polis

Creon, representing the claims of the polis over the clan, cannot be dismissed outright.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

Playwrights addressed the polis not by dramatizing current events but by recasting tales from the mythological and historic past to sharpen critical thinking on contemporary concerns.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025

They were woven into the fabric of a democratic polis.

From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2025

Now protected by their own walls, and in possession of all the civic tools needed to form their own polis, the Helots were liberated from Spartan tyranny at long last.

From Slate ● Jan. 16, 2024

Sometimes the polis plunge in and arrest the job-hunters they can catch, to send them home.

From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads

When the Greek cities of Ionia rose up against Persian rule, Darius vowed to make an example not just of them, but of the Greek poleis that had aided them, including Athens.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

The poleis also invented institutions that united the cities culturally, despite their political independence, the most important of which was the Panhellenic games.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

Open war finally broke out between the two cities in 431 BCE after two of their respective allied poleis started a conflict and Athens tried to influence the political decisions of Spartan allies.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

Thus, between 405 BCE — 338 BCE, the old order of the hoplites and republics atrophied, replaced by oligarchic councils or tyrants in the poleis and stronger, tax-supported states.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2019

The Hellenic municipalities were developments from the poleis, or city-states, which existed prior to the Roman conquest in Greece and the Hellenized areas of Asia and Africa.

From A History of Rome to 565 A. D. by Arthur Edward Romilly Boak