Not sure if I understand your question right, but no, it's not beneficial to keep city sizes low. The costs are not spread much - the building city, and sometimes a bit from nearby cities.

There seems to be a massive benefit to having a ship building yard not part of a city. Thus you do not ...

Apologies in advance, but any help welcome.
First game. Playing Carthage. Run into a couple issues. If there is documentation please just point me in the direction - thanks!

1) Carthage has slowly descended in population to 1. How is population maintained and what is the benefit of a large ...

Apologies in advance, but any help welcome.
First game. Playing Carthage. Run into a couple issues. If there is documentation please just point me in the direction - thanks!

1) Carthage has slowly descended in population to 1. How is population maintained and what is the benefit of a large ...