It can easily be said that the greek city state, also known as a polis, was the backbone of greek society. Many of the polis’ ideologies can be seen echoing in even today's society. They were such an important part of greek society that it was believed that man would easily be nothing without them. Aristotle is even quoted as saying that man was just “an animal who lived in a polis.”

The polis started to come about sometime in eighth century. They arose from the rise and fall of many short lived tyrannical governments. The tyrannies rose mainly in part to a large growth in the greek population. Two of the largest cities to emerge from this were Athens and Sparta. Athens created the world’s first democracy while Sparta had a small portion of it’s population rule over the vast majority. …show more content…
They located themselves this way to avoid attacks from pirates. They eventually grew, unplanned, into the cities that we know today. Most, if not all, had an agora. An agora was the market place and civic center of the city state. The agora was the heart of greek social life, filled with open air arguments and discussion. The city state's location was also determined by the fertility of farmland, because they were mainly agricultural, and the availability of natural fortress. The name polis originally referred to a citadel. And, seeing as how natural fortress was one of the things sought out in the creation of a new town, it would only make sense that the term “polis” would eventually be used to refer to the city state itself. Two perfect examples of this would be the Acropolis in Athens and the Acrocorinth in