群岛之海 · A SEA OF ISLANDS
Why Greece Was Many, Not One — Greece · The Aegean
群山与布满岛屿的海，把希腊切成一个个口袋——于是古希腊世界长成的不是一个王国，而是逾千个彼此倔强独立的城邦，各自成「polis」。
当山脊与海水把每一片平原与邻近隔开，治理大国便难，守住小邦却易——于是雅典、斯巴达、科林斯与数百个海岛市镇各自为政。而分隔它们的这片海又易于航行，他们便隔海竞争、贸易、殖民。破碎的地理，造就了希腊政治的躁动、多元与善变。
Mountains and a sea full of islands chopped Greece into pockets — and the ancient Greek world grew into not one kingdom but more than a thousand fiercely separate city-states, each its own polis.
When ridges and water box every plain off from the next, it is hard to rule a large state and easy to keep a small one — so Athens, Sparta, Corinth and hundreds of island towns each governed themselves. The same sea that divided them was also easy to sail, so they competed, traded and colonized across it. Fragmented geography helped make Greek politics restless, plural and inventive.