independent cities
With populations of several thousands, ranging up to Alexandria, a great cultural centre, which in the first century B.C. was reckoned to be the largest city in the (Mediterranean) world. The culture of these cities was strongly Greek. At the most obvious level there developed a new Greek language, the koine or common language, which transcended the divisions of the old Greek dialects (Dorian, Ionic, and so on). There is generally nothing in the language or the script of a document to indicate from which part of the Greek world it comes. In addition, the political institutions of the cities were closely modeled on traditional Greek practices. (Boardman, 1986)