I am interested in defining a city... its members, the boundaries, the transition of a "community" into a designated city. What makes a "city" a "city?" What makes people come to identify themselves to be a part of a certain group or place? These are questions that I believe when answered (especially the process of attempting to answer these questions and others like it) would be a great opening to our symposium.
One could add to it the idea of citizenship, and the assosiation with the fith century bc Athens comes automatically. How the idea of their commonness arose may be mentioned (changes in command. laws. wars. property status. relation to and definition of outsiders). Michal
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