ABSTRACT
The central focus of civilization for the Greeks, after the oikos or family unit, was the city-state or polis (plural: poleis). Much of the history of the Greeks is the history of the interaction between the cities of Greece. Aristotle’s well-known statement that ‘Man is a political animal’ in fact should be translated as ‘man is a creature who lives in a polis’ (Arist. Pol. 1253a 2-3), while according to Thucydides (VII.77.7) ‘it is men who are the city, and not walls or ships with no men inside’. To the Greeks the fact that they lived in a city-state was proof that they were a civilized people. City-states were generally independent, and though various cities at different times attempted to dominate the other cities in Greece, these attempts were generally short lived. The cities, rather than uniting with each other, were prone to fight amongst themselves, and nearby neighbours were often the most implacable enemies. While there was a concept of national identity when faced with an outside enemy, as when during the Persian Wars the Hellenic League was formed to combat Xerxes (docs 7.18, 22), most Greeks saw themselves not primarily as Greek, but as a member of their city-state.
