In modern historiography, 'Polis' is normally used to indicate ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, and thus is often translated as "city-state".
These cities consisted of a fortified city centre built on an acropolis or harbor and controlled surrounding territories of land (khôra).
The city-state developed during the Archaic period as the ancestor of city, state, and citizenship and persisted (though with decreasing influence) well into Roman times, when the equivalent Latin word was civitas, also meaning "citizenhood", while municipium applied to a non-sovereign local entity.
These cities consisted of a fortified city centre built on an acropolis or harbor and controlled surrounding territories of land (khôra).
The city-state developed during the Archaic period as the ancestor of city, state, and citizenship and persisted (though with decreasing influence) well into Roman times, when the equivalent Latin word was civitas, also meaning "citizenhood", while municipium applied to a non-sovereign local entity.
