If we do a search to find the roots of the term Polis, which makes part of many other words, not only in the Greek language but also in other western languages, we find that they start way back in the centuries. In addition, we learn that the term Polis “City” does not have a single meaning throughout its evolution in history.
First, it appears as First-Indo-European *tpólHis < *tpelH meaning fortification. During the Mycenaean period it was pronounced and written po-to-ri-jo, ptolios. Later we find it as polis and ptolis = ptolis. Depending on the time, the needs of the people and the very evolution of the language over the centuries, there is also the evolution of its very meaning. Thus, the term Polis can mean:

  • The fortress of the city, its citadel, with the rest of the city (5th century BC. Thucydides, ”Histories”),
  • City , the city state , the homeland , one s place ( 8th century BCE Homer , ” The Odyssey ”),
  • Country, large area ( Lysias, ”Against Andokidos”),
  • The Free State, the democracy (Sophocles, ” Antigone ”),
  • All citizens, the municipality
  • The right of the citizen, the status of the citizen (Demosthenes ”Against Meidios”)

Today by the term ‘’Polis’’ we mean a large and permanent settlement that has its own special characteristics and external features and consists of many buildings, inhabited by a defined number of inhabitants and in which various administrative, financial or other services are provided and where extensive housing systems, transport, communication, drainage, utilities and land use are operating. The density of all these facilitates the interaction between people, administrative organizations and businesses that, through the use of rules and laws, benefit in a different way each time all the parties that make up this process.
In Greece, a settlement to be classified as a city must have at least 10,000 inhabitants.