Abstract:

This paper discusses the historical context of the eponymous roundtable presented on the occasion of the IX Meeting of Young Researchers of Ancient History at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, held on 5, 6 and May 7, 2010. It proposed the analysis of several aspects that have traditionally made up the concept of a city in ancient times from the elements not precisely defined as social and legal standards, as the position of women or the limits of urban settlement over time. In the course of the five interventions in the table, covering both Greece and Rome, it is possible to present some initial considerations on the extent and manner of the necessary involvement of the so-called non-citizens, i.e. those people who not be considered citizens of law or cives in the full sense, maintained close ties with management and social and political function of the collective mass. Also, from a purely functional point of view, the discourse of the physical boundaries of the city, the relationship between the city center over the villages and, finally, the tutelary gods of the city and its presence on the edge of it.