ABSTRACT
This principle extended beyond the simple enclosure of the house to include the wall of the city itself. Throughout antiquity, the wall served not only to protect the city but also to unite the citizens, to the point where the citizens invested their very identity in the wall. The city wall came to symbolise the unity and protection of the citizens to the extent that the wall was the city, and the city was the wall. Even when there was no wall-as was the case with Spartathe very absence of the wall fulfilled this role, for the Spartans were so confident in their military prowess, that they prided themselves in not needing any defensive walls.3
