Polis

Polis means a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens. In context with Ancient Greece polis means nearly always "city-state."

The word originates from the ancient Greek city-states, which developed during the Archaic period and existed well into Roman times, when the equivalent Latin word was civitas, that means 'citizenhood' as well.

An ancient polis often centered around a citadel, called the acropolis. Nearly always it had an agora (market) and typically one or more temples and a gymnasium. Many citizens of a polis did not live in the central city but in the suburbs or countryside. The Greeks regarded the polis as a religious and political association: while the polis would control territory and colonies beyond the city itself, the polis would not simply consist of a geographical area.

Words coming from "polis"

Modern European languages have many words that come from polis. In English there are policy, polity, police and politics. In Greek, words coming from polis include politēs and politismos.

A number of words end in the word "-polis". Most refer to a special kind of city and/or state. Some examples are:

• Megalopolis, made by adding Greek word for "big" and meaning a conurbation built by merging several cities and their suburbs.
• Metropolis, made by adding the Greek word for "mother" and meaning the mother city of a colony, the see of a metropolitan archbishop, or a Metropolitan area.

Other refer to part of a city or a group of cities, such as:

• Acropolis, 'high city' — upper part of a polis, often citadel and/or site of major temple(s).
• Tripolis, a group of three cities, retained in the names of a Tripoli in Libya and a namesake in Lebanon

Other cities

The names of several other towns and cities in Europe and the Middle East have contained the suffix "-polis" since antiquity; or currently feature modernized spellings, such as "-pol". Some of the examples are:

• Heliopolis, Egypt
• Persepolis, Iran
• Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine

The names of other cities were also given the suffix "-polis" after antiquity, either referring to ancient names or simply unrelated:

• Annapolis, Maryland, United States of America
• Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America
• Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America
• Illiopolis, Illinois, United States of America
• Metropolis, Illinois, United States of America
• Demopolis, Alabama, United States of America
• Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil
• Thermopolis, Wyoming, Unites States of America

There are a large number of cities ending in polis located in Brazil, particularly in the state of Goiás. Examples include:

• Anápolis
• Nerópolis
• Pirenópolis
• Figueirópolis
• Palmeirópolis

Polis Media

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  Cameo depiction of the ideal polis on the Gemma Augustea. The upper scene depicts the philosopher-king and other savants and warriors, while the lower scene depicts the people.

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  Monaco, a modern city-state on the south coast of France. Monaco bears no resemblance to any aspect of an ancient Greek polis.

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  Plaque over the door of Coulanges' last residence

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  Romulus and Remus, descendants of Trojan Aeneas, having been cast away to die, being suckled by the wolf on the banks of the Tiber prior to their rescue by Evander, king of a polis, a colony from Arcadia, already on what became the Palatine Hill (site of the imperial "palace"). There are no Italic tribes in this story.

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  Antique map of the five villages of Sparta. The Eurotas River is to the right. The central citadel shown, site of the former Mycenaean palace, was abandoned.

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  Statue of Aristotle, founder of political science. Degree of similarity to the real Aristotle is not known.

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  Part of the Gortyn Law Code, an ancient constitution engraved on a wall for public showing at Gortyn, Crete

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  Site of the judicial buildings on Areopagus Hill, which Solon made into a supreme court by trusting it with the guardianship of the new constitution he had devised. The top of Areopagus Hill is in the foreground; in the background is another hill, the Akropolis.

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  A symbolic representation of Lycurgus giving the politeia to the new citizens of Sparta, which would be a political synoecism. There was no physical synoecism, according to Thucydides.

Further reading

• Hansen, Mogens Herman. Polis: An Introduction to the Ancient Greek City-State. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-920849-2; paperback, ISBN 0-19-920850-6).

This article includes text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Please add to the article as needed.