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Thomas
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posted 04-03-2001 01:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thomas   Click Here to Email Thomas     Edit/Delete Message
Ok, this is my first time here but it seems to be a great place of knowledge. That is what I'm counting on.

I am in the process of trying to write a book; a sort of fantasy biblical piece .. I think But I would like my numbers to at least be realistic in this story. A large focus of my story will be on one casle ... so far I am planning the castle to have a walled city to one side of it. The city I am tentatively planning to have about 25000 - 30000 people. The castle, I am not sure. So my questions revolve around how big can I make this castle (as in acres or some sort of measurement) and how many people would reside in it or would it be able to hold at a time. As well, would you happen to have any comments on the walled city? Size and or population? I am basing some of my understandings on Conwy Castle and the walled city that was there. I had their archive people send me a map but it does not talk much on population.

Wel, that was certainly a mouthful. sorry But I hope you can help me out. Anything you have would be most appreciated.

Thank you.

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And though the masses did cry for more, he would not bow unto their frenzy.

Merlin
Senior Member
posted 04-04-2001 02:24 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Merlin   Click Here to Email Merlin     Edit/Delete Message
You want to write about a walled city with a castle to one side of it, and you want to place it in a «fantasy-biblical-world». You should therefore ask yourself if you want describe a city of «biblical times», meaning an ancient one, or a medieval city. The question is important, regarding your problems with scale and number of inhabitants.
• Ancient walled cities like Babylon, Assur, Constantinopolis, Carthage or Rome where the centers of the world in the ancient world and, compared with medieval cities, very big. Rome with all its suburbs is estimated to have had about 1 Million inhabitants in 200 AD. The combination of fortress on a hill (=acropolis) and walled city at its feet is very typical for old greek, persian, hethitian or assyrian cities. For such a city (or even for a later, roman one in central europe), your numbres would be appropriate. The fortress itself would contain the palace of a king or gouvernor, temples and other buildings of a centralized gouvernment, and up, depending on its importance, up to 1000 inhabitants. (My estimation, but I'm not an expert. I once wrote a report on the ancient city of Susa under old persian rule, and there the acropolis was very large.)
• But if we're talking about medieval cities here, at least medieval cities until the 13th century - your numbers would be to big. Even the big roamn cities shrunked in size as the imperium collapsed (in europe, this began even earlier because of the barbarien invasions of the 3rd century), and most of them couldn't keep their ancient city walls. Later cities were much smaller, most of them with not more then a few thousend inhabitants, and only the biggest (such as Cologne) having more then 10'000. As for the castle (and there does not have to be one): depending on its size, up from 50 to 200 would be nearest to reality.

Merlin

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