The human race is experiencing a 10,000-year urban adventure. Our ancestors wandered the planet or lived scattered in villages, yet by the end of this century almost all of us will live in cities. This journey has not been smooth, and urban states have risen and fallen many times in history. The ruins of many of these continue to fascinate us.
This book tells the story of the rise and fall of ancient cities from the end of the Bronze Age to the beginning of the Middle Ages. It is a narrative of war and politics, epidemics and famine, triumph and tragedy, alternating between the wondrous and the minuscule. The focus is on the ancient Mediterranean: the Greeks and Romans at the center, but the Phoenicians and Etruscans, Persians, Gauls, and Egyptians also participate.
The narrative begins with the Greek discovery of much older urban civilizations in Egypt and the Near East and follows the gradual spread of urbanization towards the Atlantic and then to the North Sea in the centuries that follow.
The ancient Mediterranean, where our story begins, was a harsh environment for urbanization. How were cities initially built and how were they maintained for such extended periods under these seemingly adverse conditions? How did these settlements secure food, water, and building materials, and how did they manage their waste and their dead? Why, ultimately, did their leaders become disillusioned with them? And what was it like to live in urban worlds so different from our own - cities that plunged into darkness every night, cities dominated by the temples of gods, cities of farmers, cities of slaves, cities of soldiers?
The main characters of the story are the cities themselves. Athens and Sparta, Persepolis and Carthage, Rome and Alexandria: cities that formed great families. Their story includes the history of the generations of people who built and inhabited them, whose short lives left behind monuments that have inspired city builders ever since - and of their ruins that stand as harsh reminders in the 21st century of both the dangers and the potential rewards of urban existence.
Pages: 528, Dimensions: 16.2x16.2cm
