Small is beautiful: exploring the drawbacks of megacities

If you have never heard about Panticapaeum, you are probably not alone. This small but thriving Greek colony was founded in the 7th century BC in a fertile and sumptuous landscape on the eastern shore of Crimea. Commanding a key position for trade at the Cimmerian Bosporus, a maritime strangle point, it prospered by linking the Black Sea with the Azov and the Don river regions. By 480 BC, it had become the capital of its own kingdom, and managed for centuries to navigate independence between strong Persian and later Roman interests. Haunted by Ostrogothic and Hunnic raids, it still survived as a Byzantine citadel. It lived through a succession of Khazar and Slavic lordships to become the mod