Civilization has always had its home in the city. [1] The
statement applies as well to medieval times as to the present day. Nothing
marks more strongly the backwardness of the early Middle Ages than the absence
of large and flourishing cities throughout western Europe. The growth of trade
in the later Middle Ages led, however, to a civic revival beginning in the
eleventh century. This change from rural to urban life was scarcely less
significant for European history than the change from the feudal to the
national state.
[1] The word "city" comes through the French
from the Latin civilitas, meaning citizenship, state. The word "town"
(from Anglo-Saxon tun), which is now often used as a synonym of city,
originally meant a village (French ville, Latin villa).
CITIES OF ROMAN ORIGIN
A number of medieval cities stood on the sites, and even
within the walls, of Roman municipalities. Particularly in Italy, southern
France, and Spain, and also in the Rhine and Danube regions, it seems that some
ancient municipia had never been entirely destroyed during the Germanic
invasions. They preserved their Roman names, their streets, aqueducts,
amphitheaters, and churches, and possibly vestiges of their Roman institutions.
Among them were such important centers as Milan, Florence, Venice, Lyons,
Marseilles, Paris, Vienna, Cologne, London, and York.
