The Creation of the Greek City-State, 750–500 B.C.E.

The Archaic Age (c. 750–500 B.C.E.) saw the creation of the Greek city-state—the polis—an independent community of citizens inhabiting a city and the countryside around it. Greece’s geography, dominated by mountains and islands, promoted the creation of hundreds of independent city-states around the Aegean Sea. From there, Greeks dispersed around the Mediterranean to settle hundreds more trading communities that often grew into new city-states. Individuals’ drive for profit from trade, especially in raw materials, and for free farmland probably started this process of founding new settlements.

Though it took varying forms, the Greek polis differed from the Mesopotamian city-state primarily in being a community of citizens making laws and administering justice among themselves instead of being the subjects of a king. Another difference was that poor citizens of Greek city-states enjoyed a rough legal and political equality with the rich. Not different, however, were the subordination of women and the subjugation of slaves.