Some preindustrial cities set aside dedicated spaces for specific activities

Evidence

Yet it is also the case that some preindustrial cities-especially if their elites were wealthy, “civic-minded,” or desirous of propitiating as well as coercing the masses-did manage to set aside certain public spaces for certain public activities in what we would consider a very modern manner. Rome is the primary example, with its Coliseum, its Circus Maximus, its theaters, its baths. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 276