VITRUVIUS.
Vitruvius Pollio (the cognomen appears only in the abridgment of his book) served under Caesar in Africa B.C. 46; viii. 3, 25, ‘C. Iulius Masinissae filius ... cum patre Caesari militavit. Is hospitio meo est usus. Ita cottidiano convictu necesse fuerat de philologia disputare ...’
Under Augustus he was an officer of engineers, and was enabled to spend the rest of his life in comfort through the liberality of that prince and his sister Octavia: i. praef. 2, ‘Cum M. Aurelio et P. Minidio et Cn. Cornelio ad apparationem ballistarum et scorpionum reliquorumque tormentorum refectionem fui praesto et cum eis commoda accepi. Quae cum primo mihi tribuisti, recognitionem per sororis commendationem servasti. Cum ergo eo beneficio essem obligatus, ut ad exitum vitae non haberem inopiae timorem ...’
He wrote the treatise De Architectura, in ten Books, when he was no longer young (ii. praef. 4, ‘faciem deformavit aetas’), between the years B.C. 16 and 13. The temple of Quirinus, mentioned iii. 2, 7, was built in the former year; and he speaks of only one stone theatre in Rome (iii. 2, 2), whereas in B.C. 13 there were three.
The arrangement of the subject-matter is as follows: Book i., sciences on which architecture is based, chief divisions of the subject, choice of site, and method of laying out a town; ii., building materials; iii., temples—Ionic order; iv., Doric and Corinthian orders; v., public buildings, e.g., forum, theatre; vi., private houses—construction; vii., decoration; viii., water-supply; ix., methods of measuring time, e.g., sun-dials; x., engines and machines used in war and in the arts.
The work is dedicated to Augustus, who is addressed throughout, and is meant to be of practical use to him in his building operations.
The body of the work is severely technical; the introductions to the Books are in a more ambitious style. Vitruvius writes as a professional man, not as a scholar: i. 1, 17, ‘Non uti summus philosophus nec rhetor disertus nec grammaticus summis rationibus artis exercitatus, sed ut architectus his litteris imbutus haec nisus sum scribere.’ He freely confesses his obligations to Greek authors, whom he enumerates vii. praef. 10-14. Diagrams were appended to the text: i. 6, 12, ‘Quoniam haec a nobis sunt breviter exposita, ut facilius intellegantur visum est mihi in extremo volumine formas, sive uti Graeci σχήματα dicunt duo explicare.’