It curled as fancy dictated, wandered along the foot or the scarp of a range of hills, followed the ridge of winding downs, and only by chance stumbled briefly into straightness.

Whenever ancient remains show a long straight line or several correctly drawn right angles, we may be sure that they date from a civilized age.
In general, ancient town-planning used not merely the straight line and the right angle but the two together.

It tried very few experiments involving other angles.

Once or twice, as at Rhodes (pp.
31, 81), we hear of streets radiating fan-fashion from a common centre, like the gangways of an ancient theatre or the thoroughfares of modern Karlsruhe, or that Palma Nuova, founded by Venice in 1593 to defend its north-eastern boundaries, which was shaped almost like a starfish.

But, as a rule, the streets ran parallel or at right angles to each other and the blocks of houses which they enclosed were either square or oblong.
Much variety is noticeable, however, in details.