In the Aeneid Virgil very much seems to view "the city" as a double-edged word. He obviously sees the city as necessary to the people, he didn't recommend that Dido and Aeneas run off and live pastorally ever after on a farm, but he equates country with peace and city with danger.
The city is very powerful, especially when you are there to live and not to run the country or study, strictly. Studying in Rome would be much harder for me if I hadn't lived in the city growing up. The city brings you right to human nature. To get along in Rome, you are forced to really brush against people, to shove and make eye contact and a syllable of some sort. You'll never get on a tram if you shuffle meekly with your eyes down. You have to bustle on, and when you're standing there and the tram lurches forward, you're going to stumble. It's the crowd that catches you and lifts you back up.
I see so much more danger in the country, where you do not have that close-proximity network of neighbors. I don't know how people survive on farms.
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