Cities and well-peopled places be called Oppida, in Latin; either ab ope danda, or ab opibus, or ab opponendo se hostibus. They be named also Civitates a cöeundo, and urbes, either of the word urbare, because the first inclosure of them was described with the draught of a plough, or else ab orbe, for the round compass that they at the first had.
In the Greek a city is termed πόλις, either of the word πολὺς, multus, or of πολεῖνω πολένεον,[306] id est, habitare, alere, gubernare.
In the Saxon (or old English) sometimes Tun, which we now call town, derived of the word Tynan, to inclose or tyne, as some yet speak. But forasmuch as that word was proper to every village and inclosed dwelling, therefore our ancestors called their walled towns Burh or Byrg, and we now Bury and Borough, of the Greek word πύργος (as I think), which signifieth a tower or a high building.
The walls of these towns had their name of vallum, because at the first they were but of that earth which was cast out of the trench, or ditch, wherewith they were environed. But afterward, being made of matter more fit for defence, they were named a muniendo mœnia. By the etymology of these names, it may appear that common weals, cities, and towns, were at the first invented, to the end that men might lead a civil life amongst themselves, and be saved harmless against their enemies; whereupon Plato saith, “Civitates ab initio utilitatis causa constitutæ sunt.” Aristotle, 1. Politicorum, 2. saith, “Civitas a natura profecta est: homo enim animal aptum est ad cœtus, et proinde civitatis origo ad viuendum, institutio ad bene viuendum refertur.” And Cicero, lib. primo de Inventione, in the beginning, saith, “Fuit quoddam tempus cum in agris homines passim bestiarum more vagabantur, etc. quo quidem tempore, quidam (magnus, viz. vir et sapiens) dispersos homines in agris, et tectis silvestribus abditos, ratione quadam compulit in unum locum, atque eos in unamquamq; rem induxit utilem et honestam. Urbibus vero constitutis fidem colere, et justitiam retinere discebant, et aliis parere sua voluntate consuescebant,” etc. The same man discourseth notably to the same effect in his Oration Pro Sestio, a little after the midst thereof, showing that in the life of men dispersed, vis, beareth all the sway; but in the civil life, ars is better maintained, etc. This thing well saw King William the Conqueror, who in his laws, fol. 125, saith, “Burgi et civitates fundata, et edificata sunt, ad tuitionem gentium et populorum Regni, et idcirco observari debent cum omni libertate, integritate et ratione.” And his predecessors, King Ethelstane and King Canutus, in their laws, fol. 62 and 106, had commanded thus: “Oppida instaurantur,” etc.
Seeing, therefore, that as Cicero, 2. Officior. saith, “Proxime et secundum Deos, homines hominibus maxime utiles esse possunt;” and that men are congregated into cities and commonwealths for honesty and utility’s sake, these shortly be the commodities that do come by cities, commonalties, and corporations. First, men by this nearness of conversation are withdrawn from barbarous feritie and force to a certain mildness of manners, and to humanity and justice; whereby they are contented to give and take right, to and from their equals and inferiors, and to hear and obey their heads and superiors. Also the doctrine of God is more fitly delivered, and the discipline thereof more aptly to be executed, in peopled towns than abroad, by reason of the facility of common and often assembling; and consequently such inhabitants be better managed in order, and better instructed in wisdom: whereof it came to pass, that at the first, they that excelled others this way, were called astuti, of the Greek word ἄστυ, which signifieth a city, although the term be now declined to the worst part, and do betoken evil, even as tyrannus, sophista, and some such other originally good words are fallen; and hereof also good behaviour is yet called urbanitas, because it is rather found in cities than elsewhere. In some, by often hearing men be better persuaded in religion, and for that they live in the eyes of others, they be by example the more easily trained to justice, and by shamefastness restrained from injury.
And whereas commonwealths and kingdoms cannot have, next after God, any surer foundation than the love and goodwill of one man towards another, that also is closely bred and maintained in cities, where men by mutual society and companying together, do grow to alliances, commonalties, and corporations.
The liberal sciences and learnings of all sorts, which be lumina reipublicæ, do flourish only in peopled towns; without the which a realm is in no better case than a man that lacketh both his eyes.
Manual arts, or handicrafts, as they have for the most part been invented in towns and cities, so they cannot anywhere else be either maintained or amended. The like is to be said of merchandise, under which name I comprehend all manner of buying, selling, bartering, exchanging, communicating of things that men need to and fro. Wealth and riches, which are truly called subsidia belli, et ornamenta pacis, are increased chiefly in towns and cities both to the prince and people.
The necessity of the poor and needy is in such places both sooner to be espied, and hath means to be more charitably relieved.
The places themselves be surer refuges in all extremities of foreign invasion, and the inhabitants be a ready hand and strength of men, with munition to oppress intestine sedition.