Cities of the Classical World: An Atlas and Gazetteer of 120 Centres of Ancient Civilization

by Colin McEvedy

From Alexandria to York, this unique illustrated guide shows us the great centers of classical civilization afresh. The book's key feature is 120 specially-drawn maps tracing each city's thoroughfares and defenses, monuments and places of worship. Every map is to the same scale, allowing readers for the first time to appreciate visually the relative sizes of Babylon and Paris, London and Constantinople. There are also clear, incisive commentaries on each city's development, strategic importance, rulers and ordinary inhabitants. This compelling and elegant atlas opens a new window on to the ancient world, and will transform the way we see it.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Reference, Archaeology, Cities, Classics

448 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Colin Peter McEvedy was a British polymath scholar, psychiatrist, historian, demographer and non-fiction author.

Reviews

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say I found this book extremely interesting. I think one could classify it as being revisionist in its approach, as the author, Colin McEvedy, challenges generally held truism relating to how populous antique cities were (surveying periods from Classical - Late Antique, and from Romano-Britain to Ptolemaic Egypt). Colin McEvedy, is perhaps uniquely qualified to carry out this survey of 120 centres of Ancient Civilization. As he is described as a psychiatrist, historian and demographer, who also dabbled to a certain extent in cartography. He has also visited most of the sites that he examines in the atlas, quite an achievement in and of itself. All these qualifications come shining through in the work itself in bite size extracts crammed full of detailed information ranging from the structure of various antique cityscapes to how these changed over time due to population fluctuations.

A truly fascinating read and well worth flicking through. It isn't a book that would need to be read from cover to cover per say, rather a book that can be dipped into at one's leisure. Anyway, hope this helps. I certainly think this book is worth having a look at!

Happy Reading,
Gavin

[Susan Paxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. There's no arguing about the usefulness of the information and the readable, and sometimes humorous style it's presented in. The author and his friend who finished the book after his death have put together a lot of information about places both well known and obscure within the Roman Empire, although I suspect many will have issues with the very conservative population estimates. The source list for each entry will likely be handy. And yet, there are issues:

1. The placement of the towns in alphabetical order might make sense for a book intended to be used only as a reference, but it would have been much more readable to group them by region.
2. The author can't decide whether to use the modern or classical name for the towns, so some use the modern name, some the classical.
3. There are several maps in the back that show the varying boundaries of the Roman world. Some of the places are indicated - but the ones that aren't shown are the ones most necessary to have located on a map. Regional maps would have been far more helpful.

To continue damning with faint praise, I enjoyed it, but likely won't keep it.

[Nihal Vrana · Rating 4 out of 5]

On one side, it is a very informative book; it is good to get a feeling of the size, population of the ancient cities in a comparative manner; also seeing the effect of ecological effects even within 2000-2500 years, is a good warning story.
There is a tremendous effort put into it which I salute. But the organisation of it is not ideal; it would have been better to have it regionally rather than alphabetically. It jumps from unrelated places just because they are close by in names and there are 200 pages between cities that sit next to each other.
It is also very Roman Empire-oriented, understandably so but a bit more than necessary most probably due to personal interests. Another problem is the population estimates, which always more or less come to the same conclusion. Writing "Thinking that these cities had more than 5.000-10.000 people in those times is not realistic (or idiotic, if we give the voice of prof. McEvedy who sounds like a slightly abrasive person) would have saved 50 pages to the book.
Nevertheless, great reference material.

[Dylan Rudling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Digestible and easy to get through. Really interesting to read the history of some less famous classical sites, and a great intro to all cities listed to be honest. Plenty of sites and cities I didn't know were places of ancient interest (some sites in Austria, Bulgaria, and Libya caught my eye!), and plenty of references to other cities that weren't listed in the book - for example Mycenae, Sabratha and Sparta aren't in here.

One of the highlights of getting through the book is coming to understand the waxing and waning of different villages/towns/cities - be it from an early military presence, prosperity through trade, diminishing significance from other nearby cities, or a good old sacking. Having visited some of these ancient cities myself, (such as Athens, Herculaneum, and Cumae) I found it nice to check back on previously stored knowledge and add detail to the old brain reserve.

Overall, certainly worth a read!

[Riet · Rating 3 out of 5]

De meeste mensen geven dit boek 5 sterren, maar daar kan ik niet in meegaan. Misschien wel als waardering voor de enorme hoeveelheid werk, die er in zat, maar niet qua leesbaarheid. Iedere klassieke nederzetting, hoe klein ook, wordt beschreven. En vaak is daar bijna niets over bekend. Je krijgt dus gauw de neiging om maar een stukje over te slaan. Maar er staat nog genoeg interessants in om het boek te lezen.

[Terence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was put in mind of JND Kelly's The Oxford Dictionary of Popes when reading through this delightful little reference work because McEvedy manages to cram a wealth of information into these short essays (usu. no more than 2-3 pages) about urban foundations in the Ancient World.

Highly recommended.

[Annikky · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+ It’s a nice and rather eccentric book, mostly useful - I felt - because it makes it easy to compare the cities and notice the patterns in how they develop. Best for dipping in and out of as needed: I read all the entries on the Greek cities and a bunch of others that caught my eye.

[Ralph Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cities fly by as if viewed from a passing train window, their civilisations like ghosts that haunt our own. Modern terms like “population” hit the view, and we wonder if we ever learned a thing. We’re still holding hands with the past.

[Ryan Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

perhaps repetitive but mostly just interesting. 120 city vignettes, from founding to foundering.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maps. Maps of old places. Heaven.

[kerrycat · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy to read/understand entries with helpful drawings - very intriguing

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I can certainly appreciate what this book does, and how useful it would be as a reference, it also makes for a very dry read when reading the entries back to back.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now, this is really a dictionary of the most important towns and cities in the Classical world and not (I guess) meant to read from A to Z (well, A to Y, since York is the last entry). But it's surprisingly readable that way too - and it's an excellent book to turn to when you want to look something up.

Each entry (listed under it's modern name) consists of a short history, a map of the known ancient site (all drawings are on the same scale, which is great for comparison), topography and an estimation of the ancient population (though not not on all towns, since McEvedy unfortunately died before the completion of this project).

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

decent read, certain entries give the bare minimum and can be very dry. Other entries give a more generalized history. It seems the main focus of the population density of the classical towns falls flat, seems more like guess work. Not bad if you're planning a trip to the area of the Aegean and Mediterranean and want to find classical cities to visit. Some cities included don't seem to make sense as to why their included and they all vary on how much excess info besides the population is included. There are incongruities on how the history is explained - how dates are explained, geography, how far back in the history.