City-States for Kids

🏛️ What Were the Greek City-States?

In ancient times, Greece was not one single country ruled by one government as it is today. Instead, it was made up of more than a hundred separate city-states.

Each city-state usually had a main town that ruled over the surrounding countryside. Different city-states were governed in different ways. Power might be held by a king, a tyrant, a small group of nobles, or shared among all the free citizens of the state.

The Greeks had special names for these systems of government. They called them monarchies, dictatorships, aristocracies and democracies, and we still use these words to describe political systems today.

🌊 The Wider Greek World

Many Greek city-states were also found on islands in the Aegean Sea, where a single city-state might rule over the whole island. Examples include Rhodes, Lesbos, Chios and Corcyra.

The world of Ancient Greece was also larger than the country we know today. Greek city-states existed along the west coast of Turkey and as far west as the island of Sicily in southern Italy. However, some of the most powerful city-states were on the Greek mainland, including Thebes, Corinth and Argos.