acropoleis

English

Alternative forms

• akropoleis

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀκροπόλεις (akropóleis), plural of ἀκρόπολις (akrópolis).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æˈkɹɒ.pɒ.lɛɪz/

Noun

acropoleis

1. plural of acropolis
   • 1852, Barthold Georg Neibuhr, Lectures on Ancient History: From the Earliest Times to the Taking of Alexandria by Octavianus. Comprising the History of the Asiatic nations, the Egyptians, Greeks, Macedonians and Carthaginians, page 358:

     The Cadmea, like almost all Greek acropoleis, was indeed surrounded by the city, and was situated within the walls; but from our historians, it is quite evident, that one side of the Cadmea touched upon the wall of the city, and upon this supposition alone the siege can be understood.

   • 1895, The Managing Committee of the British School at Athens, The Annual of the British School at Athens, page 81:

     The ἀγορά mentioned by Thucydides. — I have already referred to the view that the saddle between the two Acropoleis was the site of the … and the most probable site for the agora is the level tract which lies between the two Acropoleis, and if this be so, continues some way towards the gate.

   • 1937, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, page 95:

     There are three great acropoleis, great natural hills levelled off…

   • 2004, Walter Horatio Pater, Greek Studies a Series of Essays, page 103:

     …the tyrants’ age, the age of the acropoleis, the period of great dynasties with claims to “divine right”…

   • 2005, William Hutton, Describing Greece: Landscape and Literature in the Periegesis of Pausanias, page 139:

     At Megara, a city which has the unusual distinction of possessing two acropoleis (see Figure 1.3), both of the acropoleis serve as foci for Pausanias’ description: the description begins at the fountain house of Theagenes, proceeds to the eastern acropolis (Karia), and then descends from that acropolis toward the north (1.40.1–41.8).

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:acropoleis.