The archetypical settlement in ancient Greece was the self-governing city state called the polis (Greek: πόλις), but other types of settlement occurred.

Kome

A kome (Greek: κώμη) was typically a village that was also a political unit. The translation is inexact, but according to Thucydides, Sparta, though it was a polis, resembled four unwalled villages. Similarly, a kome could be a neighbourhood within a larger polis or its own rural settlement. Thucydides mused that the polis had developed from the kome.^[1]

Katoikia

A katoikia (Greek: κατοικία) was similar to a polis, typically a military colony,^[2] with some municipal institutions, but not those of a full polis. The word derives from the Ancient Greek: κατοικέω for "to inhabit" (a settlement) and is somewhat similar to the Latin civitas. In the Classical era, there were few katoikiai; however, with the rise of large centralized empires following the conquests of Alexander the Great, they became the main type of Greek settlement, especially in the newly conquered east.^[3] Sometimes these were fortresses, inside a city or in an open position. They were an equivalent of the English idea of a fort.

Colonies

Many of the poleis in ancient Greece established colonies, of which many went on to be fully independent poleis of their own. These include:

Military settlements

Within the Greek world, several military establishments resembled civilian towns.

• A phrourion (Greek: φρούριον) was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison and is the equivalent of the Roman castellum (English fortress). The word carries a sense of being a watching entity.
• A stratopedon (Greek: στρατόπεδον) was an army camp, equivalent to the Roman castra. It differed from a phrourion in that it was not normally permanent.

References