TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > History > Why and when did the ancient cities end?
‘It was under the shadow of the churches that the urban way of life was preserved in the Middle Ages’ [ENNEN]. Was this always so? (2000)
Why did some towns flourish in this period, while others declined? (1999)
Are you struck more by continuities or by discontinuities in urban life across this period? Refer to ONE region. (1996)
How do you account for changes in the form and importance of towns during this period? (1995)
Ancient City
- Population centres within local context – small provincial cities with several hundred people / metropolises of Milan, Carthage, Co (½ mill people).
- Govt was by landowning élite. Pol and admin origins.
- Cultural society requiring scholarship – urban phenomenon, rhetoric of civic pride. Civilized / civic have same root. Civic responsibilities = mark of social status. Statues as public statements of standing of civil élite.
- Cities well-equipped for leisure of citizens of curial class
- They were themselves the urban benefactors – private investment crucial.
- Recognisable by features of urban form (grid street plans, colonnades) and classical architecture
- A highly public lifestyle – public speaking forums, concert halls, baths.
- Archaeology – maintenance of cultural life and government relies on cities, but popn was agrarian and majority of revenues were derived from the land. Dependence on rural hinterland. Thriving village communities
- N.B. Itself the result of a special set of circumstances – not the ‘norm’ – required cult and pol stability
- By 800, most of these features were absent in most places.
Broad trends – variation across Europe: Rich reg var behind façade of Roman urbanity. Key considerations = being an admin centre / Christian centre / involvement in official supply systems / freedom from burdens imposed by remote regime.
Barnish: Towns as middlemen exploiting frontiers / required cult or pol contact points (e.g. N Italian towns linked Byz to Lombards à towns important as trade nodes)
- C5 - Britain etc. in decline
- W Asia Minor prosperous – architectural patronage by local citizens.
- C6 - S + central Gaul fairly healthy under Gallo-Roman bishops – otherwise would have experienced much shrinkage. Bordeaux only survived due to institutional ingenuity of clergy – husk of AC – city in ‘name only’ for a period.
- Syria and Palestine now have great urban tradition – high status for merchants. Links with demands on armies on E frontier.
- Balkans struggling due to Slavs – e.g. decline of Philippopolis in Bulgaria – much contraction around acropolises
- Italy blighted by Ostrogoths, but did retain some urban vitality – survival of urban street plans in e.g. Verona – real continuity of occupation.
- Some state patronage of urban architecture by Byzantium.
- Recent archaeology – Med commerce still rather lively – E à W flow
- C7 - W Asia Minor now under severe mil pressure – provincial nobility sought stability / opportunities of capital. Huge discontinuity.
- Plague in Co and Asia Minor must also have undermined urban culture.
- C8/9 - Prosperous trade in the Car heartlands (Rhine valley – country aristocracy)
- But former R provincial cities of Gaul (and most of central Europe) at low ebb.
- Some important cities in N Italy (Pavia, Verona, Milan).
- Vitality mainly in Islamic world - Damascus (dominated by caliph and court), Baghdad (popn ½ million), Cairo, Cordoba). Many Spanish and N African towns increasingly detached from rural territories (which developed own ruralised nobility)
- Constantinople (Wickham argues that it was the basis for a giant Eastern city-state, with other centres shrinking to tiny administrative nuclei),
- New N Sea trading emporia included Meinz / Cologne / Southampton.
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