Before there was Greece, there had been the Hellenic states. Why were they called by that name?

And from whence had Greece adopted that name?

Elizabeth Becket2012-08-29T06:32:05Z

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Before Philip the second of Macedon's conquest of Greece, the majority of the south was divided into the Hellenic City-States like Sparta, Corinth, Athens etc. Each city and the surrounding lands were controlled by their own system of government.
They were called the Hellenic City-States because they were all home to the Hellenic peoples. (Modern day Greeks).
Essentially Hellenic is just another word for Greek.