Iconic ancient Greek city-states besides Sparta and Athens

Sparta and Athens, war and peace, slavocracy and democracy, etc. etc. are the main cities that dominate our modern cultural imagination. But what of Thebes, with her gates? Or Thespiae, with the Thespians? Corinth? Argos? How would you characterize the other cities of ancient Greece, how could modern ethos and cultures be based upon them?
 
Corinth was a major trade and crossroads city, so it has that covered.

Rhodes was a major commercial center as well, particularly in banking, if I remember right. Also, the Colossus.

Piraeus was a major port for Athens, perhaps THE Greek port.

Syracuse was well known for Archimedes, but also its tyrants and sheer beauty. Cicero called it the most beautiful city in the world.

Sybaris was the epitome of luxury for Greece, even when it got razed. There's a reason we have 'Sybarite' as a much less famous adjective to contrast against 'Spartan'.

Smyrna was all about fishin'.
 

scholar

Banned
We've got second hand information for all of them, very little of what they actually said about themselves. We know Sparta the best, because Athens admired Sparta the most, and because of the Peloponnese and Persian Wars interacted with them the most as well. Most of what we have about the rest is very loose, so we cannot know their ethos. There are a couple unsung greats among the Greeks, however.

But, some historians think Thebes, who worshiped Dionysus in a similar way that Athens did Athena and Sparta did Ares, had the second best hoplite formation in Greece behind Sparta, and would eventually play a significant role in crippling Athens in a supporting role to Sparta, before playing a pivotal role in crippling Sparta. Thebes had a brief stint as the preeminent city state, helped tutor Philip, father of Alexander, and had the sacred band of lovers.

Corinth, by contrast, was a more oligarchic version of Athens, an ally of convenience always working against the most prominent player in Greece, and seems to be the most Machiavellian/Hobbesian of city states, and were able to maintain their position through trade from both axes of the greek world. They also happened to be the mother city of Syracuse, and worshiped Poseidon.

Syracuse was the strongest of all Poleis, if some can be believed. They worshiped Athena as their city's deity, the Syracuse had a mixed relations with Tyrants and brief stints of almost democracy, but it died as a Tyranny indistinguishable from a monarchy.

Argos's eternal rivalry with Sparta is also something that shouldn't be discounted.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Miletus, the home of Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, was basically the birthplace of the scientific method and the rationalist view of the world. It should be as famous as Athens and Sparta.
 
Thebes as the Michelangelo to Athens' Donatello and Sparta's Raphael would make sense.

We need a Leonardo.

An-cient Feuding Greci-an Poleis, An-cient Feuding Greci-an Poleis!

Hellenics with a hoplite shield! GRECIAN POWER!

EDIT: Actually, Syracuse would work well in this case. Militarily strong(-est) but not militaristic, a la Leonardo being the finesse to Raphael's brute force.
 
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Seriously though did Theban worship of Dionysus lead to it becoming a Babylon-Vegas type decadent party town?

Syracuse has a classy sound to it, makes sense as the Leonardo.
 
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