The most famous synoikistes was the mythic and legendary Theseus, who liberated Attica from Cretan hegemony and restored the independence of Greece under the leadership of Athens.

[6] In doing so, Theseus effectively consolidated the power of several loosely related minor city-states residing in the countryside for himself by eliminating local government which took the form of small city councils and magistracies.

Koen Van Gelder recognizes that modern scholars generally disagree with this traditional foundation of Athens due to a variety of inaccuracies such as when it occurred or whether synoecism was the result of political intentions or cultural ones.

O. Broneer's reflection on the large quantities of lead found in the Mycenaean fountain on the Acropolis and the Athenian hold of the Laurium must also be taking into consideration.

[11] The synoecism of Greek individuals into households, towns, and larger communities ensures a level of stability which is afforded to those who participate in the union.

It is notable that the Greeks possessed a shared system of writing both archaically and classically which aided separate and distinguishable villages in forming larger cohesive polities.

[12] Homer's Iliad even provides a historical precedent for the unity of certain Greek polities.Clan after clan poured out from the ships and huts onto the plain... innumerable as the leaves and blossoms in their season... the Athenians from their splendid citadel,... the citizens of Argos and Tiryns of the Great Walls... troops... from the great stronghold of Mycenae, from wealthy Corinth,... from Knossos,... Phaistos,... and other troops that had their homes in Crete of the Hundred Towns.

[13]There is a historical literary precedent for Greek synoecism before many of the developments in democracy or oligarchy take place in the 5th thought the 3rd century delineating the Kyklos of archaic Greece.

Festivals provided central locations to the numerous and scattered Greek city states at which information could be exchanged and social relationships maintained.

[14] Theoretically, higher levels of visibility for city-states would grant increasing opportunities to expand sovereignty and establish themselves as real political units.

Where the courts of justice were at a distance, and there was no inducement to mechanical industry and internal commerce (see the term banausos), the ancient habits of life continued much longer in existence.

"[16] Sometime in the early 360's BCE the city of Megalopolis, located in Arkadia, was founded in order to coordinate a confederacy of city-states against Spartan hegemony in the region.

[17] In an effort to politically unite manage the different confederate city-state members, a council of ten oikistes was appointed to rule in the city.

The general trend of Athenian power being transferred from a concentrated few to a greater and more evenly distributed percentage of the citizenry is a result of the transition from a loose group of villages to a collective singular polis.

Despite never occurring, the revolt would have placed Mytilene at the centre of Lesbos synoecism in an effort to consolidate political power under the city's control to the extent that the hegemony of Athens could be overthrown.

[20] The successful synoecism of Lesbos under Mytilenean oligarchs would have caused Athens to reconsider its relationship with the city due to its central organization of the isle's resources.

[20] Victorious Athenians then voted first for the murder of all male citizen and enslavement of women and children only to reverse their decision and committed only the leaders of the revolt.

The Spartan King Pausanias choosing the method of dioecism rather than conquest, liberated the city of Plataea and granted them an independent "autonomoi" status.

[22] After defeating the occupying Persians, Sparta restored Plataean autonomy and rule over their city and outlying territories differentiating them from the larger hegemony of Athens in the Attica region.

[20] The legitimacy of the dioecism and the connotations it brought being that Plataea is an independent city-state entity from Athens was enough so that it caused the invading Spartans to enter negotiations rather than violently raze the city and its hinterlands.