# Ancient Rome was only 5.3 square miles **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 9, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713 "2011-02-09T00:14:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/1 "2011-02-09T00:14:30Z")
That is, if we include all and only the area within the [Aurelian Walls.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian_Wall) For comparison, [Manhattan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan) is 33.77 square miles. Manhattan could hold 6.3 Romes. If we include only the Republican city within the [Servian Wall](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servian_walls) it’s even smaller, but I can’t seem to find a cite for the area. Nor for that within the [Pomerium.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomerium) All that historical action in such a small space! Just thought that was interesting. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/2 "2011-02-09T00:43:29Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > That is, if we include all and only the area within the [Aurelian Walls.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian_Wall) That’s good because I’m going there for the first time next month and that makes it easier to walk around 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/3 "2011-02-09T01:01:13Z")
And historical London (what’s now called The City) is but a single square mile. Remember that most transportation at the time was by foot, so you really needed everything pretty close together. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/4 "2011-02-09T01:08:03Z")
All of that cultural significance, too. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/5 "2011-02-09T01:32:41Z")
That’s interesting about Manhattan, Dublin is bigger in area, at 45.5 square miles. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/6 "2011-02-09T01:40:14Z")
One million people there in such a small place. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/7 "2011-02-09T01:40:25Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > That is, if we include all and only the area within the [Aurelian Walls.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian_Wall) > > For comparison, [Manhattan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan) is 33.77 square miles. Manhattan could hold 6.3 Romes. But New York City 130 years ago was just lower Manhattan. Much of upper Manhattan was near wilderness. “The Age of Innocence” has a scene showing this. The Roman Forum is quite small and crammed with interesting stuff. Hint we got from a guidebook which worked - buy your ticket at the Forum, not the Coliseum. The ticket is good for both, and the line is much, much, shorter. However the signs at the forum did not match the audio tour. This was shocking since we had just been in Berlin where museum audio tours and signs are perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/8 "2011-02-09T01:49:53Z")
Is that why they had to send out their armies to conquer the world? There just wasn’t enough space for all those soldiers in the city limits. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/9 "2011-02-09T03:37:46Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > …This was shocking since we had just been in Berlin where museum audio tours and signs are perfect. Were you really that shocked that Italians would be less organized than Germans? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/10 "2011-02-09T03:45:56Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > One million people there in such a small place. I’ve read that the one million figure is inflated. The classical population was probably closer to 100,000. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/11 "2011-02-09T05:00:44Z")
I was in Ephesus, in Turkey, a few years ago and was shocked at how ENORMOUS the city was. Now that was a damned big city, way bigger than the modern Turkish city of Selcuk, which is on that spot today. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/12 "2011-02-09T07:34:49Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > I’ve read that the one million figure is inflated. The classical population was probably closer to 100,000. During the Republican period it would have been that small, but during the 1st and 2nd century AD the lowest estimate is 450,000 and the average is one million. The census indicates over 40,000 apartment buildings called insulae in the city. The walls didn’t come close to enclosing the whole city. Of course most of these people lived under conditions that were worse than the slums of Calcutta or Rio today. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/13 "2011-02-09T09:28:01Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Of course most of these people lived under conditions that were worse than the slums of Calcutta or Rio today. I don’t know about that: pretty piled up, but there was running water and sewerage. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/14 "2011-02-09T11:17:29Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > That is, if we include all and only the area within the [Aurelian Walls.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian_Wall) > > For comparison, [Manhattan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan) is 33.77 square miles. Manhattan could hold 6.3 Romes. > > If we include only the Republican city within the [Servian Wall](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servian_walls) it’s even smaller, but I can’t seem to find a cite for the area. Nor for that within the [Pomerium.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomerium) > > All that historical action in such a small space! > > Just thought that was interesting. That’s significantly bigger than the city of New York was at the time. Rome these days is, of course, significantly bigger than it was 2000 years ago. London was pretty small a few hundred years ago, too. Now it’s enormous. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/15 "2011-02-09T14:29:35Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Hint we got from a guidebook which worked - buy your ticket at the Forum, not the Coliseum. The ticket is good for both, and the line is much, much, shorter. Good call, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/16 "2011-02-09T15:31:04Z")
Interesting statistic I came across recently in a history of the American Revolution. Boston in 1776 had a population of just 16,000 people. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/17 "2011-02-09T16:21:37Z")
That’s nuts - that’s, like, _half_ of the attendees at the American Library Association’s annual conference. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/18 "2011-02-09T18:34:52Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I don’t know about that: pretty piled up, but there was running water and sewerage. Keep in mind that Rome had good _public_ facilities. The average Roman had a hike to a public fountain or toilet or bath. Only the rich had running water and even they probably wouldn’t be connected to the sewage system. Most of the sewage ended up being dumped in the streets. A lot of the pipe they did have was made out of lead. Disease was always a constant problem and epidemics would periodically sweep through the city. Even at that, it was better than what London or Paris had well up into the 19th century. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/19 "2011-02-09T19:43:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Interesting statistic I came across recently in a history of the American Revolution. Boston in 1776 had a population of just 16,000 people. But somehow, Fenway Park still sold out every game. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713/20 "2011-02-09T20:24:57Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Interesting statistic I came across recently in a history of the American Revolution. Boston in 1776 had a population of just 16,000 people. Well, if they didn’t keep banning my relatives, maybe it would have been bigger! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-rome-was-only-5-3-square-miles/570713.md?page=2)