Polis

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Polis (disambiguation).
Acropolis of Athens
, a noted polis of classical Greece.
Hellenistic Egypt
.
Theatre of ancient Syracuse
, a classical polis.

Polis (/ˈpɒlɪs/, US: /ˈpoʊlɪs/; Greek: πόλις, Ancient Greek pronunciation: [pólis]), plural poleis (/ˈpɒleɪz/, πόλεις, Ancient Greek pronunciation: [póleːs]), means 'city' in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center as distinct from the rest of the city.[1] Later it also came to mean the body of citizens under a city's jurisdiction. In modern historiography the term is normally used to refer to the ancient Greek city-states, such as Classical Athens and its contemporaries, and thus is often translated as 'city-state'. The poleis were not like other primordial ancient city-states such as Tyre or Sidon, which were ruled by a king or a small oligarchy; rather, they were political entities ruled by their bodies of citizens.

The Ancient Greek poleis developed during the Archaic period as the ancestors of the Ancient Greek city, state and citizenship and persisted (though with decreasing influence) well into Roman times, when the equivalent Latin word was civitas, also meaning 'citizenhood', whilst municipium in Latin meant a non-sovereign town or city. The term changed with the development of the governance centre in the city to mean 'state: (which included the villages surrounding the city). Finally, with the emergence of a notion of citizenship among landowners, it came to describe the entire body of citizens under the city's jurisdiction. The body of citizens came to be the most important meaning of the term polis in ancient Greece.

The Ancient Greek term that specifically meant the totality of urban buildings and spaces is

Lacedaemonians
, Thebans and so on.

Polis in Ancient Greek philosophy

ship of state
, the philosopher king steers the polis, as if it were a ship, in the best direction.

Books II–IV of The Republic are concerned with Plato addressing the makeup of an ideal polis. In The Republic, Socrates is concerned with the two underlying principles of any society: mutual needs and differences in aptitude. Starting from these two principles, Socrates deals with the economic structure of an ideal polis. According to Plato there are five main economic classes of any polis: producers, merchants, sailors/shipowners, retail traders and wage earners. Along with the two principles and five economic classes, there are four virtues. The four virtues of a "just city" are wisdom, courage, moderation and justice. With all of these principles, classes and virtues, it was believed that a "just city" (polis) would exist.

Archaic and classical poleis

The basic and indicating elements of a polis are:

Polis during Hellenistic and Roman times

During the

Cretan city-states continued to be independent (except Itanus and Arsinoe, which lay under Ptolemaic influence) until the conquest of Crete in 69 BC by Rome. The cities of Magna Graecia, with the notable examples of Syracuse and Tarentum, were conquered by Rome in the late 3rd century BC. There are also some cities with recurring independence like Samos, Priene, Miletus, and Athens.[4] A remarkable example of a city-state that flourished during this era is Rhodes, through its merchant navy,[5] until 43 BC
and the Roman conquest.

The Hellenistic

Dyme sold its citizenship for one talent, payable in two installments. The foreign residents in a city are now called paroikoi. In an age when most political establishments in Asia are kingdoms, the Chrysaorian League
in Caria was a Hellenistic federation of poleis.

During the

Roman era, some cities were granted the status of a polis, or free city, self-governed under the Roman Empire.[7] The last institution commemorating the old Greek poleis was the Panhellenion
, established by Hadrian.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ An attempt to dissociate urbanization from state formation was undertaken by Morris, I (1991), "The early polis as city and state", in Rich, J; Wallace-Hadrill, A (eds.), City and Country in the Ancient World, London, pp. 27–40

References

  1. ISBN 9780415252256
    .
  2. ^ Polignac, François (1984), La naissance de la cité grecque (in French), Paris.
  3. ISBN 9780801493652
    .
  4. ISBN 0-19-517042-3
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-415-97334-2, archived
    from the original on 2015-03-17.
  6. ^ Milet I, 3, pp. 33–38.[clarification needed]
  7. ISBN 978-0-19-923784-5
    .

Further reading

Library resources about
Polis

External links

Look up polis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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