OT - Size of medieval capitals

[Fyron]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hectare

[narf poit chez BOOM]

In other words, the typical medieval capital would take only an hour or two to walk accross?

That sounds to small. Anyway, gotta go.

[ May 19, 2004, 01:11: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Fyron]

Well the largest city in western Europe during the dark ages was around 17,000 people... that is not very big at all.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Hmm...what I'm looking at, then, for the type of setting I want is 8 sq.miles, 2,070 hectares and about 100,000 people.

Which isn't a dark age city. What kind of city might it corrospond to? Just in case my mental image is way off.

[tesco samoa]

well then your looking at a city that was located in middle east.... Current country is turkey... Or pick some of the big cities from China or India. They would at the 100 k during the dark ages...

Istanbal was 100k back then...

[narf poit chez BOOM]

So, what level of organization would be nessasary for a 100k city?

I'm thinking, a duke just for the city, a council of lower nobles, a merchants/guild council of some sort, the obligatory wizard's guild, since this is a fantasy world, a guard organized around the city's sections, the nobles and rich merchants would no doubt hire additional guards for their section. And the duke would have his own guard, commanded, no doubt, by a minor noble. And, since this is the capital, the king would have his guard and the army.

I'm using European terms because I'm familiar with them, but if this city is more believable as a middle-easternish city, if someone would provide titles and a breakdown...

[Roanon]

100k is a lot. If you want a believable city of that size, first of all make sure they can get food and fresh water in sufficient quantities from somewhere . Farming was not very effective these days, and many of the bigger roman cities had to use aquaducts to carry water to the cities over long distances.
Supply was one of the biggest problems in these times, apart from the danger of diseases due to non-existing sewer systems - despite the romans having it, the knowledge had been lost in these times. But in a fantasy world you don't have an oppressive knowlegde-killing christian church, so this does not have to be an issue .

Command structures, guilds, orders of chivalry and nobility are pretty much arbitrary - wheater a general commands 50 people or 50k depends on the size of the army he is serving in, not his rank. I suggest using any good roleplaying sourcebook detailling a city structure, saves a lot of work. And embarrassment when someone finds out that 96% of the cities' population are nobles or soldiers and no one is doing the actual work there

[ May 19, 2004, 02:31: Message edited by: Roanon ]