City-States
A city-state (what the Greeks called a polis, which is where our word politics comes from) is like a very small country, with just one city in it. There are still some city-states in the world today, like Monaco or Luxembourg. But in antiquity and the Middle Ages, city-states were very common.They might have any of a number of different forms of government.
The first known city-states were in West Asia, where there were many city-states throughout the Bronze Age, sometimes unified under a leader like Sargon of Akkad, and sometimes not. Uruk is one example of these Sumerian city-states. These city-states were ruled by kings, with councils of noblemen for advisors, as we see in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Greece, in the Bronze Age, also was organized into many small city-states, which are listed in Homer's Iliad: Mycenae, Sparta, Pylos, Athens, Corinth, Ithaca, and so on. These city-states also had kings.
At the beginning of the Iron Age, many different people
made new city-states all around the Mediterranean Sea: the Etruscans,
the Romans, the Greeks,
and the Phoenicians. Most
of these were ruled by oligarchies or democracies.
But by about 300 BC, most of the
city-states had been swallowed up into big empires.
It was not until the High Middle Ages, about 1000 AD,
that city-states appeared again in northern
Italy and Spain.
Why did people want to punch Socrates?
Where did Egyptians bury your liver?
How old are the Rocky Mountains?
What does a half-timbered house look like?
How do you spin wool?
(a project)
Sumerians
Ancient Corinth
Ancient Sparta
Medieval Italy
Main government page
