Reader, J. (2004). War, Greece and Rome. In, Cities. (pp.51-67 & 310-311 ; Figures : 22-41). London : William Heinemenann.

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WaJ; Greece and Rome
An adequate and reliable food supply is the first priority of every -city - a priority handled so efficiently· in the modern world that we take it for granted. Ancient cities, contending with the vagaries of climate and problems of transport, were not so fortunate. Securing the food supply pushed cities into war and conquest, but also inspired significant advances in farming, transport and government.

Sumer can claim a number of important firsts in world history - the first cities, the first irrigated agriculture, the first civilisations, the first written language - and the influence of these is with us still (not least in that every passing minute, every hour acknowledges the Sumerians' sexagesimal system of numeration), but there is one first that humanity might have preferred to do without: warfare. Warfare itself did not provoke the establishment of cities generally (see pp. II-I2) , and there is certainly nothing to suggest that warfare inspired the foundation of Sumer's earliest cities, but there is plenty of evidence indicating that, once established, cities and the fruits of civilisation became important factors in the development of military power. The story of Sumer persuasively suggests that the advent of organised warfare probably began as the growing populations and falling agricultural production described at the end ofthe last chapter combined to create severe food shortages on the plains of Mesopotamia, and one desperate city attempted to seize the reserves of another. Furthennore, as Sumer water engineering approached its geographical and technologicallimits, as irrigation canals became larger and longer, every new withdrawal from the rivers began to affect the water supply of cities

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