Across Europe and the Mediterranean, hundreds of cities have their origins in Classical Antiquity. Cities were a core feature of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, both an expression of deep values and the essential means of reproducing them. The ancient city had a fundamental impact on the development of urbanism in the Mediterranean, in Europe, and even in the New World. The project addresses the question of what was the nature of that impact, and will seek to replace the traditional narrative, which identified that impact with the orthogonal planning of the grid city, with one that stresses the diversity of impacts over time and place, in the Islamic as well as the European spheres.

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The project will re-examine the impact of the ancient, Greco-Roman city on subsequent urban history in Europe and the Islamic world, investigating both the urban fabric and urban ideals. Bringing together researchers trained in historical, archaeological and literary analysis, the project spans the entire Mediterranean region from antiquity to the present day. The research team will investigate case histories in the western and eastern Mediterranean, and pose a set of questions about how urban forms responded to changing social needs.