Could a hegemonic City State dominate the Mediterranean

Could a City-state establish a hegemonic empire over the whole or most of the Mediterranean in antiquity similar to the various Greek hegemons and leagues
 
I was thinking more of a Delian League of the whole Mediterranean

It’d collapse over itself. The Delian League was notoriously oppressive, its allies shook Athens’ yoke the first chance they got. didn’t even last a century in the Eastern Mediterranean, doubt that something like that would survive any longer over the whole sea.
 

Skallagrim

Banned
No Rome grow from city-state into an territorial empire. it would count if Rome remained tiny,still dominated Mediterranean, and forced the various states on the Mediterranean into becoming allies and providing Tribute.

What you are describing is Rome. Or at least: that's how Rome began. The arrangement didn't last, because it couldn't last. Vassals demand protection against the bothersome barbarians who raid them, and that protection is why they generally pay tribute without muttering, instead of fighting to the death against the hegemon's overlordship. When the hegemon subdues the barbarians, they become vassals. They want the same deal. Thus, hegemony/empire is an ever-expanding thing. (Also: it's a wealth-pump, driving wealth from the periphery to the core-- which is why empires invariably start their decline once options for expansion run out.) Anyway, at the same time, the oldest vassals become culturally acclimated to the hegemon's culture, and they start to demand rights as full citizens. Which (after some trouble and revolts etc.) they invariably get.

Which is how hegemonies become ever more imperial, ending up as fully-gledged empires. This answers your question. Yes, it can happen, and in fact it did happen in OTL. But it can't and won't stay that way forever.
 
No Rome grow from city-state into an territorial empire. it would count if Rome remained tiny,still dominated Mediterranean, and forced the various states on the Mediterranean into becoming allies and providing Tribute.

Thats kind of what a hegemony of a single city across the Mediterranean is going to look like at a certain point. The reason rome became a territorial empire was largely due to the impossibility of having a purely hegemonic hold over an area as large as the Mediterranean, with stuff like the political mess leading up to the annexation of Macedonia and Greece being emblematic of that being extremely difficult.
 
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