Some Greek cities were
founded in early times, were rebuilt in the Macedonian period, and
again rebuilt in the Roman period. Without minute excavation it may be
impossible to assign the town-plan of such a place to its proper place
among these three periods.

We have, however, at Selinus in Sicily and Cyrene on the north coast
of Africa, two cases which may belong to the age of Hippodamus. They
are worth describing, since they illustrate both the difficulty of
reaching quite certain conclusions and also the system which probably
did obtain in the later fifth and the early fourth century.

_Selinus_ (fig. 3).

At Selinus the Italian archaeologists discovered some years ago, in
the so-called Acropolis, a town of irregular, rudely pear-shaped
outline with a distinct though not yet fully excavated town-plan. Two
main thoroughfares ran straight from end to end and crossed at right
angles (fig. 3), the longer of these thoroughfares being just a
quarter of a mile long and 30 ft. wide. From these two main streets
other narrower streets (12-18 ft. wide) ran off at right angles; the
result, though not chess-board pattern, is a rectangular town-plan.
Unfortunately, it cannot be dated. Selinus was founded in 648 B.C.,
was destroyed in 409, then reoccupied and rebuilt, and finally
destroyed for ever in 249. Its town-planning, therefore, might be as
early as the seventh century B.C. Or (and this is the most probable
conclusion) it may date from the days of Selinuntine prosperity just
before 409, when the city was growing and the great Temple of Zeus or
Apollo was rising on its eastern hill. Or again, though less probably,
it may have been introduced after 400. We may conclude that we have
here a clear case of town-planning and we may best refer it to the
later part of the fifth century.[19]

[Illustration: FIG. 3. PLAN OF SELINUS]

[19] Koldewey and Puchstein, _Die griech. Tempel in Unteritalien
und Sicilien_, p. 90, plan 29, from Cavallari; Hulot and
Fougeres, _Selinonte_, Paris, 1910, pp. 121, 168, 196. The latter
writers assign the rebuilding to Hermocrates, 408-407 B.C. But
our accounts of Hermocrates do not suggest that he rebuilt
anything at Selinus of any sort, except defences.

_Cyrene_ (fig. 4).

[Illustration: FIG. 4. PLAN OF CYRENE]

At Cyrene the researches of two English archaeologists about 1860
disclosed a town-plan based, like that of Selinus, on two main streets
which crossed at