Characteristics of the Ancient Cities

• First and foremost, the population of the ancient cities was mostly very small by modern standards. Babylon, one of the largest ancient cities of the Middle East probably had a population of 20,000 at its height. Rome under Emperor Augustus (27BC to 14AD) was the largest ancient city outside China,and it had some 300,000 inhabitants.

• They were centres of art, science and cosmopolitan culture.

• However, the influence of the city on the rural areas was minimal.

• But how did they come about? We will look at two theories: