But in a few cases, as at Naples among the more ancient, and at Carthage among the later foundations, they are oblong and the oblongs are very long and narrow.
It is hard to detect any principle underlying the use of these various forms.

No doubt differences of historical origin are ultimately the causes of the mixture.

But our present knowledge does not reveal these origins.

The evidence is, indeed, contradictory at every point.

If the Graeco-Macedonian fashion be quoted as precedent for square or squarish 'insulae', the Terremare show the same.