1/8/13; Urban Geography Day 2

Same old, same old right? Basically. Today we had a two hour delay and as you know, it’s Wednesday. That all meant that classes today were extremely short. We continued to take notes on urban geography, the notes from today’s class are;

·       Many ancient cities were theocratic, centers where rulers were deemed to have divine authority and were god-kings.

·       Diffusion of urbanization

o   The Greek cities

§  By 500 BCE the Greeks were highly urbanized

·       Network of more than 500 cities and towns

·       On the mainland and islands

·       Each city had an acropolis and an agora

o   Roman cities

§  A system of cities and small towns, linked together with hundreds of miles and routes.

·       Typically for trade

·       Forum combined agora and acropolis

·       Had extreme wealth and extreme poverty

·       1/3 – 2/3 of the empire’s population was enslaved.