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

The term polis, from which is derived the word political, refers to the city-state, the basic unit of government in ancient Greece.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022

I am not caught by polis or dogs, not this time, but by this man who has tricked me.

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

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

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

The Greek poleis were each distinct, fiercely proud of their own identity and independence, and they frequently fought small-scale wars against one another.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

Likewise, citizenship, which had been the basic unit of political currency in the ancient poleis, became instead a mark of elite membership that could be won in multiple cities at the same time.

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