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A polis (πόλις) plural: poleis (πόλεις) is a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens. When used to describe classical Athens and its contemporaries, polis is often translated as "city-state."

The word originates from the ancient Greek city-states, which developed during the Archaic period, the ancestor of city, state and citizenship, and persisted well into Roman times. 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 which were ruled by a king or a small oligarchy, but rather a political entity ruled by its body of citizens. 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.Edward Soja in the book "Postmetropolis" challenges the polis as a state of mind and governing influenced by all elements of urbanization. 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 body of citizens came to be the most important meaning of the term polis in ancient Greece.

Contents 1 History 2 Related Terms 3 Derived Words 3.1 Names 4 Notes 5 Further reading 6 See also

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. 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. Metics (resident foreigners) and slaves lay outside this organization. Birth typically determined citizenship. 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. These groups were rarely able to be construed. The rights of one social class were not usually instilled on the lower class.

For Example,in the East beyond Asia Minor a major instrument of hellenization by Alexander the Great was the polis. 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.

Today, polis is described as a state of living, not just class separation and government ruling. Edward Soja, in the book “Postmetropolis” describes the beginning growth of city life, and polis oriented ruling to be established in much of the modern world. The governmental rule over the people has developed from the first visions of democratic Greek city-states to a wide based governmental structure. Each community has a smaller structure of polis through the municipal and county ruling, to the advanced city-state rules and eventually the national government politics.

The polis oriented in our cities has developed many class oriented structures. Concentric circles have built barriers which separate the rights of one community to another (see also defacto segregation). The class structures have dramatically changed from the Greek society where all people did not have rights of citizenship, but certain classes were not as privileged as others.

The regulation has caused natural polis rule to spread out to many different branched sublets. The Scientific Revolution, Urban Revolution, Post-Fordism, and Technology Revolution are just a few cultural movements which have brought an adaptation to the major impact of polis lifestyles.

Megacity: Usually described as a metropolitan area with over 10 million inhabitants living in an area. The Megacity has developed into small communities which function as a larger city-state.

Globalization: the increasing interwoven people and places as a result of advances in transport, communication, and information technologies that cause political, economic, and cultural convergence.

Phronesis: Greek word roughly translated as practical wisdom. Aristotle’s description discusses how Grecian societies developed solutions to many major issues and how phronesis was used to adapt the polis.

Simcities: The developed communities which are based in technological world. The Simulated Cities are built around a regulated polis which is physically non-existent, but virtually controlled and monitored.

Synekism: refers to the dynamic formation of the polis state - the union of several small urban settlements under the rule of a "capital" city (or so-called city-state or urban system). Soja's definition is "the stimulus of urban agglomeration."

Carceral Archipelago: The development of secluded and barricaded communities which utilize smaller spectrums of polis security. The communities are built for protection from invaders and perceived security. The polis is becoming repeated in these small communities to contain and retain control. An example of a Carceral Archipelago is gated communities.

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. 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.

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

• Astropolis — star-scaled city/industry area; complex space station; a European star-related festival.
• Cosmopolis — a large urban centre with a population comprised of many different cultural backgrounds; a novel written by Don DeLillo.
• Ecumenopolis — a city that covers an entire planet, usually seen in science fiction
• Megapolis, built by merging several cities and their suburbs.
• Metropolis can refer to the mother city of a colony, the see of a metropolitan archbishop or a Metropolitan area — a major urban population centre.
• Postmetropolis The movement from major metropolis era to a desertion of the old polis and new development of new concepts of the city-state.
• Necropolis 'city of the dead' — a graveyard.
• Technopolis — city with high-tech industry; room full of computers; the Internet.

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).
• Decapolis, a group of ten cities
• Dodecapolis, a group of twelve cities
• Pentapolis, a group of five cities
• Tripolis, a group of three cities, retained in the names of a Tripoli in Libya and a namesake in Lebanon

In Cyprus there is a town called Polis in North Cyprus, identified with the Ancient Lampa. In Turkey there is Bolu, the Ancient Claudiopolis.

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

• Acropolis, Athens, Greece
• (H)Adrianopolis, various cities, the main one being Adrianople, the present Edirne
• Alexandropol, the former name for Gyumri, Armenia
• Constantinople (Constantinopolis), now known as Istanbul (from is tin Poli 'to "the" city' being Byzantium)
• Gelibolu/Gallipoli
• Hayrabolu
• Inebolu
• Heliopolis
• Heracleopolis
• Hermopolis, a name for several cities in ancient Egypt and also a city in Siros island
• Megalopolis, Greece
• Neapoli(s) 'new city' — common name for daughter foundations of older polis in ancient Greece and Rome including the modern cities of Naples, Nablus and Nabeul. The adjective Neapolitan is often used to describe things that have their origin in Naples.
• Nikopol, Ukraine
• Nikopol, Bulgaria
• Ovidiopol
• Persepolis, Iran
• Safranbolu
• Sergiopolis, a ruined city in modern-day Syria
• Seuthopolis, a ruined Thracian city now in Bulgaria
• Sozopol, Bulgarian Thrace
• Pólís, a small kiosk in Reykjavík, Iceland

In other cases the term is hardly still recognizable, e.g.:

• Antipolis, now Antibes, in southern France

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:

• Anápolis, Brazil
• Annapolis, MD
• Biopolis — a biological research center in Singapore.
• Cambysopolis, a Catholic titular see in Asia Minor, the name being a curious accidental 'creation'
• Copperopolis, CA
• Daugavpils
• Indianapolis, IN
• Kannapolis, NC
• Mariupol
• Melitopol
• Minneapolis, MN
• Motherwell — nicknamed Steelopolis
• Petrópolis, the Brazilian imperial capital, after Pedro I
• Sebastopol, CA
• Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine
• Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine
• Sophia-Antipolis, a technology park in France
• Tiraspol

And the enterprise:

• Micropolis Corporation — a defunct computer hard drive manufacturer.

• 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 incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

• Soja, Edward W.. "Postmetropolis, Critical Studies of Cities and Regions". Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2000 (alk. paper, ISBN 1-55718-000-3; paperback, ISBN 1-55718-001-1)

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