A game rule prevents so-called barbarian factions from developing cities beyond a fixed size. The criticism rejects the idea that smaller settlements prove their inhabitants lacked the ability to build larger ones. Urban scale depended on sustaining food, fuel, and water supplies and on separating waste from fresh water. Roman control often coincided with larger cities such as Londinium because infrastructure and political control enabled that growth, rather than because earlier peoples lacked all sanitation or organizational knowledge.
Notable Point · 56:33-58:14
Food, fuel, water, and waste set ancient city limits
A criticism of settlement caps becomes an explanation of how supply and sanitation, rather than intellectual capacity, governed urban growth.