During large portions of its history, "city state" would probably not be completely accurate, as it was a country that had both large amounts of land in north eastern Italy, as well as numerous bits and pieces of land (Crete and Cyprus, for instance) scattered throughout the eastern Mediterranean.

They had us for ~400 years. It was called the 'Cretan Renaissance'. Their mark is still pretty obvious here. Kind of wish they'd stayed longer

Wonderful how if something is long ago enough, expansionist powerplay and useless collateral damage becomes "truly magnificient".