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Polis () was an
ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
board game. One of the earliest known
strategy game A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous, decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decision tree-style think ...
s, polis was a
wargame A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for Recreational wargaming, recreation, to train military officers in the art of milit ...
resembling
checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), is a group of Abstract strategy game, strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game ...
. Its name appears in the
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
literature from around 450 BC to the 2nd century BC, and it seems to have been widely known in the region, particularly in
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
. The original rules of the game have been only partially preserved.


History

As with many ancient games, not much is known about polis, including where, when, and by whom it was invented. The earliest known reference to polis comes from Cratinos, an Athenian comedic poet, in his comedy '' Drapetides'' ("Female Runaways"), from 443/442 BC. The game was praised by
Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
and
Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...
, and possibly
Philostratus Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; ; 170s – 240s AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He flourished during the reign of Septimius Severus ...
, "as a game of strategy requiring great tactical skill". It was also likely referred to by
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
and
Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...
. References to it are found in numerous other texts, suggesting that by mid-5th century BC it was a game well known to
Ancient Greeks Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically re ...
and played until at least 2nd century BC. In Ancient Greek mythology and painted pottery,
Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's ''Iliad'', he was the son of the Nereids, Nereid Thetis and Peleus, ...
and
Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...
are sometimes shown as playing a game, whose invention has been credited to Palamedes. No literary source is known to provide context for the illustrations on the painted pottery, however. This has led to the game being sometimes identified as polis, also at other times, as five lines (a dice game).


Rules

The rules of the game have been lost to time and are only partially understood today. Many aspects of the game are unknown, such as the shape of the board, its initial setup, or how the pieces moved. The game is generally understood as resembling
checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), is a group of Abstract strategy game, strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game ...
but with a different mode of capture (pieces were captured by enclosure from two sides). It was a symmetrical game of elimination for two players, each playing with pieces of their color. It probably had no random elements, and the pieces moved in all directions on a square board. The strategy involved maintaining formation and avoiding having one's pieces isolated. Some rules of the game were described by
Julius Pollux Julius Pollux (, ''Ioulios Polydeukes''; fl. 2nd century) was a Greeks, Greek scholar and rhetorician from Naucratis, Ancient Egypt.Andrew Dalby, ''Food in the Ancient World: From A to Z'', p.265, Routledge, 2003 Emperor Commodus appointed him a pr ...
in his '' Onomasticon''. The board, like the game, was called polis, and featured a grid (although it is also possible that each space on the board was called a polis as well). The pieces, which came in two colors and probably numbered thirty (per player, so sixty total - this claim however has been disputed), were called "dogs". Sources are contradictory on whether there were differences between pieces (some assume there were none; others are more cautious and state this was likely the case but that primary sources are unclear on this). It is also unclear whether the game involved dice rolling (such a claim was made by
Eustathius of Thessalonica Eustathius of Thessalonica (or Eustathios of Thessalonike; ; ) was a Byzantine Greek scholar and Archbishop of Thessalonica and is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is most noted for his stand against the sack of Thessalonica by the No ...
but it could have been a mistake). According to a caption of an illustration in a scholarly article published in 2021, a game board for polis was found in Rhamnous; however an article by Max Nelson from the previous year (2020) states that no game board associated with this game had been found at this date. The game may be similar to the Ancient Roman game of ''
ludus latrunculorum ''Ludus latrunculorum'', ''latrunculi'', or simply ''latrones'' ("the game of brigands", or "the game of soldiers" from ''latrunculus'', diminutive of ''latro'', mercenary or highwayman) was a two-player Abstract strategy game, strategy board gam ...
'' and might have served as its inspiration; it has also been suggested that polis might have been one of the influences on
chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
. There might have also been connections to the traditional Egyptian game of seega. A plausible but speculative reconstruction of the game rules were suggested by Max Nelson in 2020.


Significance

Polis was seen as having educational value in learning how to learn and follow a set of rules. Leslie Kurke argued that the game had a cultural significance "playing the board game polis might help form a Greek boy as a citizen of the city". Learning to play polis is mentioned as part of a philosophical education in works of Ancient Greek philosophers. Thierry Depaulis recognized the game as one of the oldest known strategy games (alongside the Chinese game of go, which is mentioned by Chinese sources that date to a similar era as the oldest mentions of polis; however, go, unlike polis, remains popular to this day). Depaulis argued that invention of such games was one of the signs of the
Axial Age ''Axial Age'' (also ''Axis Age'', from the German ) is a term coined by the German philosopher Karl Jaspers. It refers to broad changes in religious and philosophical thought that occurred in a variety of locations from about the 8th to the 3rd ...
(emergence of more complex thinking patterns, such as philosophy), as people moved from playing pure games of chance (such as
dice games Dice games are games that use or incorporate one or more dice as their sole or central component, usually as a random device. The following are games which largely, if not entirely, depend on dice: Collectible dice games Patterned after the su ...
and
race games Race game is a large category of board games, in which the object is to be the first to move all one's pieces to the end of a track. This is both the earliest type of board game known, with implements and representations dating back to at least ...
) to strategy games. The game has also been called one of the earliest
wargames ''WarGames'' is a 1983 American techno-thriller film directed by John Badham, written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, and starring Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood and Ally Sheedy. Broderick plays David Lightman, a ...
. Max Nelson notes that "it the first known game of its kind (a war game on a grid-board)". He nonetheless suggested that thematically the game was less of a depiction of military conflict (wars between Greek city-states) and more of a celebration of the founding of the city state of
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
, with which he believes it was mainly associated.


References

{{commonscat, Achilles and Ajax playing Abstract strategy games Traditional board games Culture of ancient Greece