may have determined this to a great extent. In Greece and Rome there were no linguistic barriers between the cities and countryside, and the cities had close cultural links to their surroundings. The same may be said of the coastal areas of Asia Minor and even the coastal plains further south: Syria, Israel, Egypt. In other regions, as in the interior of Asia Minor or Syria, in Egypt or the inland of the north coast of Africa, the Hellenistic cities may have been more like islands in a sea of “barbaric”