Polis and insularity

Abstract

In this colloquium on the unity and diversity of Mediterranean cities, we discuss how the city phenomenon expresses itself in the islands of this region, but specifically on the Greek context of the poleis, from the Archaic period, in the Cyclades archipelago, located in the Aegean Sea. Cyclades is a collection of islands with a maximum of 400 km², and are thus considered “small” islands if compared to the Mediterranean islands with thousands of square kilometers (such as Sicily, Sardinia, Crete). In the so-called “small” islands, the impacts of insularity we seek to understand are always greater than in those considered “mainland” islands, such as Sicily. Hence, we propose to discuss, even if initially, the following questions: (1) how aspects imposed by the insular nature were able to influence the physical and political organization of the polis on islands? (2) Which factors could explain the number of polies in islands?