Strabo, was laid out by 'the architect of the Piraeus'; according to
others, it was built round its harbour like the seats of an ancient
theatre round the orchestra, that is, fan-fashion like Karlsruhe.
However, this case is doubtful. Rhodes was laid out in 408 B.C.,
thirty-five years after the planting of Thurii and seventy years after
the approximate date of the birth of Hippodamus. It is conceivable but
not altogether probable that Hippodamus was still planning towns in
his extreme old age, nor is it, on political grounds, very likely that
he would be planning in Rhodes. As, however, we do not know the real
date of his birth, and as Strabo does not specifically mention his
name, certainty is unattainable.[18]

[18] On Hippodamus see K.F. Hermann, _de Hippodamo Milesio_
(Marburg, 1841) and Erdmann, _Philologus_ xlii. 193-227, and
_Programm Protestant. Gymnasium zu Strassburg_, 1883. As will be
seen, I do not accept all Erdmann's conclusions. For the Piraeus
see Aristotle, _Politics_, II. 8 = p. 1267 and IV. 11 = p. 1330.
For Thurii see Diodorus XII. 10. For Rhodes see Strabo 654 = XIV.
ii. 9: E. Meyer, _Gesch. des Alt._ iv. pp. 60, 199 rejects the
tale. For plans of the Piraeus see Wachsmuth, _Stadt Athen im
Alterthum_, ii. 134, and Curtius and Kaupert, _Karten von Attika_
(1881), plan II_a_ by Milchhoefer. Foucart has adduced epigraphic
reasons for dating the work of Hippodamus here to 480-470 B.C.
(_Journal des Savants_, 1907, pp. 178-82); they are not
conclusive, but, if he be right, the difficulty of assigning the
Piraeus and Rhodes to the same architect becomes even greater.
The town-plan of Piraeus given by Gustav Hirschfeld (_Berichte
der sachs. Ges. der Wissenschaften_, 1878, xxx. I) is not
convincing, nor do I feel very sure even about Milchhoefer's
results.

If we cannot tell exactly how Hippodamus planned cities or exactly
which he planned, still less do we know how far town-planning on his
or on any theory came into general use in his lifetime or indeed
before the middle of the fourth century. Few Greek cities have been
systematically uncovered, even in part. Fewer still have revealed
street-planning which can be dated previous to that time. It does not
follow, when we find streets in the ruins of an ancient city, that
they must belong to its earliest period. That is not true of towns in
any age, modern or mediaeval, Roman or Greek.