Welcome to the next part of our “Architect’s Corner” series, in which we tell you all about the buildings you will have at your disposal as a ruler of an ancient Greek Polis. Discover interesting tips and tricks, learn how to effectively plan the development of your city, and check out how many useful structures you can raise – all this to the glory of a great ruler, such as yourself! 👑
Thētes’ Houses
The foundation of the society you will happen to rule are tireless, hardworking and, telling the truth as it is, rather simple people. In Ancient Greece, they were called Thētes – the lowest class of free men in the whole state, consisting mostly of poor peasants, small craftsmen, and landless hired workers 
The scope of their activities is therefore extremely wide and essential for the survival of your city. You can meet Thētes in such places as farms, lumber mills, clay pits, olive groves, woodcutter’s houses, fisherman’s huts, hunting lodges, or varied kinds of minor workshops. Their hands may be blistered, and their necks sunburned, however, as long as you take good care of their needs, they will sure prove to be loyal, well-performing subjects
Speaking of Thētes’s needs… one of the most important necessities of mankind is to have shelter and a roof over their heads. The bigger, more comfortable, and well-stocked, the better! 
Thētes may not be a very demanding social layer, but still craves entertainment and access to a variety of goods. Anyhow, let’s get back to the housing. As you can see in the illustration below, the Thētes’ houses cannot be called very spacious and magnificent. The bodies of this type of buildings are rather simple and austere, they usually consist of a small number of rooms, and are quite low (two-story houses are in this case fairly rare). The roofs are most often covered with whitewashed stones or simple red tiles. Although such a house does not seem particularly cozy and roomy, it fulfills its function perfectly – it provides safety and a place to live for numerous Thētes families. In the end, not everyone can live a comfortable, luxurious life of a ruler, right? 
The construction of such simple houses does not require a lot of raw materials and work, so your builders will be able to build plenty of them in a short period of time. Thētes’ houses prove to be a great solution, whenever your city is experiencing a demographic surplus and needs to host numerous newcomers from all over Greece. Of course, with time, accumulated wealth, and access to demanded goods, simple houses can advance to something more 
which leads us to…
Zeugitais’ Houses
As we all know, Ancient Greeks had a soft spot for pottery The museums are full of beautiful pots, vases, and amphoras depicting scenes from their everyday lives, mythical heroes, and important historical events. There is a lot of evidence that clay pots can become real works of art, but they also fulfill another, more practical, yet simple function – namely, they are great containers! All right, let’s follow the path the clay mined in your Pit goes through.
As you can probably guess, working in a place such as a Clay Pit is not very comfortable and pleasant, however scorching sun, dirt, and hard physical labor are not enough to put your workers off! You will need up to five of them, as the Clay Pit is a rather big building. Before you decide to build it, make sure that you have found the right place. The Clay Pit won’t work if not placed on a clay field – be sure to look for it in the surroundings of your City! Once it is built in the right place and gets its staff allocation, raw clay can begin its second life.
The first building that cannot do without the support of a Clay Pit is, of course, the Ceramics workshop. This is where raw clay is formed and processed into ceramics – one of the most useful goods in ancient Polis 
Clay pitchers and pots are essential to the operation of many essential facilities in your City – Perfumery, Winery, Olive Press, or Brewery are just to begin with! In general, ceramics will be needed wherever liquid and loose products are made. That being said, production in your city can get stuck for good if you don’t supply the workshops with the right amount of ceramics. Such a close network of cooperation means that problems in the Clay Pit can have a bearing on your entire kingdom, so… don’t spare a penny to build several Clay Pits in your area! Although they seem inconspicuous, they are very, very important!
In the following parts of the series, we will return with descriptions of many other cool structures that will ensure the safety, well-being, and development of your city. We hope that the buildings presented today will find their place among the streets of your Polis, and that they will contribute to the growth of your magnificent kingdom! 😀 As always – thank you and stay tuned!