In some towns full provision was made for these; ample streets with stately vistas led up to them, and open spaces were left from which they could be seen with advantage.

In others there were neither vistas nor open spaces nor even splendid buildings.
A measure of historical continuity can be traced in the occurrence of these variations.

The towns of the earlier Greeks were stately enough in their public buildings and principal thoroughfares, but they revealed a half-barbaric spirit in their mean side-streets and unlovely dwellings.

In the middle of the fifth century men rose above this ideal.

They began to recognize private houses and to attempt an adequate grouping of their cities as units capable of a single plan.
But they did not carry this conception very far.