These fourteen critical essays examine the autonomous Greek polis from its origins in the "Dark Age" until the point at which it was transformed into a basis for world civilization by the conquests of Alexander the Great and the subsequent expansion of polis institutions. Contributors such as B. D'Agostino, N. Purcell, O. Rackham, A. Snodgrass, L. Nixon, S. Price, M. Jameson, P. Schmitt-Pantel, M.H. Hansen, O. Murray, and W.G. Runciman, among others, discuss a wide range of topics, including the relationship between landscape and city, the relationship between public and private spheres, the phenomenon of the polis, the urbanization of the Italian peninsula, and the eventual decline of the polis.