Citizendia
Your Ad Here

For other uses, see Polis (disambiguation).

A 'polis' (πόλις, pronunciation pol'-is) plural: poleis (πόλεις) is a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens. A city is an Urban area with a large Population and a particular Administrative, Legal, or Historical status A city-state is a Region controlled exclusively by a City, usually having Sovereignty. When used to describe classical Athens and its contemporaries, polis is often translated as "city-state. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's "

The word originates from the ancient Greek city-states, which developed during the Archaic period, the ancestor of city, state and citizenship, and persisted (though with decreasing influence) well into Roman times, when the equivalent Latin word was civitas, also meaning 'citizenhood', while municipium applied to a non-sovereign local entity. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca A city-state is a Region controlled exclusively by a City, usually having Sovereignty. The archaic period in Greece ( 750 BC 480 BC) is a period of Ancient Greek history The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The term city-state which originated in English (alongside the German Stadtstaat) does not fully translate the Greek term. The poleis were not like other primordial ancient city-states like Tyre or Sidon, which were ruled by a king or a small oligarchy, but rather a political entity ruled by its body of citizens. Tyre ( Arabic صور Ṣūr, Phoenician Phoenician wawsvg|12px|ו]] Ṣur, Hebrew Sidon,or Saïda, ( Arabic ar صيدا; Phoenician phoenician yodh The traditional view of archaeologists, that the appearance of urbanization at excavation sites could be read as a sufficient index for the development of a polis was criticised by François Polignac in 1984[1] and has not been taken for granted in recent decades: the polis of Sparta for example was established in a network of villages. Urbanizationn (also spelled urbanisation) is the physical growth of Urban areas into rural or natural land as a result of population in-migration to an existing The term polis which in archaic Greece meant city, changed with the development of the governance center in the city to indicate state (which included its surrounding villages), and finally with the emergence of a citizenship notion between the land owners it came to describe the entire body of citizens. The ancient Greeks didn't refer to Athens, Sparta, Thebes and other poleis as such; they rather spoke of the Athenians, Lacedaemonians, Thebans and so on. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's The city of Sparta ( Doric Σπάρτα Attic Σπάρτη Thebes ( Classic Greek Θῆβαι, Mod Θήβα) is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range which divides The body of citizens came to be the most important meaning of the term polis in ancient Greece.

The Ancient Greek term which specifically meant the totality of urban buildings and spaces was άστυ, asty. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c

Contents

History

The bounds of the ancient polis often centered around a citadel, called the acropolis, and would of necessity also have an agora (market) and typically one or more temples and a gymnasium. A citadel is a fortress for protecting a Town, sometimes incorporating a Castle. Acropolis (Gr akros akron edge extremity + polis city pl acropoleis The Agora was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Greek city-states The gymnasium in Ancient Greece functioned as a training facility for competitors in public Games It was also a place for socializing and engaging in intellectual Note that many of a polis' citizens would have lived in the suburbs or countryside. The Greeks did not regard the polis as a territorial grouping so much 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.

Each city was composed of several tribes or demes, which were in turn composed of phratries and finally gentes. A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally consists of a Social group existing before the development of or outside of States Many anthropologists use Ancient Greece, a deme ( δῆμος) was a subdivision of Attica, the region of Greece surrounding Athens. A phratry ( Greek: φ(ρατρία English translation: "brotherhood" "kinfolk" derived from φρατήρ meaning "brother" In Ancient Rome, a gens (pl gentes) was a Clan, Caste, or group of Families, that shared a common name (the Metics (resident foreigners) and slaves lay outside this organization. In Ancient Greece, the term metic meant resident alien a person who did not have citizen rights in their Greek City-state ( Polis) of residence As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another Birth typically determined citizenship. Each polis would also worship a number of patron deities for protection and kept its own particular festivals and customs. See also List of deities A deity is a Postulated Preternatural or Supernatural Being, who is always A festival is an event usually and ordinarily staged by a local community which centers on some unique aspect of that community

In the East beyond Asia Minor a major instrument of hellenization by Alexander the Great was the polis. Hellenization (or Hellenisation) is a term used to describe the spread of Greek culture. He is said to have founded no fewer than seventy cities, destined to become centers of Greek influence; and the great majority of these were in lands in which city-life was almost unknown. In this respect his example was emulated by his successors, the diadochi. The Diadochi (plural of Latin Diadochus, from Greek Διάδοχοι, Diadokhoi, "successors" were the rival successors

Polis was frequently divided into three types of inhabitants. The first, and highest, “group” of inhabitants are citizens with political rights. Then are the citizens without political rights. Lastly are the non-citizen.

Derived words

Derivatives of polis are common in many modern European languages. This is indicative of the influence of the polis-centred Hellenic world view. Derivative words in English include policy, polity, police and politics. A policy is a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome(s Polity ( Greek: Πολιτεία or Πολίτευμα transliterated as Politeía or Políteuma) was originally a term used in Ancient Greece Police are agents or agencies usually of the executive, empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order through the legitimatized use of force Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions In Greek, words deriving from polis include politēs and politismos, whose exact equivalents in Latin, Romance and other European languages, respectively civis (citizen), civilisatio (civilization) etc are similarly derived. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all

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

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

Names

In Cyprus there is a town called Polis in North Cyprus, identified with the Ancient Lampa. The Decapolis ( Greek: deka, ten polis, city was a group of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in Jordan A pentapolis, from the Greek words penta 'five' and Polis 'city(-state' is geographic and/or institutional grouping of five cities Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía Polis (or Polis Chrysochous, in Greek: Πόλις Χρυσοχούς is a small town at the north-west end of the island of Cyprus, at the centre of Chrysochous

Names of a number of places contain the suffix "-polis" (sometimes modernized, e. g. "-pol") since Antiquity, e. g. :

In other cases the term is hardly still recognizable, e. Persepolis ( Old Persian: Pārsa, Modern Persian: تخت جمشید/پارسه Takht-e Jamshid or Chehel Minar) was the ceremonial For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. Sevastopol ( see pronunciation below) is a port city in Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea Peninsula Crimea (kraɪˈmiːə or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Крим Автономна Республіка Крим Avtonomna Respublika Krym; Крым Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. Seuthopolis was an ancient city founded by the Thracian king Seuthes III, and the capital of the Odrysian kingdom since 320 BC The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian Simferopol (English pronunciation ˌsɪmfəˈroʊpəl (Сімферополь Симферополь Aqmescit literally The white mosque) is the Capital of the Sozopol (Созопол Sozopolis Antheia Apollonia is a ancient town and seaside resort located 15 km south of Burgas on the southern Bulgarian Black Tiraspol (ti'raspol Russian and Ukrainian: Тирáсполь Moldavian Cyrillic: Тираспол is the second largest city in Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova ( Republica Moldova) is a Landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania g. :

Furthermore it may be ued for latinization, e. g. for ecclesiastical use, such as Floropolis (for St-Flour, an episcopal see in France)

Such names were also given later, either referring to older ones or unrelated:

And the enterprise:

Notes

  1. ^ Polignac, La naissance de la cité grecque (Paris 1984). An attempt to dissociate urbanization from state formation was undertaken by I. Morris, "The early polis as city and state" in J. Rich and A. Wallace-Hadrill, eds. , City and Country in the Ancient World (London 1991) pp 27-40.

Further reading

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone

See also

Colonies in antiquity were City-states founded from a mother- City Synoecism or synœcism ( Ancient Greek: συνοικισμóς is the amalgamation of villages and small towns in Ancient Hellas into larger political units such
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic