ABOUT THIS SITE
The ancient world is an excellent laboratory for studying urbanism, with its diverse concepts and kinds of communities, from small settlements in the highlands to the great coastal metropoleis. Grand old cities like Babylon, Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, and Constantinople ignite our imagination with their grand monuments and splendid settings. But romantic views aside, what was it really like to live in "the Great City", "the Eternal City", or the "City of God", and who made them that way?
One of the elements that makes ancient cities so fascinating is the deliberate appeal which they made on their contemporaries, as well as their successors. What went into making cities so attractive? How did abstractions and ideologies make their imprint on the city, and how did this function in the every-day world? How was civic pride created? What kinds of urban rituals, benefactions, architectural projects and festivals went into making the cityscape? When did it work, and when did it fail? And what remains do we find in the cities of today, how do they color our perceptions of life in antiquity?
These are questions that this website addresses in zooming in on a number of different cities across the Mediterranean, ranging from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. Each page revolves around the issue of not only what made that particular city special, but who made it that way, who kept it that way, and why.
One of the elements that makes ancient cities so fascinating is the deliberate appeal which they made on their contemporaries, as well as their successors. What went into making cities so attractive? How did abstractions and ideologies make their imprint on the city, and how did this function in the every-day world? How was civic pride created? What kinds of urban rituals, benefactions, architectural projects and festivals went into making the cityscape? When did it work, and when did it fail? And what remains do we find in the cities of today, how do they color our perceptions of life in antiquity?
These are questions that this website addresses in zooming in on a number of different cities across the Mediterranean, ranging from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. Each page revolves around the issue of not only what made that particular city special, but who made it that way, who kept it that way, and why.
UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN - HISTORY & CLASSICS
This website was created in the fall and winter of 2015-16 by third-year BA History and Classics students from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, in fulfillment of the requirements for the course The Beautiful City, offered by the History and Classics departments of the Faculty of Arts and taught by Dr. Jan Willem Drijvers and Dr. Christina Williamson, with guest lectures by Dr. Arjan Zuiderhoek (Ghent) and Prof. dr. Onno van Nijf.
In the first part of the course, students discussed general topics and theories on urbanism relating to the ancient world, such as the tenets of Childe's Urban Revolution, the city as seat of memory (both collective and individual), as an arena for civic pride and public honours, the spectacle and urban topography, the 'ideal' city (according to Plato), the 'City of God', and the classical city as the ideal template for cities of modern states (Paris, Washington DC, Mussolini's Rome).
In the second part students applied these concepts to individual case studies, focusing on the larger context of what made the city special and why.
General literature that guided us along the way included:
- S.E. ALCOCK (2002) ‘Archaeologies of Memory’, Ch. 1 in Archaeologies of the Greek past. Landscape, monuments, and memories, Cambridge, 1-35.
- ARISTOTLE Politics, Book 1
- V.G. CHILDE (1950), ‘The Urban Revolution’, Town Planning Review 21, 3-17.
- Garrett G. FAGAN (2011), "Introduction", in: The Lure of the Arena, Social Psychology and the Crowd at the Roman Games, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1-12
- M.E. FARRAR (2002) 'Making the city beautiful. Aesthetic reform and the (dis)placement of bodies', in: A. Bingaman, L. Sanders and R. Zorach eds, Embodied utopias. Gender, social change, and the modern metropolis, London, 37-54.
- S. KOSTOF (1992) The city assembled. The elements of urban form through history, London, pp. 123-164
- W. LIEBESCHUETZ (2001), The Decline and Fall of the Roman City, chapter "The Rise of the Bishop", 137-167
- J. MA (2006) 'The two cultures. Connaiseurship and civic honors', Art History 29, 325-338.
- J. MA (2009) ‘City as Memory’, in G. Boys-Stones et al., The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Culture, Oxford 249-259.
- M.L. SMITH (2003), The social construction of ancient cities, Washington DC.
- O.M. VAN NIJF (2012) ‘Political Games’, in: Entreteins Hardt 2012, 47-95
- A. ZUIDERHOEK (2014) 'Controlling urban public space in Roman Asia Minor', in: T. Bekker-Nielsen ed. Space, place and identity in Northern Anatolia, Geographica Historica 29, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 99-108.
In the first part of the course, students discussed general topics and theories on urbanism relating to the ancient world, such as the tenets of Childe's Urban Revolution, the city as seat of memory (both collective and individual), as an arena for civic pride and public honours, the spectacle and urban topography, the 'ideal' city (according to Plato), the 'City of God', and the classical city as the ideal template for cities of modern states (Paris, Washington DC, Mussolini's Rome).
In the second part students applied these concepts to individual case studies, focusing on the larger context of what made the city special and why.
General literature that guided us along the way included:
- S.E. ALCOCK (2002) ‘Archaeologies of Memory’, Ch. 1 in Archaeologies of the Greek past. Landscape, monuments, and memories, Cambridge, 1-35.
- ARISTOTLE Politics, Book 1
- V.G. CHILDE (1950), ‘The Urban Revolution’, Town Planning Review 21, 3-17.
- Garrett G. FAGAN (2011), "Introduction", in: The Lure of the Arena, Social Psychology and the Crowd at the Roman Games, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1-12
- M.E. FARRAR (2002) 'Making the city beautiful. Aesthetic reform and the (dis)placement of bodies', in: A. Bingaman, L. Sanders and R. Zorach eds, Embodied utopias. Gender, social change, and the modern metropolis, London, 37-54.
- S. KOSTOF (1992) The city assembled. The elements of urban form through history, London, pp. 123-164
- W. LIEBESCHUETZ (2001), The Decline and Fall of the Roman City, chapter "The Rise of the Bishop", 137-167
- J. MA (2006) 'The two cultures. Connaiseurship and civic honors', Art History 29, 325-338.
- J. MA (2009) ‘City as Memory’, in G. Boys-Stones et al., The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Culture, Oxford 249-259.
- M.L. SMITH (2003), The social construction of ancient cities, Washington DC.
- O.M. VAN NIJF (2012) ‘Political Games’, in: Entreteins Hardt 2012, 47-95
- A. ZUIDERHOEK (2014) 'Controlling urban public space in Roman Asia Minor', in: T. Bekker-Nielsen ed. Space, place and identity in Northern Anatolia, Geographica Historica 29, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 99-108.
Faculty of the Arts | contact: [email protected] and [email protected]
Faculty of the Arts | contact: [email protected] and [email protected]
