OT - Size of medieval capitals

[Roanon]

100k is a lot. If you want a believable city of that size, first of all make sure they can get food and fresh water in sufficient quantities from somewhere . Farming was not very effective these days, and many of the bigger roman cities had to use aquaducts to carry water to the cities over long distances.
Supply was one of the biggest problems in these times, apart from the danger of diseases due to non-existing sewer systems - despite the romans having it, the knowledge had been lost in these times. But in a fantasy world you don't have an oppressive knowlegde-killing christian church, so this does not have to be an issue .

Command structures, guilds, orders of chivalry and nobility are pretty much arbitrary - wheater a general commands 50 people or 50k depends on the size of the army he is serving in, not his rank. I suggest using any good roleplaying sourcebook detailling a city structure, saves a lot of work. And embarrassment when someone finds out that 96% of the cities' population are nobles or soldiers and no one is doing the actual work there

[ May 19, 2004, 02:31: Message edited by: Roanon ]