metropoleis

We have already mentioned that some colonies eventually became metropoleis.

1991, I M Drakonoff, Early Antiquity, page 363

The role which the metropoleis developed as administrative centres for their nomes had always been inherent in the Ptolomeic system but the evidence suggests that it was much enhanced under the Romans.

1996, Alan K. Bowman, The Cambridge Ancient History, page 684

The larger metropoleis were sizeable communities: Hermopolis had perhaps as many as 40,000 inhabitants, Oxyrhynchos maybe around 25,000.

1998, Jane Rowlandson, Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt, page 12

In the sense of any large, busy city, especially as the main city in an area or country or as distinguished from surrounding rural areas:

Like bees to their hives, increasing numbers of Americans swarm into metropoleis.²

1968, University of Texas at Austin, Southwestern Political and Social Science Association, Social Science Quarterly, page 25