Search Results: Polis

A polis (plural: poleis) was the typical structure of a community in the ancient Greek world. A polis consisted of an urban centre, often fortified and with a sacred centre built on a natural acropolis or harbour, which controlled a surrounding...

This text is part of an article series on the Delian League. The modern term Delian League refers to the primarily maritime συμμᾰχία or symmachy (offensive-defensive alliance) among various Greek poleis, which emerged after the second...

This text is part of an article series on the Delian League. The fourth phase of the Delian League encompasses the first part of the Great Peloponnesian War, also referred to as the Ten Years War, sometimes called quite incorrectly The...

This text is part of an article series on the Delian League. The second phase of the Delian League's operations begins with the Hellenic victory over Mede forces at Eurymedon and ends with the Thirty Years Peace between Athens and Sparta...

The city of Syracuse is located on the east coast of Sicily and was originally a Greek colony founded by Corinth in 734 BCE. The city enjoyed a period of expansion and prosperity under the tyrant Gelon in the 5th century BCE, survived a two-year...

Magna Graecia (Megalē Hellas) refers to the coastal areas of southern Italy which were colonized by various ancient Greek city-states from the 8th to 5th centuries BCE. Sicily, although also a region of Greek colonization, is not usually...

Delos is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago which was both an influential political force and, with its sanctuary to the god Apollo, an important religious centre in the Archaic and Classical periods. The island was also a major commercial...

Selinus (or Selinous, modern: Selinunte), located on the south-west coast of Sicily, was founded in the mid-7th century BCE by Greek colonists from Megara Hyblaea on the eastern side of the island. Selinus was the most western Greek colony...

Corcyra (modern Corfu and also known as Kerkyra) located in the Ionian sea is one of the northern most Greek islands and was an important polis or city-state in the Archaic and Classical periods. Possessing a significant naval fleet and controlling...

Agrigento (Greek: Akragas, Latin: Agrigentum) was a Greek-founded city-state located on the south coast of Sicily near the river Akragas (now S. Biagio) just 5 km from the sea. At its peak, the city may have had as many as 300,000 inhabitants...