The 15 Most Populous Cities at the Fall of the Roman Empire and Their Modern Day Equivalents

In my soon to be released novel “The Desecration of Fortune” I wrote these lines:

After the Gothic sack, the city’s population fell by more than a third, from 800,000 to 500,000 residents. The threat of another such mauling would reduce the population even further. If Rome could not defend itself from invaders, it was not a safe place to live.

This was the state of affairs as the Vandals approached Rome, intent on sacking it for the second time in fifty years. In fact, the population of Rome did decline further after the Vandal sack of 455 AD, plummeting to less than 100,000 residents by the time the last western emperor abdicated in 476 AD. The exact figure is disputed, but a consensus figure seems to be around 60,000, indicating a precipitous decline of over 92% between 410 AD and 476 AD. Over the course of six tumultuous decades the world’s largest city had become a small town. Or had it?

It's important to put the size of the city in context. Today many of the suburbs of large American cities have populations greater than 60,000. Likewise with many rural towns. But in the fifth century 60,000 was still a relatively large city.

By comparison the largest city in the western world in the fifth century was Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) with a population of 400,000. Today, Omaha, Nebraska, Oakland, CA, and Tulsa, Oklahoma have populations of around 400,000, and they are by no means considered large cities.

I thought it would be interesting to compare the sizes of the 15 largest cities in the western world at the fall of the Roman Empire with modern day cities to get a sense of how big these cities really were. Here’s what I found...

          City                                                         Population      Modern Size Equivalents

1. Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey)     400,000           Tulsa, OK / Bologna, Italy
2. Alexandria, Egypt                                200,000           Aberdeen, Scotland / Rochester, NY
3. Antioch (Antakya, Turkey)                  175,000            Eugene, OR / York, England
4. Nicomedia (Izmit, Turkey)                  150,000            Reykjavik, Iceland / Paterson, NJ
5. Lugdunum (Lyon, France)                 125,000             Fargo, ND / Darwin, Australia
6. Athens, Greece                                   110,000             Trier, Germany / St. Johns, Newfoundland
7. Carthago (Tunis, Tunisia)                   100,000             Limerick, Ireland / Tuscaloosa, AL
8. Mediolanum (Milan, Italy)                 100,000             Toowoomba, Australia / Yuma, AZ
9. Thessaloniki, Greece                          90,000              Green Bay, WI / Corfu, Greece
10. Ephesus, Turkey                                  80,000              Ghent, Belgium / Missoula, MT
11. Arelate (Arles, France)                        75,000              Carlisle, England / Kalamazoo, MI
12. Rome, Italy                                           60,000              Segovia, Spain / Carson City, NV
13. Ravenna, Italy                                      50,000              Ilkeston, England / Galveston, TX
14. Tolosa (Toulouse, France)                 40,000               Burlington, VT / Gibraltar, UK
15. Paris, France                                       30,000                Wheeling, WV or Vatican City