REVIEW BY JOHN BINTLIFF
This is a rather frustrating volume, although we need to know more about ancient Thessaly, a land of fertile plains in north-central Greece.
The book focuses on 22 ancient cities in western Thessaly, typical for the developed Greek city-state (walled lower town and acropolis, regular street plan, public buildings). The author makes a convincing case that the rapid foundation of such planned towns during the 4th century BC resulted from imposed urbanisation by an external dominant power: the Macedonian state.
A large part is taken up by a useful catalogue of urban sites, while a third discusses Western Thessalian urbanism between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Byzantine period. Unfortunately, these Hellenistic cities have very limited archaeological and topographic research.
