CUP (2016) p/b 225pp £18.99 (ISBN 9780521166010)
This book is a thoughtful study of cities in the ancient world, arguing that the similarities between the Greek and Roman models far outweighed the differences.
After the collapse of the Mycenaean Bronze Age, small scattered chiefdom-communities developed into loosely structured cities. Homer’s cities (c. 8th C BC) had walls and public buildings, with kings taking their decisions in the context of popular assemblies. In the 6th C, there were moves to write down the laws and to define the roles of magistrates, representing a compact between wealthy élites and peasant-landowners. Public buildings developed in tandem with political institutions.
Cities evolved in Italy by a broadly similar process, but somewhat later. Rome’s assembly existed alongside the kings; under the republic patricians and plebs (in time) came to share public office; and the Twelve Tables (c. 450 BC) codified Roman law.
The spread of cities occurred in three stages: new Greek settlements in Asia Minor, Italy and Sicily from the 8th C BC; Alexander the Great’s and his successors’ settlements from the 4th C; and Rome’s establishment of civitates as a means of administering and taxing its vast Empire.
Moses Finley characterised cities primarily as consumers of agricultural surplus from their hinterlands. But Z. argues that the situation was more complex than that. Cities included monumental buildings, crowded housing and varying forms of infrastructure; they had a major economic role; and in addition to consuming agricultural surplus, they were centres of trade, industry and specialist skills.
Cities were also political communities, with institutions for autonomous collective decision-making, even when they were subject to monarchical or imperial rule. Indeed, since few ancient cities were genuinely independent, it is incorrect to describe them as ‘city-states’. Nevertheless, their political institutions typically included councils or senates, popular assemblies and hierarchies of magistrates. The magistrates usually served in pairs or committees, their offices were annual, and included officials administering civic services and infrastructure. Curiously, as Moses Finley had noted, the cities did not have any coercive apparatus to enforce their political decisions, although Imperial Rome remedied this deficiency.
Although emphasising the common features of most cities across the ancient world, Z. also acknowledges some important differences. For example, Roman and Greek concepts of citizenship and treatment of slaves differed, with the Romans adopting a far more legalistic notion, ultimately extending citizenship across the whole Empire and regularly manumitting slaves. Civic statuses were more strictly defined in Roman cities than in Greek cities.
The final chapter deals with the end of ancient cities. The process was a gradual one, as the Roman political order unravelled. Most cities remained in existence, but their character, culture and political arrangements changed over time.
Cities, the building blocks of the ancient world, merit serious study, of which this modest-sized paperback book provides a clear overview. All in all, this may be a good Christmas present for anyone with an interest in the classics, but perhaps not for the beginner.
Rupert Jackson