Harry Mount

The famous cities of the ancient world were surprisingly small and fragile

Greg Woolf reminds us of how vulnerable urban life has often been to plague, invasion and economic collapse

‘The Construction of the Tower of Babel’, by Hendrick von Cleve. Getty Images 
issue 11 July 2020
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  • The Life and Death of Ancient Cities: A Natural History

    Greg Woolf

    OUP, pp. 528, £25

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