ancient times, the polis was a core, the central urban area that could also have controlled the surrounding landscape. (The word polis could also refer to the citizenship of the city.) This surrounding landscape (Chora or Ge) could also be considered part of the polis. Hansen and Nielsen say that there were around 1500 archaic and classical Greek poleis. The region, which was formed by a geographically and ethnically bound polis group, was an ethnos.
Pseudo-Aristotle defines the Greek polis as „a collection of houses, land and possessions sufficient to enable the inhabitants to lead a civilized life“ [pound]. It was often an agricultural lowland surrounded by protective hills. It may have emerged as numerous separate villages that joined together as its mass became large enough to be almost self-sufficient.
The largest Greek polis
The Athens polis, the largest of the Greek polis, was the birthplace of democracy. According to J. Roy, Aristotle saw the household „oikos“ as the basic social unit of the polis.
Athens was the urban center of Attica; Thebes of Boeotia; Sparta of the southwestern Peloponnese, etc. According to the pound, at least 343 Poles belonged to the Delian League at some point. Hansen and Nielsen provide a list of members from the regions of Laconia, Saronic Gulf (west of Corinth), Euboea, Aegean, Macedonia, Mygdonia, Bisaltia, Chalkidike, Thrace, Pontus, Pronpontos, Lesbos, Aiolis. Ionia, Karia, Lykia, Rhodes, Pamphyli, Kilikia and Poleis from non-localized regions.
