| Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary 1,506,890,612 visitors served. |
|
Dictionary/ thesaurus | Medical dictionary | Legal dictionary | Financial dictionary | Acronyms | Idioms | Encyclopedia | Wikipedia encyclopedia | ? |
polis |
Also found in: Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.01 sec. |
polisIn ancient Greece, an independent city and its surrounding region under a unified government. A polis might originate from the natural divisions of mountains and sea and from local tribal and cult divisions. Usually the town was walled and contained a citadel on raised ground (acropolis) and a marketplace (agora). Government was centred in the town; usually there was an assembly of citizens, a council, and magistrates. Ideally, all citizens participated in the government and in the cults, as well as in defense and economy. Women, minors, metics, and slaves were not citizens. Hellenism spread many of the institutions into the Middle East. See also Athens; city-state; Sparta; Thebes. How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
|
| ? Mentioned in | ? References in periodicals archive | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| The men who created this nation knew the results of the democracies in the pre-Christian Greek city states, and they were horrified at what democracy had produced. [2] For better or worse, the (perhaps idealized) simplicity of life in Greek city states had been replaced by much more complex social structures, ancestors of the ones we have today. Greek city states rarely had more than 10,000 citizens. |
| Encyclopedia |
| Free Tools: |
For surfers:
Browser extension |
Word of the Day |
Help
For webmasters: Free content | Linking | Lookup box | Double-click lookup | Partner with us |
|---|