IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section B

Abstract

Antioch-on-the-Orontes, a Greek/Hellenistic and then Roman city, vied for prestige and pre-eminence with the other ‘greatest’ cities in the ancient Mediterranean world: Rome, Alexandria-by-Egypt and Carthage. Yet ancient observers also recognise that an important or famous city is not necessarily a livable city and vice versa. Satirists such as Juvenal describe Rome as a city notable for its size, human diversity and availability of urban facilities while still excoriating it as outrageously intolerable as a place to live. In this respect, Antioch enjoyed a different ancient reputation. It was recognised as a populous city, an administrative city, a trading city, a cultural and cosmopolitan city, and—as claimed—also a place that rich and poor, citizens and foreigners alike not only loved to call home but where they enjoyed a more joyful and superior way of life compared to urban inhabitants elsewhere. In his Oration 11 (on Antioch), the sophist Libanius (c.314 – 392 or 393) praises his native city and enumerates chief reasons he considers Antioch as the best and most livable city in the world. His speech identifies a set of shockingly ‘modern’ criteria for measuring livability and a list of unique features of the city showing how Antioch fulfils them better than do other Roman municipalities. My paper takes Libanius’s idealised encomium of his mêtropolis as a starting-point for comparing select ancient Greek, Roman and modern urban discourses concerning best practices in relation to the environmental, historical, religious, cultural and socio-economic factors that contribute to the constitution and maintenance of a livable urban community.