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 asty (ἄστυ). The Ancient Greek poleis consisted of an asty built on an acropolis or harbour and controlling surrounding territories of land (χώρα khôra). The traditional view of archaeologists that the appearance of urbanisation at excavation sites could be read as a sufficient index for the development of a polis was criticised by French historian François Polignac in 1984[2][a] and has not been taken for granted in recent decades: the polis of Sparta, for example, was established in a network of villages. The Ancient Greeks did not always refer to Athens, Sparta, Thebes and other poleis as such; they often spoke instead of the Athenians, Lacedaemonians, Thebans and so on.
Plato analyzes the polis in the Republic, the Greek title of which, Πολιτεία (Politeia), itself derives from the word polis. The best form of government of the polis for Plato is the one that leads to the common good. The philosopher king is the best ruler because, as a philosopher, he is acquainted with the Form of the Good. In Plato's analogy of the 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.
The basic and indicating elements of a polis are:
During the Hellenistic period, which marks the decline of the classical polis, the following cities remained independent: Sparta until 195 BC after the War against Nabis. Achaean League is the last example of original Greek city-state federations (dissolved after the Battle of Corinth (146 BC)). 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 colonies and cities of the era retain some basic characteristics of a polis, except the status of independence (city-state) and the political life. There is self-governance (like the new Macedonian title politarch), but under a ruler and king. The political life of the classical era was transformed into an individualized religious and philosophical view of life (see Hellenistic philosophy and religion). Demographic decline forced the cities to abolish the status of metic and bestow citizenship; in 228 BC, Miletus enfranchised over 1,000 Cretans.[6] 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.