In his fragmentary De Re Publica, written between 54 and 51 BC, Cicero (d. 43 BC) explains that cities were built by gatherings of people, brought together to deliberate their common future, defined by their shared law and interests. It is from these communities that cities arose leading to all subsequent civilisation. Cicero’s text serves as an example of one of the defining features of the Greco-Roman world, the identification of an urban settlement with its citizen body, a specific legal community with specific rights and responsibilities, significant for both who it includes and the many more it leaves out. The Roman orator was well aware that he was part of a longer tradition, referring to Periclean Athens with approval as an example of the union between city and citizen. The modern English word ‘city’ lacks many of the implications of polis or civitas (whence the modern word derives), which might better be rendered as state. Nonetheless, key to the Greco-Roman idea of citizenship is the sense of a fixed settlement centre where citizens can interact with their fellows, participate in assemblies or seek office.