What is a Polis An Investigation of the Concept of;Polis

After our detailed investigation of the chronologyof the Greek citystate culture and its expansion, it is time to return to the question: what was a polis? The answer depends on whether the questioner wants to look at the Greek polis with the eyes of a modern historian or to find out what the Greeks themselves thought a polis was.1 I have chosen the second approach. What follows is, therefore, about the Greeks’ understanding of themselves, and in such an investigation the written sources must take centre-stage, and an attempt must be made to analyse the words and concepts that the Greeks used to describe the institution.

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