A ''sympoliteia'' ( gr, συμπολιτεία, , joint citizenship), anglicized as sympolity, was a type of treaty for political organization in

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

. By the time of the

Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...

, it occurred in two forms. In mainland Greece, the term was often used for a federal state consisting of individual ''

poleis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means " city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it als ...

'' (

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

s) with shared political institutions and citizenship. Examples of this are the

Achaean League The Achaean League (Greek: , ''Koinon ton Akhaion'' "League of Achaeans") was a Hellenistic-era confederation of Greek city states on the northern and central Peloponnese. The league was named after the region of Achaea in the northwestern Pelop ...

and the

Aetolian League The Aetolian (or Aitolian) League ( grc-gre, Κοινὸν τῶν Αἰτωλῶν) was a confederation of tribal communities and cities in ancient Greece centered in Aetolia in central Greece. It was probably established during the early Hellen ...

. The term was also used for the political merger of two or more neighboring ''poleis''. This could eventually, but not necessarily, lead to the disappearance of one of the participating ''poleis''. This second form was especially common in Hellenistic

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. A ''sympoliteia'' is often contrasted with an '' isopoliteia'', a treaty which granted equal citizenship to the citizens of the participating ''poleis'' but maintained their political independence. Contemporary writers of the Hellenistic period could use the term loosely,

Polybius Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...

for example used the term ''sympoliteia'' to refer to the shared citizenship granted by both treaties. In similar fashion there was also considerable overlap between the concepts of

synoecism Synoecism or synecism ( ; grc, συνοικισμóς, ''sunoikismos'', ), also spelled synoikism ( ), was originally the amalgamation of villages in Ancient Greece into ''poleis'', or city-states. Etymologically the word means "dwelling toge ...

and ''sympoliteia''.

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*{{cite book , last=Reger , first=Gary , title=The Greco-Roman East: Politics, Culture, Society , year=2004 , publisher=Cambridge University Press , location=Cambridge, UK , isbn=9780521828758 , editor-last=Colvin , editor-first=Stephen , chapter=Sympoliteiai in Hellenistic Asia Minor , pages = 145–181 , series=Yale Classical Studies , volume=31 , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y0z0Vd3ZJugC&pg=PA145 Ancient Greek law Treaties of ancient Greece Greek words and phrases Leagues in Greek Antiquity

See also

References

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