a 'Greek city', and Greek was still used for
official inscriptions there in the third century.

[85] Beloch, _Campanien_ (Berlin, 1879), p. 26; Capasso, _Napoli
Greco-Romana_ (Napoli, 1905). The Forum, Market, and some other
buildings marked by Capasso seem to me (and even to him or his
editors) very dubious (p. 63). Two theatres (p. 82) and a Temple
of the Dioscuri are better established. For plans see _Piante
topogr. dei quartieri di Napoli_ 1861-5 (1:3,888) and _Pianta
della citta di N._ (Off. della Guerra, 1865), from which latter
fig. 20 is adapted.

[Illustration: FIG. 20. NAPLES. ADAPTED FROM A PLAN OF 1865.
(TH = Theatre, T = Temple.)]

This Neapolis town had, as certain existing streets declare, a
peculiar form of town-planning. The area covered by these streets is
an irregular space of 250 acres in the heart of the modern city, about
850 yds. from north to south and 1,000 yds. from east to west.[86] In
Roman days three straight streets ran parallel from east to west and a
large number of smaller streets, twenty or so, ran at right angles to
them from north to south. The house-blocks enclosed by these streets
were all of similar size and shape, a thin oblong of 35 x 180 metres
(39 x 198 yds.). Some of the public buildings naturally trespassed on
to more than one 'insula'; a theatre appears indeed to have stretched
over parts of three. In general, the oblongs seem to have been laid
out with great regularity and the angles are right angles, though the
'insulae' in the northern and southern rows of house-blocks cannot
have been fully rectangular and symmetrical.

[86] The limits are the Castel Capuano on the east, the Strada
dell' Orticello on the north, the church of S. Pietro a Majella
on the west, and on the south the churches of S. Marcellino and
S. Severino.

This town-plan of Naples differs from any of those noted above. Its
blocks are narrower than those in any Italian town, unless in Modena,
and while they resemble the 'insulae' of the sixth region of Pompeii
(fig. 13), are far more regular than those. Almost the only close
parallel is that of Roman Carthage (fig. 24). As Naples was by origin
and character a Greek city, these narrow oblongs have been supposed to
represent a Greek arrangement. They do not, however, correspond to
anything that is known in the Greek lands, either of the Macedonian or
of any earlier period. The conclusion is difficult to a