The life and death of ancient cities : a natural history / Greg Woolf.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Woolf, Greg, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cities and towns, Ancient--Mediterranean Region.

Cities and towns, Ancient.

Urbanization--Mediterranean Region--History--To 1500.

Urbanization.

Imperialism--Social aspects--Mediterranean Region--History--To 1500.

Imperialism.

Imperialism--Social aspects.

History.

Mediterranean Region.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xviii, 499 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]

Summary:

"This book offer a new account of the ancient cities of the Mediterranean world. We are used to thinking of Athens and Rome and Alexandria as great models of urbanism, and of the ancient world itself as a world of cities. In fact cities came late to this corner of Eurasia and were almost always tiny compared to those of neighbouring regions. Greg Woolf sets the slow growth of ancient cities in the context of our species great urban adventure which began six thousand years ago. He asks why, if as a species we are pre-adapted to live in cities, the Greeks and Romans, and Phoenicians and Etruscans and all their neighbours came so late to urban life. Answering this question involves probing questions of human evolution, of Mediterranean ecology, and of ancient imperialisms. Ancient cities emerged from a mixture of accident and entrepreneurship, from local projects of state building and the whims of kings and generals. The handful of ancient mega-cities will built and sustained at enormous cost and against the ecological odds and collapse as soon as imperial powers lost the will or power to keep them going"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1. An urban animal

To the city

Urban apes

Settling down

Uruk

First cities

Cities of bronze

Part 2. An urban Mediterranean

The first Mediterranean cities

Mariners and chieftains

Western pioneers

Greek lake

Networking the Mediterranean

Cities, states and kings

Part 3. Imperial urbanisms

City and empire

Europe awakes

Cities of marble

Founding new cities

Ruling through cities

The ecology of Roman urbanism

The megalopoleis

Part 4. The end of classical urbanism

De-urbanization

Afterword: The classical Mediterranean : an urban episode.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Woolf, Greg, The life and death of ancient cities

ISBN:

9780199946129

0199946124

OCLC:

1113459311