polis

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

When Greeks established a colony, it became an independent polis with its own laws.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023

One of the few local documents to survive from this time, the so-called Constitution of Cyrene, prescribes the kind of political machinery one might expect in a wholly independent polis.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

Greek colonies far from Greece were as important as the older poleis in Greece itself, since they created a common Greek civilization across the entire Mediterranean world.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

Despite the Persian naval loss, Xerxes’ army was easily able to march across Greece and ransack various poleis and farmlands; it even sacked Athens itself, which had been evacuated earlier.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

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

Wars were temporarily suspended and all Greek poleis agreed to let athletes travel with safe passage to take part in the games, in part because the Olympics were dedicated to Zeus, the chief Greek god.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

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 Boak, Arthur Edward Romilly