The Life and Death of Ancient Cities: A Natural History

by Greg Woolf

Overview

The dramatic story of the rise and collapse of Europe's first great urban experiment

The growth of cities around the world in the last two centuries is the greatest episode in our urban history, but it is not the first. Three thousand years ago most of the Mediterranean basin was a world of villages; a world without money or writing, without temples for the gods or palaces for the mighty. Over the centuries that followed, however, cities appeared in many places around the Inland Sea, built by Greeks and Romans, and also by Etruscans and Phoenicians, Tartessians and Lycians, and many others. Most were tiny by modern standards, but they were the building blocks of all the states and empires of antiquity. The greatest—Athens and Corinth, Syracuse and Marseilles, Alexandria and Ephesus, Persepolis and Carthage, Rome and Byzantium—became the powerhouses of successive ancient societies, not just political centers but also the places where ancient art and literatures were created and accumulated. And then, half way through the first millennium, most withered away, leaving behind ruins that have fascinated so many who came after.

Based on the most recent historical and archaeological evidence, The Life and Death of Ancient Cities provides a sweeping narrative of one of the world's first great urban experiments, from Bronze Age origins to the demise of cities in late antiquity. Greg Woolf chronicles the history of the ancient Mediterranean city, against the background of wider patterns of human evolution, and of the unforgiving environment in which they were built. Richly illustrated, the book vividly brings to life the abandoned remains of our ancient urban ancestors and serves as a stark reminder of the fragility of even the mightiest of cities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197621837
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/26/2022
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	401,806
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Greg Woolf, Director, Institute of Classical Studies, University of London

Greg Woolf has been Professor of Classics and Director of the Institute of Classical Studies since January 2015 before which he was Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews (since 1998) and held fellowships at various Cambridge and Oxford Colleges. He has degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge, is a Fellow of the British Academy, of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Max Weber College, Erfurt and he is a member of the Academia Europaea. He has held visiting appointments in Brasil, France, Germany, Italy and Spain and lectured around the world. He has published on Roman imperialism, on ancient literacy, on libraries, encyclopaedias and ancient ethnography and more recently on religious history and the archaeology of the Roman world.

Table of Contents

Foreword1. Our Urban Adventure2. Urban Apes3. Settling Down4. Uruk5. First Cities6. Cities of Bronze7. Palaces and Citadels8. Mariners and Chieftains9. Western Pioneers10. A Greek Lake11. Networking the Mediterranean12. Cities, States and Kings13. Imperial Cities14. Cities of Marble15. Founding Cities in an age of empire16. Ruling through Cities17. The Ecology of Roman Urbanism18. The Ecology of Roman Urbanism19. Post-classical20. What comes naturally

Editorial Reviews

"Woolf masterfully draws on textual and archaeological evidence to consider the widest possible scope of urbanism: cities as they grow and shrink, reorganize, and re-emerge.... Woolf's study of the ancient Mediterranean offers an unmatched opportunity to explore what happens with evolutionary successes, when new and better systems emerge, and what failure might look like. The issues of urban failure and long-term resilience are perhaps his most important lessons as we look to a future of cities that must respond to environmental, political, and social challenges." — Journal of the American Planning Association

"Selected as a 2020 Book of the Year in The Times Literary Supplement"

"A magisterial survey of ancient cities... "The Life and Death of Ancient Cities" is a big history that leaves aside some of those big comparative questions, preferring to draw out the contingent and the particular in its vivid portraits. Mr. Woolf makes for an authoritative, readable and thought-provoking guide through a few thousand years of our life as urban animals." — Kyle Harper, The Wall Street Journal

"Fascinating and challenging... an impressive sweep of a book." — Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian

"An impressive overview of trends in urban histories and will have an impact outside the field of archaeology and ancient history, underlining the centrality of these disciplines to the humanities and social sciences in general, as well as to a wider audience. It is certainly worth the long read to let oneself be carried through urban moments from the Levantine and Mediterranean prehistory into Late Antiquity and beyond. It is a hugely enjoyable read that reminds us that cities and settlements are creations of, and tools for, humans, creating possibilities and unforeseen hindrances in our lives." — Journal of Roman Studies

"Greg Woolf reminds us of how vulnerable urban life has often been to plague, invasion and economic collapse." — The Spectator

"A general history that manages to escape both the superficiality and the cretinous populism to which the genre is prone... From hydraulic despotism as the driver of urbanism to civilisation-ending vulcanism at Santorini, Woolf dismembers a lot of sacred cows. And, in a surely conscious paradox, he ventures a master hypothesis of his own: an evolutionary approach to urbanism. We are, Woolf contends, urban apes." — London Review of Books

"If you have any interest in its subject, you won't regret the investment of time and money." — John Wilson, The American Conservative

"This is ever such a good book. Woolf has an enviable knack for getting across complex ideas in a deft and stylish way, without any sacrifice of precision. I do understand the difference between organic and mechanical solidarity (though I can never remember which way round they are), but I have certainly never seen it explained so clearly and economically before.... Whatever one thinks of the evolutionary underpinning of life and death, no one has ever made a more compelling case for seeing cities as part of the natural history of our species. As so often (I'm looking at you, Richard Dawkins), I did sometimes detect an uncomfortable vagueness about whether we are literally talking about evolutionary change, or whether 'selection for advantageous traits' is a metaphor for the social processes that Woolf describes so incomparably well." — Peter Thonemann, Times Literary Supplement

"Greg Woolf is a lively and learned guide to ancient cities... Woolf's book contains many brilliant insights and is a major contribution to the history of the Mediterranean." — David Abulafia, Literary Review

"This is a fine single-volume study of the ebb and flow of the European civilisations that built cities both large and small." — Sun News Tucson

"A deeply researched and ambitious "natural history" of the origins and growth of urbanism." — Andrew Robinson, Nature

"Woolf's The Life and Death of Ancient Cities: A Natural History is an engaging and richly detailed account that effectively tears down misconceptions about the ancient city and replaces them with a more diverse, more believable, and, ultimately, more interesting tale of kaleidoscopic urban experimentation across the ancient Mediterranean world." — Kathryn Grossman, The Metropole

"An engaging and comprehensive read... Woolf provides an interesting discussion on how humans are suited to city life, and also offers some thought-provoking considerations on the current rate of globalisation that we're experiencing today... This book should appeal to those who want to discover another perspective on the history of the Mediterranean or, indeed, the ancient world." — All About History

"This is an important study which should stand alongside the tours de force of Fernand Braudel and David Abulafia." — Sir Michael Fallon, Classics for All

"The Life and Death of Ancient Cities joins a shelf full of enlightening new fun reads on understanding our beginnings in the ancient world." — Robert S. Davis, New York Journal of Books

"If you have any interest in its subject, you won't regret the investment of time and money." — John Wilson, The American Conservative

"This is a first-class publication that threads its way seamlessly through a complex topic across vast regions and time-spans. It is also accessibly written and highly recommended." — Mark Merrony, Antiqvvs

"This worthy book contains multitudes, and as interesting and certainly as instructive as Professor Woolf's studies of urbanization are the not-few cases of deurbanization that he is able to explore, most conspicuously the (possible causes of the) decline or rather transformation of the late Roman antique world." — Paul Cartledge, The New Criterion

"We've been waiting for a book like this. It doesn't just review the evidence for cities from Uruk onwards in clear and compelling prose. It also questions whether we have misunderstood the role of the city in human history, presenting an alternative view. A must for all those living in or studying cities." —Chris Gosden, author of Prehistory: A Very Short Introduction

"This eye-opening book casts a whole new light on humanity's 5,000-year love-hate relationship with the city as Greg Woolf, one of the world's best ancient historians, shows us just how much the forces of evolution have shaped our social behavior. A must-read for everyone interested in the big picture." —Ian Morris, author of War! What Is It Good for?

"Greg Woolf takes us on a sumptuous, kaleidoscopic journey into the ancient city and well beyond. Urbanism in antiquity could be surprisingly small-scale, unstable and unpredictable, but cities had an outsize impact on politics, empire, and the environment. By tracing their rise and fall as well as the routes between them, Woolf brings rich new perspectives to the history of a Mediterranean much bigger than Greece and Rome." —Josephine Quinn, author of In Search of the Phoenicians

"Greg Woolf's new book, a lucid and gripping read, is a deep history of ancient cities, from the Sumerians through to the end of the ancient world. Based on a lifetime's work in history and archaeology, Woolf contests the romantic image of the wonders of classical civilization. Cities were usually small, usually part of the workaday world; but, all the same, they were remarkably successful. Woolf shows us how; and he forces us to rethink the way we see the ancient past. Both experts and those who are starting to learn about the ancient world will have to read this book." —Chris Wickham, author of Medieval Europe

From the Publisher