Asty ( gr, ἄστυ; ) is an ancient Greek word denoting the physical space of a city or town, especially as opposed to the political concept of a '' polis'', which encompassed the entire territory and citizen body of a city-state. In

Classical Athens The city of Athens ( grc, Ἀθῆναι, ''Athênai'' .tʰɛ̂ː.nai̯ Modern Greek: Αθήναι, ''Athine'' or, more commonly and in singular, Αθήνα, ''Athina'' .'θi.na during the classical period of ancient Greece (480–323 BC) wa ...

, the term was used specifically for the urban ''

demoi In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Classical Athens, Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th ...

'' of the Attica, as opposed to the inland ('' mesogeia'') and coastal ('' paralia'') ''demoi'' that comprised each of the ten Attic tribes. Despite their name, most of the ''demoi'' of the ''asty'' were rural in character. Comprising about 42 of the 139 ''demoi'' of the Athenian state, they provided about 130 ''bouleutai'' in the 500-strong '' boule''. However, due to their proximity to the city of Athens, they were over-represented in the institutions of the

Athenian democracy Athenian democracy developed around the 6th century BC in the Greek city-state (known as a polis) of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. Although Athens is the most famous ancient Greek democratic city- ...

; in surviving records, the names of the ''bouleutai'' from the ''asty'' are mentioned 1.5 to 2 times as often as those from the rest of Attica.

References

{{reflist Ancient Attica Greek words and phrases