See also: History of urban planning.
The Latin word Latin: insula (; : Latin: insulae) was used in Roman cities to mean either a city block in a city plan (i.e. a building area surrounded by four streets)[1] or later a type of apartment building that occupied such a city block specifically in Rome and nearby Ostia.[2] [3] The latter type of Insulae were known to be prone to fire and rife with disease.[4]
A standard Roman city plan[5] was based on a grid of orthogonal (laid out on right angles) streets.[6] It was founded on ancient Greek city models, described by Hippodamus. It was used especially when new cities were established, e.g. in Roman Latin: [[Colonia (Roman)|coloniae]].
The streets of each city were designated the decumani (east–west-oriented) and cardines (north–south). The principal streets, the decumanus maximus and cardo maximus, intersected at or close to the forum, around which the most important public buildings were sited.