On independent cities:
I just had the opportunity to look at the updated map for the first time, and I'm kind of shocked.
Just a reminder of basic principles:
-A city which is founded or in place on turn 1 will continue to grow for the entire game. It will also continue to accumulate culture for the entire game, or at least when it begins to accumulate culture. For a city like Athens or Rome or Alexandria, this is entirely appropriate. For a city like Kharkov or Ajacco, it is not.
-Keep in mind that it is possible to have independent cities spawn at various concrete dates. If it is essential that a civ flip a given city upon its spawn, have it show up a turn or two before then. In some cases, it may be advisable to have cities in place for longer periods of time, but we're likely to screw up the balance of things if we have many strong independents in place before any of the civs show up.
-Somehow, after worrying that the Byzantines had too many cities and were too powerful, we added more Byzantine cities. We should probably remove Rhodes as discussed and eliminate the town furthest NW.
-In some cases, spacing will be more important than absolute geographic accuracy. Some corrections to the Italian map have already been suggested; I'd suggest some major changes to the French map too. The city currently labeled Caen is on the wrong side of Paris - it's closer to Cherbourg. The actual Caen is in Normandy, W-NW of Paris. Toulouse should be moved two tiles east, and Nantes isn't coastal (although it might be better to keep it that way in order to represent the city's river port history and to keep the city from being considerably less useful).
-Freiburg isn't old enough to be in the initial spawn. I vote for Mainz, Worms, or Trier, all of which are older and more important.
I'll post a map tomorrow with resources updated, and possibly with independent city flags with dates.