The Ancient City

This book provides a survey of modern debates on Greek and Roman cities, and a sketch of the cities' chief characteristics.

Arjan Zuiderhoek (Author)

9780521166010, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 31 October 2016

236 pages, 6 b/w illus.
22.7 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.33 kg

'… this compact scholarly book will be useful to scholars of urbanism across many disciplines.' CHOICE

Greece and Rome were quintessentially urban societies. Ancient culture, politics and society arose and developed in the context of the polis and the civitas. In modern scholarship, the ancient city has been the subject of intense debates due to the strong association in Western thought between urbanism, capitalism and modernity. In this book, Arjan Zuiderhoek provides a survey of the main issues at stake in these debates, as well as a sketch of the chief characteristics of Greek and Roman cities. He argues that the ancient Greco-Roman city was indeed a highly specific form of urbanism, but that this does not imply that the ancient city was somehow 'superior' or 'inferior' to forms of urbanism in other societies, just (interestingly) different. The book is aimed primarily at students of ancient history and general readers, but also at scholars working on urbanism in other periods and places.

1. Introduction: the ancient city as concept and reality
2. Origins, development and spread of cities in the ancient world
3. City and country
4. Urban landscape and environment
5. Politics and political institutions
6. Civic ritual and civic identity
7. Urban society: stratification and mobility
8. The urban economy
9. City-states and cities and states
10. The end of the ancient city?

Subject Areas: Population & demography [JHBD], Cultural studies [JFC], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]