Illustrations of Greek Poleis

Basic Features of a Polis: a town/city center, a Khora or surrounding land with villages and farms, People, and IndependenceTown/City Center

• A Meeting Area or Agora (Athens)
• A Meeting Area or Agora (Athens -- overview)
• A Citadel or Akropolis (Athens)
• A Temple and Cultic Center (Parthenon, Athens)
• Defensive Walls (Athens)
• Port (Athens-Piraeus)
• A Theater (Theater of Dionysus, Athens)
• Second View of Theater of Dionysus

Khora or Territory (e.g. Tauric Khersones on Black Sea)

• Plan of Khora
• Map of Athenian Khora
• City Center
• Modern Harbor

People: exclusive citizenship laws, hierarchy from polites (citizen) to metoikos (resident alien) to slave to women, parameters of size

• Small Polis in Melos (Theater)

Independence: reliance on self-defence

• Hoplite Warrior
• Hoplite Phalanx or Battle Formation
• Hoplite Reenactors
• Trireme
• Trireme Warfare

Further Reading

• Mogens Hansen, An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis: An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation, Oxford, 2005 (compendium of all known Greek poleis -- over 1000 -- and their basic characteristics).
• Mogens Hansen, Polis: An Introduction to the Ancient Greek City-State, Oxford, 2006.