1. Most of our ideas as to the origin of the city we owe to the findings of the archeologists. Exactly when cities began to appear in the story of mankind is still a doubtful question. We hear of cave cities in the paleolithic age. When we come down to historic times we find numerous cities whose main purpose was defense. The ancient cities of Memphis, Thebes, Babylon, and several others were already imposing aggregations of human beings and were centers of administration and of culture. Such a vast literature exists on the Greek city-state and on Rome, that is available in almost any library, that only a few references need be cited here. Clerget, Pierre. “Urbanism: A Historic, Geographic, and Economic Study,” _Smithsonian Institution Annual Report, 1912_ (Washington, D.C., 1913), pp. 653–67. (II, 2, 3; III; V, 1, 2, 3; VI; VII; VIII.) Coulanges, Fustel de. _The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome_ (Boston, 1894). Translated by Willard Small. Davis, W. S. _A Day in Old Athens: A Picture of Athenian Life_ (New York, 1914). Fowler, W. W. _The City-State of the Greeks and Romans_ (London and New York, 1895). (I, 2.) Friedländer, L. _Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire._ Authorized translation by L. A. Magnus from the 7th rev. ed. of the _Sittengeschichte Roms_ (London, 1908–13), 4 vols. (III, 4.) Rostovtzeff, Michael. “Cities in the Ancient World,” in volume _Urban Land Economics_, edited by R. T. Ely, Institute for Research in Land Economics, Ann Arbor, 1922. Zimmern, Alfred E. _The Greek Commonwealth: Politics and Economics in Fifth-Century Athens_ (2d rev. edition; Oxford, 1915). 2. Historians are still doubtful whether the medieval city was the product of a continuous growth starting with Rome or whether, around the year 1000, the city was born anew after some centuries of reversion to a simpler form of social life. There is little doubt, however, that the medieval city not only had a different structure but also played a decidedly different rôle than the Greek or the Roman city. The typical medieval city was fortified and had achieved a certain degree of political autonomy from the central government. It played its leading rôle, however, as the center of trade and commerce and the home of the guilds. With the sixteenth century there came an important change over the urban life of Europe. New inventions, such as that of gunpowder, made the city wall obsolete. The beginnings of industry spelled the doom of the narrow guild system. In the light of this new order of things the medieval city of a former day—which was really a town—either had to adapt itself to the new forces that had become operative and join the ranks of growing cities or else become sterile and sink into decay. Bax, E. B. _German Culture, Past and Present_ (London, 1915).