Polis

Even in the ancient world, cities grew up in places where people had already been living for a long time because the sites were defensible, controlled river crossings, had natural resources nearby or were safe from floods and other natural disasters. Cities, despite their rulers’ best intentions, were rarely planned. There might be sections where public buildings stood by broad, open streets and temples were laid out in magnificent splendour, and patrician dwellings hid rich opulence behind bland frontages. But equally likely, if you walked a few paces in the wrong direction, you would be guaranteed to find a maze of twisty backstreets, cheek-by-jowl houses, and run-down slums, alehouses, whorehouses and slaughterhouses, all jostling for what little space there was within the walls. The city was the world in miniature, with all the wonder and squalor that implied. Romans and Greeks equally could take civic pride in their urbanity and sophistication, and at the same moment be a little disgusted by the dirt and tawdriness of the back streets only yards away.