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Urban Dreams and Realities is a collection of articles on cities in ancient cultures, both their physical and conceptual aspects. A wide range of subjects and disciplinary perspectives are represented, especially the archaeology, epigraphy and literature of the Roman Empire.

Dealing with themes of urban planning, constitutionalism, utopianism and social construction theory, this book analyzes the city of Magnesia, Plato's second-best city-state in the Laws, as if it were an actual ancient city-state. The book details the demographics, economics, military capabilities and polity of Magnesia using (post)modern critical theory and contemporary data on ancient city-states. Examining the key features of the proposed city-state in detail, Kenneth Royce Moore considers Plato's proposed military as well as his invention of national service, and compares this with known militaries of the era. The author demonstrates that economic growth is not its priority, highly restricted with an aim toward stability rather than expansion. Moore also considers the Magnesian political system in the light of existing polities of the era, concluding that Magnesia will have a strikingly different form of government than any other actual city-state in antiquity, albeit derived in no small part from Athenian, Cretan and Spartan traditions. This book puts \"flesh on the bones\" of Plato's fictional utopia and reveals how surprisingly practical it could have been.

The heart of Urbanization in Early and Medieval China consists of translations of three gazetteers written during the Han (206 BCE–220 CE), Tang (618–907), and Northern Song (960–1126) dynasties describing the city of Suzhou. The texts allow the reader to trace the dramatic changes that occurred as the city experienced enormous political and social upheavals over nine centuries. Each translation is accompanied by extensive annotation and a detailed discussion of the historical background of the text, authorship, and publication history. The book also traces the development of the gazetteer genre, the history of urban planning in China, and what we know about the early development of Suzhou from other texts and archaeological research. Urbanization in Early and Medieval China will be useful not only to scholars of Chinese history, but to scholars studying architecture and urban planning as well.

Trade, exchange and commerce touched the lives of everyone in antiquity, especially those who lived in urban areas. Trade, Traders and the Ancient City addresses the nature of exchange and commerce and the effects it had in cities throughout the ancient world, from the Bronze Age Near East to late Roman northern Italy.Trade, Traders and the Ancient City employs the most recent archaeological, papyrological, epigraphic and literary evidence to present an innovative and timely analysis of the importance and influence of trade in the ancient world.

Polis (meervoud: poleis) is het Oudgriekse woord voor stad, voor staat en voor de combinatie van die twee: een stadstaat. In de Oudheid leefden de meeste Grieken in zo’n stadstaat. De polis als staatsvorm of als type samenleving vormt de grondslag voor de gehele Griekse cultuur. De Griekse cultuur valt alleen te begrijpen als men de polis begrijpt.

This comprehensive and well-documented book provides a critically up-to-date analysis of trade in the ancient world, which takes into account a diverse range of evidence

This collection of papers, arising from the conference series Late Antique Archaeology, examines the housing in the late antique period, through thematic and regional syntheses, complemented by cases studies and two bibliographic essays.

This book examines a number of themes relating to housing in Late Antiquity. Two extensive bibliographic essays provide an overview of published literature relating to housing in this period. A selection of thematic essays focus on episcopia, lighting, privacy vs. public access, and building regulations. These are complemented by regional syntheses covering Spain and Africa and case studies of recently investigated urban houses from across the Mediterranean, from Gaul to Jordan. Whilst being firmly based in Late Antiquity, the volume also looks forward to Middle Byzantine and Early Islamic housing, with papers on rock-cut houses in Cappadocia and a wealthy dar from Pella in Jordan, destroyed by earthquake, with its inhabitants inside, in A.D. 749.