1. Towns are a natural result of the aggregative principle in human hature. Necessity led the early races of men to build their towns on lofty spots, where, with the aid of the natural advantages of the ground, they could easily protect themselves against b^ts of prey and human foes. A town, and a stronghold or fort, would thus be originally identical. As popula- tion increased and agriculture spread, so some degree of security came, which permitted the inhabitants of the castle to difinse themselves over the liill-side, and take up their abode in the valley, and by the side of the stream that lay nearost their acropolis ; still the hihabitants kept at no great distance ttom the oentro of strength, in order not to be deprived of its protec- tion. The town, however, would thus be enlarged, and as the necessity for self-defence still existed, so would the place soon be surrounded with walls. Thus there would be outer and inner bulwaiks, and in some sort two species of community—- the townspeople, who tilled the ground and carried on trade, and the soldiers, whose business it was to aflbrd protection : these two, however, in the earliest stages of civilization, were one, the Qeasant and tradesnlan taking arms when the town was put in danger. How early towns were formed cannot be determined by any general principle : they were obviously a work of time. The primary tend- ency in population was to diffuse itself. Aggregation on particular spots would take place at a later period. When, then, Cain is said to have built a city (Gen. iv, 17), we have evidence which concurs with other inti- mations to show that it is only a partial history of the first ages that we possess in the records of the book of Genesis. In the time of the Patriarohs we find towns existing in Palestine which were originally surrounded with fo^cations, so as to make them ** fenced cities." (See below.) In these dwelt the agricultural popula- tion, who, by means of these places of strength, de- fended themselves and their property from the nomad tribes of the neighboring desert, who then, as they do now, lived by plunder. Nor were worlLs of any great strength necessary. In Palestine at the present day, while walls are in most parts an indispensable protec-
^ and agriculture can be advantageously prosecu-
ted only so fttr aa sheltered by a fortified town, ere& tions of a very sUght nature are found sufficient for the purpose, the rather because the most &varable locafi- ties offer themselves on all sides, owing to the natnzd inequality of the ground. Henoe we find that luUf or eminences were almost invariably chosen aa sites fm thjB purpose, a foct which even grew into a proveib— *'a city upon a hilL'* (See Hackea*s lUtuin,^ Script, p. 70.)
Of the ancient method of building in towns ani cities we have no accurate knowledge, any farther this we nuy gather information fnm the ruins which stiD lie on the soil of Palestine. But these ruins can affiird only general notions, as, though they are nnmeraa, and show that the Land of Promise waa thickly peo- pled and highly flourishing in its better days, the ac- tual remains of ancient towns are to be ascribed to &- ferent and very distant periods of history. The Cri- sades left many strongholds which are now in a statt of dilapidation ; but the Crusades are of modem daji compared with the time of the Saviour, which itself ii remote from the proper antiquity of the nation. The law of sameness,^owever, which prevails so rigidlT m Eastern countries, gives us an assurance that a modem town in Palestine may be roughly taken as a type d its ancient predecessors. (See 01in*8 Traveis, ii, 423.) To distinguish cities that bore the same name, the name of the tribe was added. In "the latter days;,"^ especially under the Herods, it was the fashion to give to ancient towns new Greek names, aa Diospolis, Ne- apolis, Sebaste, Cssarea, Tiberias. Jemsalem, at a later period, was denominated ^lia Capitolina. These innovations indicated the slavish disposition of the age, and were tokens of the bondage in which the n»> tion was held.
Palestine underwent constant changes in regard to its towns from the earliest ages ; one consequence of which is, that there are names of towns that bel(mg exclusively to certain eras. The period of the Boman domination gave existence, as to stmcturee of greet splendor, so to many towns and fortified places. Gsl- ilee was especially rich in towns and villages, which, according to Josephus (Life, 45), amounted in all to the number of 204. The nam^ of the Palestinian cities, for the most part, have meaning, reference being made to the nature of tlie locality or the character ^ the inhabitants. The population of towns cannot now be ascertained with any degree of accuracy, for the materials are not only scanty and disconnected, but ia a measure uncertain.— Kitto, s. v. See Cci^srs.
2. The earliest notice in Scripture of city-building is of that of the city called Enoch (q. v.) by Cain, ia the land of his » • exUe" (Nod, Gen. iv, 17). After the confusion of tongues, the descendants of Nimrod fonnd- ed Babel, Erecb, Accad, and Calneh, in -the land of Shinar ; and Asshur, a branch from the same stock, buUt Nineveh, Rehoboth-by-the-river, Calah, and Be- sen, the last being "a great dty." A subsequent passage mentions Sidon, Gaza, Sodom, GomoiTah, Ad- mah, Zeboim, and Lasha, as cities of the Qanaanites, but without implying for them antiquity equal to that of Nineveh and the rest (Gen. x, 10-12, 19 ; xi, 3, 9; xxxvi, 87). Sir H. Rawlinson supposes, (1.) that tiie expedition of Chedorlaomer (Gren. xiv) was prior to the building of Babylon or Nineveh, indicating a mi- gration or conquest from Persia or Assyria ; (2.) that by Nimrod is to be understood, not an individual, but a name denoting the "settlers'* in the Assyrian plun ; and (8.) that the names Behoboth, Calah, etc, when first mentioned, only denoted sites of bufldings after- wards erected. He supposes that Nineveh was built about B.C. 1250, and Calah about a centary later, while Babylon appears to have existed in the 15th c«i- tury B.C. If this be correct, we must infer that the places then attacked, Sodom, Gomorrah, etc., were cit- ies of higher antiquity than Nineveh or Babylon, inas- much as when they were destroyed a few years later