ABSTRACT
The Greek polis has been arousing interest as a subject for study for a long time-the first edition of Fustel de Coulanges’ book La Cité antique was published in 1864-but recent approaches have shown that it is a subject on which there are still important questions to be asked and worthwhile things to be said. In the conference held in Durham in 1995 our attention was centred on the development of the polis in the first few centuries of its existence.
