xvi Introduction
One remark before we begin: when they alluded to Athens, Corinth, Megara,
or Lacedaemon by name as a political community; and, strikingly, even when
they spoke of one these póleıs as their fatherland [patrís], the ancient Greeks
employed nouns feminine in gender, personifying the community as a woman
to whom they were devoted—which is why I with some frequency use the
feminine pronoun to refer to Sparta and other Greek póleıs here.