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There are some chief features of the Polis. Firstly, Polis is regarded as a city-state, which built a foundation and became the basic political unit in Greece and “a part of the first Greek civilization” (Spielvogel, 45). As such, considering that Greece was rugged regarding infrastructure and resources, the nature of communication and also travel between city-states was difficult (Hansen, 1). Secondly, there is life in Polis. It is stated in history that Polis was regarded as “the chief focus of everyday Greek life” (Spielvogel, 45). This was because its foundation was established around a high area which was referred to as an acropolis. In addition to being the center, each major polis comprised of a political system that was able to gain experience and develop administration and operation during some time. Thirdly, Polis had the feature of being able to affect and influence the way of living for the Greek people. This was possible in the following ways: One because it was strategically placed in a central position. As such, being important in the lives of the Greeks, they made point to be vehemently loyal to their Polis. As such, this loyalty managed to create a close-knit community, but also it brought about a number of independent states (Spielvogel, 45). Two, it made the people not think about themselves as Greeks but rather as individuals of particular city-state. Finally, there is a feature on the “about the Greek polis.” One, it was regarded as the birthplace of democracy and as such, each polis managed to develop independently while establishing its form of government, customs, and laws (Spielvogel, 45).

Apart from the features of the Greek Polis, we have the differences between the Greek city-states such as Athens, and Sparta which were regarded as the most important independent states (Spielvogel, 45). Firstly, Sparta was regarded as a military society in which there was a belief of strength over comfort. As such, new-borns were inspected at birth for problems and defects as training began at birth. On the other hand, Athens was not heavily inclined towards the military aspect as it was regarded as optional. Secondly, Sparta was able to provide girls with education while Athens did not regard this as a necessity and therefore never made any efforts of doing it. Thirdly, Athens and Sparta differed in climate as Athens enjoyed a Mediterranean type of climate while Sparta was very dry but had a rather fairly temperate climate. Fourthly, regarding the economy, Athens was more dependent on both trade and agriculture while Sparta was more of agriculture. Fifth, Athens was mostly comprised of the Ionian descendants while Sparta was of the descendants of the Dorian invaders (Lamboley, 58). Finally, it is evident that “Sparta managed to create a closed and highly disciplined society while Athens decided to develop an open one with democratic civilization properties” (Spielvogel, 45).

Works cited
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western civilization. Cengage Learning, 2014.
Hansen, Mogens Herman. Polis: an introduction to the ancient Greek city-state. Oxford University Press, 2006.
Lamboley, Jean-Luc. “Migration and Greek Civilization.” Immigration and emigration in historical perspective, Pisa (2007): 55-64.