This book tells the story of the rise and collapse of Europe's first great urban experiment. Drawing on the latest historical and archaeological evidence, Greg Woolf provides a rich history of the ancient Mediterranean city, and attempts to solve the puzzles about its rapid emergence and equally rapid decline, making comparisons along the way with contemporary urban experience.

Greg Woolf is Ronald J. Mellor Professor of Ancient History at the University of California, Los Angeles and author of Rome: An Empire's Story and Et Tu Bruté The Murder of Caesar and Political Assassination.