CITIES, FOUNDING OF (crt'rz, found'Tng 6v) The beginnings of the first cities when they had as yet no models for civic government is a very interesting study.
(1) Signification of Words. The principal Semitic words employed for "city" are in them selves very suggestive. We have first a word which signifies the "meeting place" of men, of flocks and herds, of caravans and of great routes of travel. It indicates a gathering place, a good station for trade, and a convenient depot for sup plies. In a historical sense it includes everything from the most insignificant village to Jerusalem Kings i:4t-45; Is. i etc.) and Carthage. "new city." A second word suggests a slightly different thought. It is a "watching place," a collection of people having property of value over which they erected a primitive watch tower (cf. hub!. ix :51 ff., for one of Canaanitic origin). This indi cates a stage at which the encampment or depot is no longer likely to be broken up. The town was secured by the watch tower, which later be came an adjunct of regular walls and gates, or was enlarged into a citadel (r g. Judg. tx :.10) A poetical designation among the Babylonians and Assyrians was alu. Originally meaning a number of tents, it commemorates the encamp ment as the foundation of a subsequent city.
We have also the word "Nledina," meaning "jurisdiction." It is employed, however, in He brew and Biblical Aramaic, only of provinces, or loosely, of a country generally. In Syriac, Arabic and modern Hebrew it means only a city.
(2) Beginning's. The typical Semitic city, large or small. retained plainly the traces of these historical beginnings. It was in the "broad place" near the gate that the public meetings were held (Nell. viii•I-3), where the elders of the city sat for conference and where there were judicial proceedings (Job xxix :7 ff.; Prov. xxi: 22, etc.; also 2 Sam. xv :2 ; Deut. xvii :5). This was a marked feature of Jerusalem, throughout Old Testament history. The great bazaars also, as a rule, near the principal gate, perpetuated the old institution of the depot and market at the meeting place of caravan roads by an exposition of wares from far and near. Damascus, for instance, still has bazaars not unlike those which Ahab was permitted by treaty to hold there twen ty-seven centuries ago (I Kings xx :34). The wide areas which were set apart for one trade or another (Jer. xxxvii :21) long constituted the only streets, and the multiplied booths and bazaars illustrated the growth of the "city" from the prim itive villages.
What are now called streets were mostly crooked and narrow passages from one "quarter" to another, and a straight avenue was a notable exception. Hence the distinguishing name given to the street called "Straight" in Damascus (Acts Thus the building of cities is recognized by the Bible (Gen. iv :17) as a step towards civilization.
(3) Government. It accordingly marks the first type of Semitic government, but we are not to suppose that the early Semites who founded and perpetuated villages and towns in Babylonia, Mesopotamia or Palestine passed rapidly to the methods of city life from the nomadic mode of existence. Neither are we to suppose that the habits of primitive patriarchal rule were speedily discarded. On the contrary, it is possible to trace the influence of the patriarchal system in the es tablishment and regulation of the Semitic cities, and even to find there some reproduction in type of the essential elements of the old tribal govern Throughout the North Semitic realm the simple constitution of the city or state included the rule of a "king" between whom and the common peo ple there stood a circle of nobles or "great men," the position of the one or the others being nor mally hereditary.
This king was, we may assume, the chief elder of the clan which founded the settlement, and his principal function was not to rule, but to act as a referee, to represent his people in treaties and to perform generally the duties of leader among the council of prominent men. After this the development of functionaries was a matter of easy transition.
An instance of the development of the "council of elders" is described in Exod. xviii, where Jethro the Midianite gives advice upon which the organization of the clans of Israel was carried out.
After a time the "counsellor" became a "king," and the Oriental monarchs still retain the sim plicity of administrative type characteristic of the earliest "kingdoms." These cities maintained a separate and an inde pendent existence, and this often resulted in seri ous conflicts between them, but confederations were sometimes formed to enable them to suc cessfully meet the common invader. (History, Prophecy and the Monuments. By James F. Mc Curdy, Ph. D., LL.D., pp. 32-34.)