ABSTRACT
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the Romano-Hellenistic urban lifestyle in the West begins to retreat rapidly. The roots of this lifestyle are found in the Cretan cities of the Bronze Age. The forums where citizens met to discuss the business of the city are among the victims of the inward-turning that characterized this troubled period. The thermal baths where water so freely flowed disappear; the beautiful public fountains dry up. The cities degrade; new urban streets are unpaved and have neither sewers nor water pipes. Water is no longer delivered, it must be drawn from wells or from the river. This is likely why Lyon, for example, moves down from the heights of Fourvière to the banks of the Saône.
