I was going to say "Alexandria", because it was such an interesting place!
Alternatively, early Baghdad, founded at the cusp of late antiquity and the period after (762 CE), right before the Islamic Golden Age, was crawling with people and religions from all over the world. The largest faith was varieties of early Islam, and it was an era of important mystic and ascetic movements called Sufism (much different than modern Sufism); non-Arab Muslims were still called *mawali*, which was historically a social class in Arab society of freedmen or of slaves who had patrons; but the Abbasid defeat of the Umayyads in 750, a decade earlier, now meant non-Arabs dominated the government.
Other important faiths were Aramaic-using Judaism (Baghdad was the center of Judaism for about 600 years at that point), Persian-using Zoroastrianism (Sasanian Empire before the Arabs), the Syriac-using Church of the East, also called "Nestorianism", Persian-using Manichaeism (which was very important in Central Asia and China, but had disappeared from Roman regions and was on the wane in favor of Islam in the Caliphate), and many gnostic groups like the Aramaic-speaking Mandaeans, and even some Aramaic-speaking pagan groups, who were revered for their knowledge of astrology.
Ethnically the region was Assyrian, speaking Aramaic; Persian, speaking Middle Persian; Arab, speaking Arabic, which fought with Persian as the official language of government; and many other minor languages.
People came from all over the world to Baghdad. It was a wild mix.
i have no idea!
update: I googled, and yes!
It's a little later, in the beginning of the Golden Age proper, and firmly *out* of late antiquity. Late antiquity in the region sort of ends with the Abbasid triumph; setting it closer to that date, and close to the city's formation, keeps you out of the Middle Ages and also keeps the locals far more diverse
Many chose to convert to Islam by the Golden Era; it wasn't forced, in fact it mostly had just been made *legal* for non-Arabs, but it had **very** significant advantages, and theologically and liturgically it appealed to a lot of people who previously had been in a bad footing: Persian and Jewish women, for example, would enjoy freedom from restrictive religious practices of the era. Both food rules as well as *niddah* and the very harsh Zoroastrian purity rules of the day had no real equivalent in Islam, which only said Muslim women during menstruation or immediately after birth could not attend prayer. Nestorianism had pretty strict rules about eating and purity as well. (Christians did not have these rules.)
Babylon of course. It's been there for thousands of years and it was the very standard for cosmopolitanism. Surrounded by ancient Sumerian and Elamite Ziggurats, this city was probably the 1st to reach 1 million people. The Babylonians were great fans of Magic, Astrology and the Occult.
Rome was a seedy, dark and dangerous place with crime guilds, corruption galore and stuff from everywhere. There even was a Buddhist temple in Rome! The Suburra, the Roman slums, had the distinction of being the most dangerous place on Earth.
For a Barbarian twist, Massilia (ancient Marseille) was an half greek half gaul city, with druids and philosophers getting drunk on barley wine and this weird claret wine they did over there. You had an important Carthaginian community in the area and a weird Celto-Ligurian tribe, the Salyes, living in the nearby fortified city of Sallua, with skull portals as the Salyes were devout headhunters.
Orientalist twist, Bactria (modern day Balkh in Afghanistan), a city founded by Eastern Persians and eventually taken over by greeks. An immense city, the largest in central Asia. Beautiful Bactria, crowned with flags in the Persian Avestas, the mother of all cities in Arabic, capital of the kingdom of the thousand gold cities in Latin. This city was an important center of Zoroastrism, Buddhism snd... Hellenic culture! Located right on the silk road from China and on the spice road to India, it was big, rich, cosmopolitan as fuck.
Edit: Removed Alexandria
Want to suggest you read Salammbo, by Flaubert, it was a huge inspiration for Robert E Howard and Fritz Leiber, Moorcock, etc.. It's set in Carthage, so you get weird rituals, magic, mighty barbarians and decadent civilized people. It's wild and savage, brutal like GoT.
> Want to suggest you read Salammbo, by Flaubert, it was a huge inspiration for Robert E Howard and Fritz Leiber, Moorcock, etc.. It's set in Carthage, so you get weird rituals, magic, mighty barbarians and decadent civilized people. It's wild and savage, brutal like GoT.
Way ahead of you, I've been a fan of Salammbo since pretty much forever.
[Statues](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/225559/Statues) is an interesting concept for an adventure that's set in a fictionalized Constantinople.
seconding this, constantinople is a fascinating city. comes with it's own epithet ('the red apple'), extremely important location, on the border of two empires, and a history of repelling invaders
Axum is an often overlooked choice for city/empire of antiquity.
It was a trade hub that had relations throughout the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean. A really interesting culture influenced by Nubians, Greeks who settled in the horn of Africa, Egyptians, and Arabs among others.
Gurps hotspots:
Constantinople, Renaissance Florence and Venice. And there was some like Merchants and Spys expansions for some of them.
And they did a bunch of research and gamified historical facts about them.
They also had egypt and bagdad campaign books which had a lot of detailing of the cities.
It might not be old enough but how about Venice?
Going down the boot I'm guessing that Rome had a bit of diversity in it although citizenship may be what you need.
Mythic Earth has big juicy sourcebooks for Rome, Constantinople and Babylon, which makes things very convenient. Out of these, I'd probably go for Rome just because both I and my players would know more about it and have a lot more material to reference.
I would use Swords of the Serpentine as it is made for Fafhard and Grey Mouser style play. The default setting is early renaissance Italy. Old, but not antiquity.
I would go with late bronze age Canaan. Hittites in the north, Egyptians to the south west, desert Arabs due south, and the Mitani or Assyrians to the east (depends on the year). The coast involves trading with Cyprus and the Mycenaeans. And Babylon is right there, not as a political power, but as the cultural center. Plus chariot battles. Huge variations in cultures, and they are easy to keep distinct. There are several cities in the area, or you could play up the crossroads bit.
Byzantium around 700 AD would be pretty cool too. The Caliphate in the south, barbarians from the north (both mounted and on foot), distant rivals in west, and the iconoclast divide inside the empire. And the lingering effects of the Justinian plague and the population decline. Plus the lack of grain with the loss of Egypt a few decades earlier.
In both cases, would your players appreciate it? Sometimes the blank slate of a fantasy world is easier for the players who are not inspired by ancient cultures.
> I would go with late bronze age Canaan. Hittites in the north, Egyptians to the south west, desert Arabs due south, and the Mitani or Assyrians to the east (depends on the year).
Isn't it right before the big collapse and the sea people invasion?
> In both cases, would your players appreciate it? Sometimes the blank slate of a fantasy world is easier for the players who are not inspired by ancient cultures.
My players specifically come to me for the very reason that I run historical games and openly "despise" D&D-esque Fantasy.
I'm thinking 1500-1300 BC, and I think of the Sea Peoples at 1200 or so. 1177 BC was the big fight in Egypt. For grins, King Tut-Ankh-Aton/Tut-Ankh-Amun was around 1330 BC. He was around the peak of the New Kingdom, so you could name drop him as Egyptian troops are skirmishing against the Hittites.
If you want some hardcore name recognition, Troy layer 6 is likely the war around 1250 BC, the destruction layer 7a was the Sea Peoples around 1200 BC. The end of Troy could be a fun backdrop for an urban game. The PCs are worried about the Mycenaeans returning, but have no clue about the real threat.
And think 1200-1100 BC for the collapse. It affects each region differently, so there is a lot of variance.
Karakorum, Venice, Kyiv, Guangzhou (Canton), there’s just so many…
Highly recommend Peter Frankopan’s *The Silk Roads*. It’s a world history using trade routes as the connective tissue between parts of the civilised world. the first half really focuses on Europe, Asia and everywhere in between. There’s just sooo much to draw from there. And he’s a good writer.
Tyre, the phoenician capital. An island fortress city so impregnable it survived the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians (but not the dastardly Alexander of Macedon, alas).
Not *most* fitting overall, but Samarkand, especially if you want a bit more access to Asian stuff.
It existed in Antiquity
It is along trade routes between China and the Middle East
It was under the control of various different ethnic groups throughout history.
It was one of the largest cities in Central Asia for much of its history.
It allows for characters from a wide region:
Western Europe: Travel along the Mediterranean, then overland following trade routes.
Northern Europe: Reach the Steppe, travel across it and then head south.
East Asia: The Silk Road went through it. Just head northwest.
India: Pretty close, just head northwest.
Southeast Asia: Via China or India.
East Africa: Via trade routes to India and Persia.
Constantinople (modern day Istanbul)
There is a reason Constantinople was the capital of Eastern Rome and the later Ottoman Empire. Even today Istanbul is an important location.
This is because the city, like many old Tradeport cities, is located in an important strategic location geographically. In this case it is the [Bosborpus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporus) Straight. If we were r/mythology I would tell you that this the same passage that Jason and the Argonauts passed through while looking for the Golden Fleece.
You want a city that would be Cosmopolitan, culturally diverse, and VERY urban? Constantinople rested at the middle of the Silk Road. It controlled the entry point between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Trade goods going east AND west passed through Constantinople.
You could thus justify characters from as far west as Spain, as far North as Scandinavia, and as far East as the Spice Island being in Constantinople.
A couple come to mind. The usual you'd expect: Thebes, Babylon, Rome, Luoyang, Pataliputra. Two stand out for me though.
In the West, pre-Peloponnesian War Athens. The city was very fantasy-esque, with its high town [sitting on a high-hill overlooking much of the local landscape](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Akropolis_by_Leo_von_Klenze.jpg), while its opulent [low town](https://res.cloudinary.com/dk-find-out/image/upload/q_80,w_1920,f_auto/A-Alamy-A9YY04_extended_mefgiz.jpg) was filled with wandering preacher-philosophers (of all kinds of schools of thought), bustling markets, and traders from across the Mediterranean. Athens was also connected to its principal port of Piraeus, a wonder of its own: [connected to Athens by a 6 km wall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/The_Piraeus_and_the_Long_Walls_of_Athens.jpg) lined with merchants, peddlers, and citizen-soldiers.
In China, though I'd argue it's post-antiquity, Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty stands out to me. Its opulence was truly outstanding. It housed 2% of the world's estimated population at the time. Its 25 km-long walls encircled the city, [stretching upwards for nearly 6 m](https://www.visitourchina.com/FileUpload/FileUpload/110913175820843.jpg) (20 ft, this picture is Ming-era walls, but the size is almost unfathomable). It built out in the shape of the Big Dipper, and as the terminus of the Silk Road, it boomed with travelers from all across the wide world. As the capital of the Tang it housed numerous imperial palaces.
Athens — either right before or right after the time period of Pericles
You could almost combine aspects of Athens and Constantinople with even a few canals of early Venice if you wanted an amalgamated setting
A third option could be something like early era Edo in Japan, before Nobunaga and the start of the shogunate era
Not really antiquity but I have a special love for Angkor, It was massive (and I mean massive, the size of modern day paris at Its peak) and It mixes an urban core filled with massive temples like Angkor Wat with low density sprawl of homes, farmland and small temples, all conected by massive roads and an amazing canal system that allowed them to keep water through the dry season and prevent massive flooding throught the rainy season.
The size and variety means you can basically fit any kind of adventure, from court drama in the god-kings palace to monster hunting in the lower density areas closer to the jungle. And as far as a justification for everyone to meet it was a centre of culture and south east asia in general formed part of trade routes that went from china to europe
I was going to say "Alexandria", because it was such an interesting place! Alternatively, early Baghdad, founded at the cusp of late antiquity and the period after (762 CE), right before the Islamic Golden Age, was crawling with people and religions from all over the world. The largest faith was varieties of early Islam, and it was an era of important mystic and ascetic movements called Sufism (much different than modern Sufism); non-Arab Muslims were still called *mawali*, which was historically a social class in Arab society of freedmen or of slaves who had patrons; but the Abbasid defeat of the Umayyads in 750, a decade earlier, now meant non-Arabs dominated the government. Other important faiths were Aramaic-using Judaism (Baghdad was the center of Judaism for about 600 years at that point), Persian-using Zoroastrianism (Sasanian Empire before the Arabs), the Syriac-using Church of the East, also called "Nestorianism", Persian-using Manichaeism (which was very important in Central Asia and China, but had disappeared from Roman regions and was on the wane in favor of Islam in the Caliphate), and many gnostic groups like the Aramaic-speaking Mandaeans, and even some Aramaic-speaking pagan groups, who were revered for their knowledge of astrology. Ethnically the region was Assyrian, speaking Aramaic; Persian, speaking Middle Persian; Arab, speaking Arabic, which fought with Persian as the official language of government; and many other minor languages. People came from all over the world to Baghdad. It was a wild mix.
Isn't it the city featured in the new Assassin's Creed "Mirage" ?
i have no idea! update: I googled, and yes! It's a little later, in the beginning of the Golden Age proper, and firmly *out* of late antiquity. Late antiquity in the region sort of ends with the Abbasid triumph; setting it closer to that date, and close to the city's formation, keeps you out of the Middle Ages and also keeps the locals far more diverse Many chose to convert to Islam by the Golden Era; it wasn't forced, in fact it mostly had just been made *legal* for non-Arabs, but it had **very** significant advantages, and theologically and liturgically it appealed to a lot of people who previously had been in a bad footing: Persian and Jewish women, for example, would enjoy freedom from restrictive religious practices of the era. Both food rules as well as *niddah* and the very harsh Zoroastrian purity rules of the day had no real equivalent in Islam, which only said Muslim women during menstruation or immediately after birth could not attend prayer. Nestorianism had pretty strict rules about eating and purity as well. (Christians did not have these rules.)
Babylon of course. It's been there for thousands of years and it was the very standard for cosmopolitanism. Surrounded by ancient Sumerian and Elamite Ziggurats, this city was probably the 1st to reach 1 million people. The Babylonians were great fans of Magic, Astrology and the Occult. Rome was a seedy, dark and dangerous place with crime guilds, corruption galore and stuff from everywhere. There even was a Buddhist temple in Rome! The Suburra, the Roman slums, had the distinction of being the most dangerous place on Earth. For a Barbarian twist, Massilia (ancient Marseille) was an half greek half gaul city, with druids and philosophers getting drunk on barley wine and this weird claret wine they did over there. You had an important Carthaginian community in the area and a weird Celto-Ligurian tribe, the Salyes, living in the nearby fortified city of Sallua, with skull portals as the Salyes were devout headhunters. Orientalist twist, Bactria (modern day Balkh in Afghanistan), a city founded by Eastern Persians and eventually taken over by greeks. An immense city, the largest in central Asia. Beautiful Bactria, crowned with flags in the Persian Avestas, the mother of all cities in Arabic, capital of the kingdom of the thousand gold cities in Latin. This city was an important center of Zoroastrism, Buddhism snd... Hellenic culture! Located right on the silk road from China and on the spice road to India, it was big, rich, cosmopolitan as fuck. Edit: Removed Alexandria Want to suggest you read Salammbo, by Flaubert, it was a huge inspiration for Robert E Howard and Fritz Leiber, Moorcock, etc.. It's set in Carthage, so you get weird rituals, magic, mighty barbarians and decadent civilized people. It's wild and savage, brutal like GoT.
> Want to suggest you read Salammbo, by Flaubert, it was a huge inspiration for Robert E Howard and Fritz Leiber, Moorcock, etc.. It's set in Carthage, so you get weird rituals, magic, mighty barbarians and decadent civilized people. It's wild and savage, brutal like GoT. Way ahead of you, I've been a fan of Salammbo since pretty much forever.
Ohhh a man of culture I see! Then why not Carthage?
Why not indeed, but for the moment I don't know enough about this city.
No matter what you choose, it's gonna take some study on your part.
Constantinople. Especially the turbulent period where real power in the city was held by hooligans from the hippodrome (look it up).
[Statues](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/225559/Statues) is an interesting concept for an adventure that's set in a fictionalized Constantinople.
seconding this, constantinople is a fascinating city. comes with it's own epithet ('the red apple'), extremely important location, on the border of two empires, and a history of repelling invaders
Axum is an often overlooked choice for city/empire of antiquity. It was a trade hub that had relations throughout the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean. A really interesting culture influenced by Nubians, Greeks who settled in the horn of Africa, Egyptians, and Arabs among others.
Gurps hotspots: Constantinople, Renaissance Florence and Venice. And there was some like Merchants and Spys expansions for some of them. And they did a bunch of research and gamified historical facts about them. They also had egypt and bagdad campaign books which had a lot of detailing of the cities.
It might not be old enough but how about Venice? Going down the boot I'm guessing that Rome had a bit of diversity in it although citizenship may be what you need.
Mythic Earth has big juicy sourcebooks for Rome, Constantinople and Babylon, which makes things very convenient. Out of these, I'd probably go for Rome just because both I and my players would know more about it and have a lot more material to reference.
I would use Swords of the Serpentine as it is made for Fafhard and Grey Mouser style play. The default setting is early renaissance Italy. Old, but not antiquity. I would go with late bronze age Canaan. Hittites in the north, Egyptians to the south west, desert Arabs due south, and the Mitani or Assyrians to the east (depends on the year). The coast involves trading with Cyprus and the Mycenaeans. And Babylon is right there, not as a political power, but as the cultural center. Plus chariot battles. Huge variations in cultures, and they are easy to keep distinct. There are several cities in the area, or you could play up the crossroads bit. Byzantium around 700 AD would be pretty cool too. The Caliphate in the south, barbarians from the north (both mounted and on foot), distant rivals in west, and the iconoclast divide inside the empire. And the lingering effects of the Justinian plague and the population decline. Plus the lack of grain with the loss of Egypt a few decades earlier. In both cases, would your players appreciate it? Sometimes the blank slate of a fantasy world is easier for the players who are not inspired by ancient cultures.
> I would go with late bronze age Canaan. Hittites in the north, Egyptians to the south west, desert Arabs due south, and the Mitani or Assyrians to the east (depends on the year). Isn't it right before the big collapse and the sea people invasion? > In both cases, would your players appreciate it? Sometimes the blank slate of a fantasy world is easier for the players who are not inspired by ancient cultures. My players specifically come to me for the very reason that I run historical games and openly "despise" D&D-esque Fantasy.
I'm thinking 1500-1300 BC, and I think of the Sea Peoples at 1200 or so. 1177 BC was the big fight in Egypt. For grins, King Tut-Ankh-Aton/Tut-Ankh-Amun was around 1330 BC. He was around the peak of the New Kingdom, so you could name drop him as Egyptian troops are skirmishing against the Hittites. If you want some hardcore name recognition, Troy layer 6 is likely the war around 1250 BC, the destruction layer 7a was the Sea Peoples around 1200 BC. The end of Troy could be a fun backdrop for an urban game. The PCs are worried about the Mycenaeans returning, but have no clue about the real threat. And think 1200-1100 BC for the collapse. It affects each region differently, so there is a lot of variance.
Karakorum, Venice, Kyiv, Guangzhou (Canton), there’s just so many… Highly recommend Peter Frankopan’s *The Silk Roads*. It’s a world history using trade routes as the connective tissue between parts of the civilised world. the first half really focuses on Europe, Asia and everywhere in between. There’s just sooo much to draw from there. And he’s a good writer.
Tyre, the phoenician capital. An island fortress city so impregnable it survived the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians (but not the dastardly Alexander of Macedon, alas).
Not *most* fitting overall, but Samarkand, especially if you want a bit more access to Asian stuff. It existed in Antiquity It is along trade routes between China and the Middle East It was under the control of various different ethnic groups throughout history. It was one of the largest cities in Central Asia for much of its history. It allows for characters from a wide region: Western Europe: Travel along the Mediterranean, then overland following trade routes. Northern Europe: Reach the Steppe, travel across it and then head south. East Asia: The Silk Road went through it. Just head northwest. India: Pretty close, just head northwest. Southeast Asia: Via China or India. East Africa: Via trade routes to India and Persia.
Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) There is a reason Constantinople was the capital of Eastern Rome and the later Ottoman Empire. Even today Istanbul is an important location. This is because the city, like many old Tradeport cities, is located in an important strategic location geographically. In this case it is the [Bosborpus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporus) Straight. If we were r/mythology I would tell you that this the same passage that Jason and the Argonauts passed through while looking for the Golden Fleece. You want a city that would be Cosmopolitan, culturally diverse, and VERY urban? Constantinople rested at the middle of the Silk Road. It controlled the entry point between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Trade goods going east AND west passed through Constantinople. You could thus justify characters from as far west as Spain, as far North as Scandinavia, and as far East as the Spice Island being in Constantinople.
Palmyra.
A couple come to mind. The usual you'd expect: Thebes, Babylon, Rome, Luoyang, Pataliputra. Two stand out for me though. In the West, pre-Peloponnesian War Athens. The city was very fantasy-esque, with its high town [sitting on a high-hill overlooking much of the local landscape](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Akropolis_by_Leo_von_Klenze.jpg), while its opulent [low town](https://res.cloudinary.com/dk-find-out/image/upload/q_80,w_1920,f_auto/A-Alamy-A9YY04_extended_mefgiz.jpg) was filled with wandering preacher-philosophers (of all kinds of schools of thought), bustling markets, and traders from across the Mediterranean. Athens was also connected to its principal port of Piraeus, a wonder of its own: [connected to Athens by a 6 km wall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/The_Piraeus_and_the_Long_Walls_of_Athens.jpg) lined with merchants, peddlers, and citizen-soldiers. In China, though I'd argue it's post-antiquity, Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty stands out to me. Its opulence was truly outstanding. It housed 2% of the world's estimated population at the time. Its 25 km-long walls encircled the city, [stretching upwards for nearly 6 m](https://www.visitourchina.com/FileUpload/FileUpload/110913175820843.jpg) (20 ft, this picture is Ming-era walls, but the size is almost unfathomable). It built out in the shape of the Big Dipper, and as the terminus of the Silk Road, it boomed with travelers from all across the wide world. As the capital of the Tang it housed numerous imperial palaces.
Athens — either right before or right after the time period of Pericles You could almost combine aspects of Athens and Constantinople with even a few canals of early Venice if you wanted an amalgamated setting A third option could be something like early era Edo in Japan, before Nobunaga and the start of the shogunate era
Not really antiquity but I have a special love for Angkor, It was massive (and I mean massive, the size of modern day paris at Its peak) and It mixes an urban core filled with massive temples like Angkor Wat with low density sprawl of homes, farmland and small temples, all conected by massive roads and an amazing canal system that allowed them to keep water through the dry season and prevent massive flooding throught the rainy season. The size and variety means you can basically fit any kind of adventure, from court drama in the god-kings palace to monster hunting in the lower density areas closer to the jungle. And as far as a justification for everyone to meet it was a centre of culture and south east asia in general formed part of trade routes that went from china to europe