Meaning and Reference of theWords Asty and Polisma

In Archaic and Classical Greek texts polis is by far the most common word for what we call a “town” or “city”. But the Greeks had a number of other words, viz. asty, polisma, polismation, polichne and polichnion. The three last words can be ignored in this context. They are frequently found in texts from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, but hardly ever attested in older sources.Asty and polisma, however, are important site-classifications in sources from all periods.

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