Meaning of the Greek polis

One of the most important civilizations in our history was ancient greece, cradle of Western cultures, and to which we owe many issues of our current society. One of the most important elements of Greece were its cities, the so-called polis, which were very interesting locations for various reasons. To get to know them better, in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to talk about the meaning of greek polis.

You may also like: Greek polis: characteristics

Index

What are Greek polis?
Examples of Greek polis
Decline of the Greek polis

What are Greek polis?

Polis are one of the main characteristics of the culture of the Ancient Greece, serving as the center of its culture, its politics and much of its social life. They could be quickly defined as the city-states of Greece, being small self-governing communities and formed by the city itself, and by everything that surrounded it.

It should be noted that the idea of Greece as a state did not exist, each of the cities of the Greek civilization being independent the rest, thus dividing Greek culture into different city-states, which had nothing to do with each other in terms of government. The only relationship between the various cops was a feeling of

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cultural affinity, which was called Hellas.

Characteristics of the Greek polis

To better understand the concept of polis we must talk about some of its main characteristics, which must be quite general since some of them varied with the step of the centuries. The main characteristics of the Greek polis are the following:

Every cop was like a kind of country, for which the passage from one polis to another was considered as the arrival of a foreigner.
The polis it was divided into two parts, one more urban where the cultural, political and religious center was located, and another more rural part around the polis.
The cops had a very small space, although there were exceptional cases such as Sparta or Athens that came to have large areas.
Society was divided into two parts, the citizens who participated in all aspects of life, and the slaves that they had no rights whatsoever.
The slavery it was the major source of economy, as in most ancient civilizations.
The city was divided into three parts, being the Acropolis the upper part of the city, the Agora which was the public square where the citizens were, and the Wall that protected from the outside.

Greek Polis Meaning - What are Greek Polis?

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Examples of Greek polis.

To better understand the concept of the Greek polis we must give some examples of them, commenting mainly on the best known, being considered the most important of all they. Some of the main Greek polis are the following:

Athens

The best known polis and surely the most important of them all. The Athenian city is said to have existed since around the 3000 BC C. but it was many years later that the Mycenaeans arrived in the region and were turning it into what we know as Athens.

The great importance of Athens was largely due to its extraordinary culture, possessing some of the greatest thinkers in history, but it was also very important the great achievements he had in the trade and navigation.

Sparta

The Sparta polis is especially known for its great military importance, possessing some of the greatest war victories in ancient Greece. The Spartans were raised from a young age to learn to fight, thus being the best warriors in all of Greece, and being contained only by the unions of various Greek peoples.

Maroon

Always below Athens and Sparta, but Corinth was one of the most relevant Greek polis of this civilization. The duration of Corinth was enormous, surviving most of the Greek polis, and being conquered only by the powerful Romans.

Thebes

A very important polis due to the great relationship it had with mythology, numerous events of the gods taking place in the city. One of its most important characteristics was the existence of 7 doors around the polis.

Meaning of Greek polis - Examples of Greek polis

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Decline of the Greek polis.

To conclude this lesson on the meaning of greek polis We must briefly comment on the decline of the Greek polis, understanding thanks to this the reasons why they disappeared.

To understand the beginning of the crisis of the polis we must go to theMedical Wars, being the moment in which the Greeks defeated the Persians, but this brought with it a greater predominance of the Athenians, and an increase in the envy of the rest of the polis towards Athens. All of this led to the Peloponnesian War, where two groups of Greek cops clashed, one led by Athens and the other by Sparta.

The wars between the Greeks accumulated over the years, destroying the model of the polis, increased the number of citizens and slaves, but decreasing trade and crafts, causing all this a strong crisis. This crisis situation was taken advantage of by Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, who with great new military techniques managed to defeat the different Greek polis, ending the model of the Greek city-states.

Both Philip II and his successors ended up with the Greek polis model, since they came from the Macedonians, who did not use the polis system. The Macedonians were partly Greek, but they had little cultural affinity with the rest of the Greek peoples. It was with all this that the Macedonian monarchy, ending with the concept of Greek polis.

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