eral ground that 'in
una citta, una volta tracciate le strade e disposte le arterie
dicommunicazione, non e facile cambiarne la disposizione
generale'. I attach less weight than he does to this reason.
Soluntum was in the main and by origin a Phoenician town, with a
Greek colouring; in 307 B.C. it was refounded for the discharged
soldiers of Agathocles; later still, in Roman times, it had the
rank of 'municipium'; most of its ruins are generally considered
to be of Roman date and small objects found in it are also mostly
Roman, and its street-plan may also be Roman. As the 'Bullettino'
is somewhat rare, I add a reduced plan (fig. 5).

[Illustration: FIG. 5. SOLUNTUM]

It was probably, however, in the first half of the fourth century that
the Greek cities began to pass by-laws relating to the police, the
scavenging and the general public order of their markets and streets,
and to establish Agoranomi to control the markets and Astynomi to
control the streets. These officials first appear in inscriptions
after 350, but are mentioned in literature somewhat earlier. An
account of the Athenian constitution, ascribed formerly to Xenophon
and written (as is now generally agreed) about 430-424 B.C., mentions
briefly the prosecution of those who built on to the public land, that
is (apparently), who encroached upon the streets. But it is silent as
to specific officers, Astynomi or other. Plato, however, in his
'Laws', which must date a little earlier than his death in 347,
alludes on several occasions to such officers. They were to look after
the private houses 'in order that they may all be built according to
laws', and to police and clean the roads and water-channels, both
inside and outside of the city. A prohibition of balconies leaning
over the public streets, and of verandas projecting into them, is also
mentioned in two or three writers of the fourth century and is said to
go back to a much earlier date, though its antiquity was probably
exaggerated.[22]

[22] Plato, _Laws_ 763 c, 779 c, &c.; Aristotle, _Ath. Pol._ 50;
Arist., _Oec._ ii. 5, p. 134; Xenophon, _Ath. Pol._ iii. 4;
Schol. to Aeschines, iii. 24. The fact that the word 'Astynomos'
occurs in Aeschylus does not justify the writer of an article in
Pauly-Wissowa (_Real-Encycl._ ii. 1870) in stating that
magistrates of this title were already at work in the earlier
part of the fifth century; the