Actually you should know that the earliest cities had the fields protected by the city wall so there was not the great division between urban and rural which resulted from the cities' growth.
Barring times of famine providing a society with food is not the greatest problem it faces. Without the arsenal and leadership of the city the countryside was regularly looted by invaders. Without the technology and knowledge base of the city the agricultural regions are sinks of poverty and ignorance. Their productivity explodes only when that knowledge is applied to the farm without this it remains subsistence and poor.
Must've been a pretty big wall /sarcasm.
so there was not the great division between urban and rural which resulted from the cities' growth.
Actually, the first cities emerged as a place of market for nearby farmers to sell and trade their goods. They were dependent upon the agriculture, not the other way around.
Barring times of famine providing a society with food is not the greatest problem it faces.
Famines were commonplace in cities until the early 18th century and happened with far greater frequency than major wars, of which you'd get 2 or maybe 3 a century as opposed to a dozen or more famines.