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May. 8th, 2011 07:00 pmI've been working on my map of the late Roman Balkans. The city sizes are one of the harder challenges. Many of the cities have been built over and/or destroyed by stone robbers. Some of the other cities have suffered erosion from the Danube or other rivers.
Area in hectares is usually the best available clue to population; Dintchev (1999) "Classification of the Late Antique Cities in the Dioceses of Thracia and Dacia" and Karagiorgou (2001) have argued that defended area is a reasonable proxy for built-up area and population.
I have encountered many problems finding information on the size of Roman cities in the late fourth century, but the following tentative figures, cobbled together from multiple sources which may not share the same methods, should help with the relative sizes of the Balkan and west-Asian cities:
Constantinopolis – around 1,000 hectares within the walls of Constantine.
Corinthus – around 400 hectares before fifth and sixth-century reductions.
Efesus – around 300 hectares.
Thessalonica – around 200 hectares.
Nicopolis in Epirus, Larissa, Demetrias, Cyzicus, Rhodus, etc. - 100 to 200 hectares.
Almost all inland cities in Asia proper – less than 150 hectares.
Almost all inland cities in Europe – less than 75 hectares.
A few inland cities seem to have anomalously large defended areas – Viminiacum and Laodicea seem puzzling – but they were probably no larger than other inland provincial capitols.
Area in hectares is usually the best available clue to population; Dintchev (1999) "Classification of the Late Antique Cities in the Dioceses of Thracia and Dacia" and Karagiorgou (2001) have argued that defended area is a reasonable proxy for built-up area and population.
I have encountered many problems finding information on the size of Roman cities in the late fourth century, but the following tentative figures, cobbled together from multiple sources which may not share the same methods, should help with the relative sizes of the Balkan and west-Asian cities:
Constantinopolis – around 1,000 hectares within the walls of Constantine.
Corinthus – around 400 hectares before fifth and sixth-century reductions.
Efesus – around 300 hectares.
Thessalonica – around 200 hectares.
Nicopolis in Epirus, Larissa, Demetrias, Cyzicus, Rhodus, etc. - 100 to 200 hectares.
Almost all inland cities in Asia proper – less than 150 hectares.
Almost all inland cities in Europe – less than 75 hectares.
A few inland cities seem to have anomalously large defended areas – Viminiacum and Laodicea seem puzzling – but they were probably no larger than other inland provincial capitols.
