Population of Ancient Cities

Factual Questions
1

ISTR reading somewhere that the great Mesopotamian city of Ur, at the height of its glory, had a population of around 4,000.

Of course, nowadays a population of 4,000 qualifies a town as “dipshit little stop-on-the-road.” But hey, things were different in ancient Mesopotamia.

But I digress. What I want to know is: can history-minded Dopers provide me with ballpark figures of the populations of these cities at various times:
[ul]
[li]Jerusalem at the time of the Assyrian (or was it Babylonian?) conquest.[/li][li]Babylon at the time of Nebuchadnezzar.[/li][li]Jerusalem at the time of Jesus of Nazareth.[/li][li]Nazareth at the time of Jesus of Nazareth.[/li][li]Rome at the time of Augustus Caesar.[/li][li]Pompeii at the time of its destruction.[/li][li]Athens at the time of Socrates.[/li][li]Sparta at the height of its glory.[/li][li]Alexandria at the height of its glory.[/li][li]Troy at the time of the Trojan War.[/li][li]Mecca at the time of Mohammed.[/li][li]London at the time of Queen Boadicea (sp?).[/li][li]London at the time of the Norman Conquest.[/li][/ul]

Or, if there is some sort of ancient geography reference that someone can point me to…
TIA

2

I can give you a few, but remember these are ballpark estimates and you’ll always find disputes over such matters:

Jerusalem - 25,000 and 125 acres at time of Babylonian conquest, 60,000 and 425 acres at time of Roman conquest ( purported maximum until modern times )

[quote]
[li]Rome at the time of Augustus Caesar.[/li][/quote]

~750,000 - 1,000,000 ( some estimates as low as 500,000 )

[quote]
[li]Pompeii at the time of its destruction.[/li][/quote]

20,000 and 165 acres

[quote]
[li]Athens at the time of Socrates.[/li][/quote]

100,000 - 200,000

[quote]
[li]Sparta at the height of its glory.[/li][/quote]

No exact numbers, but smaller than Athens ( though larger in acreage )

[quote]
[li]Alexandria at the height of its glory.[/li][/quote]

~300,000 - 500,000 ( largest provincial city in Roman empire )

[quote]
[li]Troy at the time of the Trojan War.[/li][/quote]

No one is even certain where Troy was. I’nm afraid there are no figures

[quote]
[li]Mecca at the time of Mohammed.[/li][/quote]

Hmmm…Surprisingly I don’t have a number and I know I’ve seen one, somewhere. Smallish, though.

[quote]
[li]London at the time of Queen Boadicea (sp?).[/li][/quote]

Small. It had only been founded as a Roman settlement ten years earlier ( and was destroyed in Boudica’s revolt 60-61 to be rebuilt later ) and covered about 25 acres ( 10 hectares ) at that point.

[li]London at the time of the Norman Conquest.[/li][/quote]

~20,000

  • Tamerlane
3

What archaeological evidence there is from the immediate vicinity of modern Nazareth is extremely limited. There’s thus very little basis on which to estimate the population. To the extent that some have even suggested that the village didn’t exist at the time. Far more likely is that it was just very small, possibly more of a hamlet than a village.

As Tamerlane has noted, it remains possible to doubt that the site at Hisarlik in the Troad was actually Homer’s Troy. Not to mention the debate over which occupation level it might be. Still, the site is currently being re-excavated, though the population estimates that are emerging from this are being argued over.

4

For some background on some of the estimates (including reasons why the estimates can vary so widely), check out The population of Ancient Rome.

5

It’s worth remembering that the populations of ancient cities didn’t increase steadily or continuously from the time of their founding to the present day (or the time of their destruction).

According to this site, the population of London reached a maximum of about 45,000 under the Romans, then fell off for a number of centuries after they went home. By the early 12th century the population of London was back to about 18,000.