The Greek City from Antiquity to Present

The case studies in this book, by historians, archaeologists and literary scholars, draw a varied image of the protean Greek city. They cover all periods of Greek civilisation and deal not only with the iconic cities of Athens and Constantinople, but also with Antioch, Jerusalem, Thessalonica, and smaller towns in Asia Minor, Crete and the Balkans. The Greek city is studied as a material reality, as an ideological construct, and as the representational setting of literature. Recurrent themes and issues can be subsumed under the following oppositions: continuity/change, multiculturalism/ethnocentrism, metropolis/provincialism, communal identity/individuality. The fourteen papers are organised in three chronological groups, coinciding more or less with thematic and methodological units. The first part essentially deals with the history and archaeology of ancient poleis. The second part covers the Byzantine and Ottoman periods; it includes two literary-rhetorical studies and three discussions of multicultural cities. The last part centres on the representation of Athens in 20th Century Greek literature.