Ten Books on Architecture

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5. Furthermore, there are advantages in building cribs apart from the
kitchen and in the open, facing the east; for when the oxen are taken
over to them on early winter mornings in clear weather, their coats get
sleeker as they take their fodder in the sunlight. Barns for grain, hay,
and spelt, as well as bakeries, should be built apart from the
farmhouse, so that farmhouses may be better protected against danger
from fire. If something more refined is required in farmhouses, they may
be constructed on the principles of symmetry which have been given above
in the case of town houses, provided that there is nothing in such
buildings to interfere with their usefulness on a farm.

6. We must take care that all buildings are well lighted, but this is
obviously an easier matter with those which are on country estates,
because there can be no neighbour's wall to interfere, whereas in town
high party walls or limited space obstruct the light and make them dark.
Hence we must apply the following test in this matter. On the side from
which the light should be obtained let a line be stretched from the top
of the wall that seems to obstruct the light to the point at which it
ought to be introduced, and if a considerable space of open sky can be
seen when one looks up above that line, there will be no obstruction to
the light in that situation.

7. But if there are timbers in the way, or lintels, or upper stories,
then, make the opening higher up and introduce the light in this way.
And as a general rule, we must arrange so as to leave places for windows
on all sides on which a clear view of the sky can be had, for this will
make our buildings light. Not only in dining rooms and other rooms for
general use are windows very necessary, but also in passages, level or
inclined, and on stairs; for people carrying burdens too often meet and
run against each other in such places.

I have now set forth the plans used for buildings in our native country
so that they may be clear to builders. Next, I shall describe summarily
how houses are planned in the Greek fashion, so that these also may be
understood.

CHAPTER VII

THE GREEK HOUSE

1. The Greeks, having no use for atriums, do not build them, but make
passage-ways for people entering from the front door, not very wide,
with stables on one side and doorkeepers' rooms on the other, and shut
off by doors at the inner end. This place between the two doors is
termed in Greek [Greek: thyroreion]. From it one enters the peristyle.
This peristyle has colonnades on three sides, and on the side facing the
south it has two antae, a considerable distance apart, carrying an
architrave, with a recess for a distance one third less than the space
between the antae. This space is called by some writers "prostas," by
others "pastas."

[Illustration: PLAN OF VITRUVIUS' GREEK HOUSE ACCORDING TO BECKER]

2. Hereabouts, towards the inner side, are the large rooms in which
mistresses of houses sit with their wool-spinners. To the right and left
of the prostas there are chambers, one of which is called the
"thalamos," the other the "amphithalamos." All round the colonnades are
dining rooms for everyday use, chambers, and rooms for the slaves. This
part of the house is termed "gynaeconitis."

3. In connexion with these there are ampler sets of apartments with more
sumptuous peristyles, surrounded by four colonnades of equal height, or
else the one which faces the south has higher columns than the others. A
peristyle that has one such higher colonnade is called a Rhodian
peristyle. Such apartments have fine entrance courts with imposing front
doors of their own; the colonnades of the peristyles are decorated with
polished stucco in relief and plain, and with coffered ceilings of
woodwork; off the colonnades that face the north they have Cyzicene
dining rooms and picture galleries; to the east, libraries; exedrae to
the west; and to the south, large square rooms of such generous
dimensions that four sets of dining couches can easily be arranged in
them, with plenty of room for serving and for the amusements.

4. Men's dinner parties are held in these large rooms; for it was not
the practice, according to Greek custom, for the mistress of the house
to be present. On the contrary, such peristyles are called the men's
apartments, since in them the men can stay without interruption from the
women. Furthermore, small sets of apartments are built to the right and
left, with front doors of their own and suitable dining rooms and
chambers, so that guests from abroad need not be shown into the
peristyles, but rather into such guests' apartments. For when the Greeks
became more luxurious, and their circumstances more opulent, they began
to provide dining rooms, chambers, and store-rooms of provisions for
their guests from abroad, and on the first day they would invite them to
dinner, sending them on the next chickens, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and
other country produce. This is why artists called pictures representing
the things which were sent to guests "xenia." Thus, too, the heads of
families, while being entertained abroad, had the feeling that they were
not away from home, since they enjoyed privacy and freedom in such
guests' apartments.

[Illustration: _From Bull. de. Corr. Hell. 1895_

GREEK HOUSE AT DELOS]

5. Between the two peristyles and the guests' apartments are the
passage-ways called "mesauloe," because they are situated midway between
two courts; but our people called them "andrones."

This, however, is a very strange fact, for the term does not fit either
the Greek or the Latin use of it. The Greeks call the large rooms in
which men's dinner parties are usually held [Greek: andrones], because
women do not go there. There are other similar instances as in the case
of "xystus," "prothyrum," "telamones," and some others of the sort. As a
Greek term, [Greek: xystos] means a colonnade of large dimensions in
which athletes exercise in the winter time. But our people apply the
term "xysta" to uncovered walks, which the Greeks call [Greek:
paradromides]. Again, [Greek: prothyra] means in Greek the entrance
courts before the front doors; we, however, use the term "prothyra" in
the sense of the Greek [Greek: diathyra].

[Illustration: _From Mitt. d. Deutsch. Arch. Inst_.

GREEK HOUSE DISCOVERED AT PERGAMUM IN 1903

13. Prothyron. 7. Tablinum.]

6. Again, figures in the form of men supporting mutules or coronae, we
term "telamones"--the reasons why or wherefore they are so called are
not found in any story--but the Greeks name them [Greek: atlantes]. For
Atlas is described in story as holding up the firmament because, through
his vigorous intelligence and ingenuity, he was the first to cause men
to be taught about the courses of the sun and moon, and the laws
governing the revolutions of all the constellations. Consequently, in
recognition of this benefaction, painters and sculptors represent him
as holding up the firmament, and the Atlantides, his daughters, whom we
call "Vergiliae" and the Greeks [Greek: Pleiades], are consecrated in
the firmament among the constellations.

7. All this, however, I have not set forth for the purpose of changing
the usual terminology or language, but I have thought that it should be
explained so that it may be known to scholars.

I have now explained the usual ways of planning houses both in the
Italian fashion and according to the practices of the Greeks, and have
described, with regard to their symmetry, the proportions of the
different classes. Having, therefore, already written of their beauty
and propriety, I shall next explain, with reference to durability, how
they may be built to last to a great age without defects.

CHAPTER VIII

ON FOUNDATIONS AND SUBSTRUCTURES

1. Houses which are set level with the ground will no doubt last to a
great age, if their foundations are laid in the manner which we have
explained in the earlier books, with regard to city walls and theatres.
But if underground rooms and vaults are intended, their foundations
ought to be thicker than the walls which are to be constructed in the
upper part of the house, and the walls, piers, and columns of the latter
should be set perpendicularly over the middle of the foundation walls
below, so that they may have solid bearing; for if the load of the walls
or columns rests on the middle of spans, they can have no permanent
durability.

2. It will also do no harm to insert posts between lintels and sills
where there are piers or antae; for where the lintels and beams have
received the load of the walls, they may sag in the middle, and
gradually undermine and destroy the walls. But when there are posts set
up underneath and wedged in there, they prevent the beams from settling
and injuring such walls.

3. We must also manage to discharge the load of the walls by means of
archings composed of voussoirs with joints radiating to the centre. For
when arches with voussoirs are sprung from the ends of beams, or from
the bearings of lintels, in the first place they will discharge the load
and the wood will not sag; secondly, if in course of time the wood
becomes at all defective, it can easily be replaced without the
construction of shoring.

4. Likewise in houses where piers are used in the construction, when
there are arches composed of voussoirs with joints radiating to the
centre, the outermost piers at these points must be made broader than
the others, so that they may have the strength to resist when the
wedges, under the pressure of the load of the walls, begin to press
along their joints towards the centre, and thus to thrust out the
abutments. Hence, if the piers at the ends are of large dimensions, they
will hold the voussoirs together, and make such works durable.

5. Having taken heed in these matters to see that proper attention is
paid to them, we must also be equally careful that all walls are
perfectly vertical, and that they do not lean forward anywhere.
Particular pains, too, must be taken with substructures, for here an
endless amount of harm is usually done by the earth used as filling.
This cannot always remain of the same weight that it usually has in
summer, but in winter time it increases in weight and bulk by taking up
a great deal of rain water, and then it bursts its enclosing walls and
thrusts them out.

6. The following means must be taken to provide against such a defect.
First, let the walls be given a thickness proportionate to the amount of
filling; secondly, build counterforts or buttresses at the same time as
the wall, on the outer side, at distances from each other equivalent to
what is to be the height of the substructure and with the thickness of
the substructure. At the bottom let them run out to a distance
corresponding to the thickness that has been determined for the
substructure, and then gradually diminish in extent so that at the
surface their projection is equal to the thickness of the wall of the
building.

[Illustration: RETAINING WALLS

(From the edition of Vitruvius by Fra Giocondo, Venice 1511)]

7. Furthermore, inside, to meet the mass of earth, there should be
saw-shaped constructions attached to the wall, the single teeth
extending from the wall for a distance equivalent to what is to be the
height of the substructure, and the teeth being constructed with the
same thickness as the wall. Then at the outermost angles take a distance
inwards, from the inside of the angle, equal to the height of the
substructure, and mark it off on each side; from these marks build up a
diagonal structure and from the middle of it a second, joined on to the
angle of the wall. With this arrangement, the teeth and diagonal
structures will not allow the filling to thrust with all its force
against the wall, but will check and distribute the pressure.

8. I have now shown how buildings can be constructed without defects,
and the way to take precautions against the occurrence of them. As for
replacing tiles, roof timbers, and rafters, we need not be so particular
about them as about the parts just mentioned, because they can easily be
replaced, however defective they may become. Hence, I have shown by what
methods the parts which are not considered solid can be rendered
durable, and how they are constructed.

9. As for the kind of material to be used, this does not depend upon the
architect, for the reason that all kinds of materials are not found in
all places alike, as has been shown in the first book. Besides, it
depends on the owner whether he desires to build in brick, or rubble
work, or dimension stone. Consequently the question of approving any
work may be considered under three heads: that is, delicacy of
workmanship, sumptuousness, and design. When it appears that a work has
been carried out sumptuously, the owner will be the person to be praised
for the great outlay which he has authorized; when delicately, the
master workman will be approved for his execution; but when proportions
and symmetry lend it an imposing effect, then the glory of it will
belong to the architect.

10. Such results, however, may very well be brought about when he allows
himself to take the advice both of workmen and of laymen. In fact, all
kinds of men, and not merely architects, can recognize a good piece of
work, but between laymen and the latter there is this difference, that
the layman cannot tell what it is to be like without seeing it finished,
whereas the architect, as soon as he has formed the conception, and
before he begins the work, has a definite idea of the beauty, the
convenience, and the propriety that will distinguish it.

I have now described as clearly as I could what I thought necessary for
private houses, and how to build them. In the following book I shall
treat of the kinds of polished finish employed to make them elegant, and
durable without defects to a great age.

BOOK VII

INTRODUCTION

1. It was a wise and useful provision of the ancients to transmit their
thoughts to posterity by recording them in treatises, so that they
should not be lost, but, being developed in succeeding generations
through publication in books, should gradually attain in later times, to
the highest refinement of learning. And so the ancients deserve no
ordinary, but unending thanks, because they did not pass on in envious
silence, but took care that their ideas of every kind should be
transmitted to the future in their writings.

2. If they had not done so, we could not have known what deeds were done
in Troy, nor what Thales, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Xenophanes, and the
other physicists thought about nature, and what rules Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, and other philosophers laid down for the
conduct of human life; nor would the deeds and motives of Croesus,
Alexander, Darius, and other kings have been known, unless the ancients
had compiled treatises, and published them in commentaries to be had in
universal remembrance with posterity.

3. So, while they deserve our thanks, those, on the contrary, deserve
our reproaches, who steal the writings of such men and publish them as
their own; and those also, who depend in their writings, not on their
own ideas, but who enviously do wrong to the works of others and boast
of it, deserve not merely to be blamed, but to be sentenced to actual
punishment for their wicked course of life. With the ancients, however,
it is said that such things did not pass without pretty strict
chastisement. What the results of their judgments were, it may not be
out of place to set forth as they are transmitted to us.

4. The kings of the house of Attalus having established, under the
influence of the great charms of literature, an excellent library at
Pergamus to give pleasure to the public, Ptolemy also was aroused with
no end of enthusiasm and emulation into exertions to make a similar
provision with no less diligence at Alexandria. Having done so with the
greatest care, he felt that this was not enough without providing for
its increase and development, for which he sowed the seed. He
established public contests in honour of the Muses and Apollo, and
appointed prizes and honours for victorious authors in general, as is
done in the case of athletes.

5. These arrangements having been made, and the contests being at hand,
it became necessary to select literary men as judges to decide them. The
king soon selected six of the citizens, but could not so easily find a
proper person to be the seventh. He therefore turned to those who
presided over the library, and asked whether they knew anybody who was
suitable for the purpose. Then they told him that there was one
Aristophanes who was daily engaged in reading through all the books with
the greatest enthusiasm and the greatest care. Hence, when the gathering
for the contests took place, and separate seats were set apart for the
judges, Aristophanes was summoned with the rest, and sat down in the
place assigned to him.

6. A group of poets was first brought in to contend, and, as they
recited their compositions, the whole audience by its applause showed
the judges what it approved. So, when they were individually asked for
their votes, the six agreed, and awarded the first prize to the poet
who, as they observed, had most pleased the multitude, and the second to
the one who came next. But Aristophanes, on being asked for his vote,
urged that the poet who had least pleased the audience should be
declared to be the first.

7. As the king and the entire assembly showed great indignation, he
arose, and asked and received permission to speak. Silence being
obtained, he stated that only one of them--his man--was a poet, and that
the rest had recited things not their own; furthermore, that judges
ought to give their approval, not to thefts, but to original
compositions. The people were amazed, and the king hesitated, but
Aristophanes, trusting to his memory, had a vast number of volumes
brought out from bookcases which he specified, and, by comparing them
with what had been recited, obliged the thieves themselves to make
confession. So, the king gave orders that they should be accused of
theft, and after condemnation sent them off in disgrace; but he honoured
Aristophanes with the most generous gifts, and put him in charge of the
library.

8. Some years later, Zoilus, who took the surname of Homeromastix, came
from Macedonia to Alexandria and read to the king his writings directed
against the Iliad and Odyssey. Ptolemy, seeing the father of poets and
captain of all literature abused in his absence, and his works, to which
all the world looked up in admiration, disparaged by this person, made
no rejoinder, although he thought it an outrage. Zoilus, however, after
remaining in the kingdom some time, sank into poverty, and sent a
message to the king, requesting that something might be bestowed upon
him.

9. But it is said that the king replied, that Homer, though dead a
thousand years ago, had all that time been the means of livelihood for
many thousands of men; similarly, a person who laid claim to higher
genius ought to be able to support not one man only, but many others.
And in short, various stories are told about his death, which was like
that of one found guilty of parricide. Some writers have said that he
was crucified by Philadelphus; others that he was stoned at Chios;
others again that he was thrown alive upon a funeral pyre at Smyrna.
Whichever of these forms of death befell him, it was a fitting
punishment and his just due; for one who accuses men that cannot answer
and show, face to face, what was the meaning of their writings,
obviously deserves no other treatment.

10. But for my part, Caesar, I am not bringing forward the present
treatise after changing the titles of other men's books and inserting my
own name, nor has it been my plan to win approbation by finding fault
with the ideas of another. On the contrary, I express unlimited thanks
to all the authors that have in the past, by compiling from antiquity
remarkable instances of the skill shown by genius, provided us with
abundant materials of different kinds. Drawing from them as it were
water from springs, and converting them to our own purposes, we find our
powers of writing rendered more fluent and easy, and, relying upon such
authorities, we venture to produce new systems of instruction.

11. Hence, as I saw that such beginnings on their part formed an
introduction suited to the nature of my own purpose, I set out to draw
from them, and to go somewhat further.

In the first place Agatharcus, in Athens, when Aeschylus was bringing
out a tragedy, painted a scene, and left a commentary about it. This led
Democritus and Anaxagoras to write on the same subject, showing how,
given a centre in a definite place, the lines should naturally
correspond with due regard to the point of sight and the divergence of
the visual rays, so that by this deception a faithful representation of
the appearance of buildings might be given in painted scenery, and so
that, though all is drawn on a vertical flat facade, some parts may seem
to be withdrawing into the background, and others to be standing out in
front.

12. Afterwards Silenus published a book on the proportions of Doric
structures; Theodorus, on the Doric temple of Juno which is in Samos;
Chersiphron and Metagenes, on the Ionic temple at Ephesus which is
Diana's; Pytheos, on the Ionic fane of Minerva which is at Priene;
Ictinus and Carpion, on the Doric temple of Minerva which is on the
acropolis of Athens; Theodorus the Phocian, on the Round Building which
is at Delphi; Philo, on the proportions of temples, and on the naval
arsenal which was[9] at the port of Peiraeus; Hermogenes, on the Ionic
temple of Diana which is at Magnesia, a pseudodipteral, and on that of
Father Bacchus at Teos, a monopteral; Arcesius, on the Corinthian
proportions, and on the Ionic temple of Aesculapius at Tralles, which it
is said that he built with his own hands; on the Mausoleum, Satyrus and
Pytheos who were favoured with the greatest and highest good fortune.

[Note 9: Codd. _fuerat_.]

13. For men whose artistic talents are believed to have won them the
highest renown for all time, and laurels forever green, devised and
executed works of supreme excellence in this building. The decoration
and perfection of the different facades were undertaken by different
artists in emulation with each other: Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas,
Praxiteles, and, as some think, Timotheus; and the distinguished
excellence of their art made that building famous among the seven
wonders of the world.

14. Then, too, many less celebrated men have written treatises on the
laws of symmetry, such as Nexaris, Theocydes, Demophilus, Pollis,
Leonidas, Silanion, Melampus, Sarnacus, and Euphranor; others again on
machinery, such as Diades, Archytas, Archimedes, Ctesibius, Nymphodorus,
Philo of Byzantium, Diphilus, Democles, Charias, Polyidus, Pyrrus, and
Agesistratus. From their commentaries I have gathered what I saw was
useful for the present subject, and formed it into one complete
treatise, and this principally, because I saw that many books in this
field had been published by the Greeks, but very few indeed by our
countrymen. Fuficius, in fact, was the first to undertake to publish a
book on this subject. Terentius Varro, also, in his work "On the Nine
Sciences" has one book on architecture, and Publius Septimius, two.

15. But to this day nobody else seems to have bent his energies to this
branch of literature, although there have been, even among our
fellow-citizens in old times, great architects who could also have
written with elegance. For instance, in Athens, the architects
Antistates, Callaeschrus, Antimachides, and Pormus laid the foundations
when Peisistratus began the temple of Olympian Jove, but after his death
they abandoned the undertaking, on account of political troubles. Hence
it was that when, about four hundred years later, King Antiochus
promised to pay the expenses of that work, the huge cella, the
surrounding columns in dipteral arrangement, and the architraves and
other ornaments, adjusted according to the laws of symmetry, were nobly
constructed with great skill and supreme knowledge by Cossutius, a
citizen of Rome. Moreover, this work has a name for its grandeur, not
only in general, but also among the select few.

16. There are, in fact, four places possessing temples embellished with
workmanship in marble that causes them to be mentioned in a class by
themselves with the highest renown. To their great excellence and the
wisdom of their conception they owe their place of esteem in the
ceremonial worship of the gods. First there is the temple of Diana at
Ephesus, in the Ionic style, undertaken by Chersiphron of Gnosus and his
son Metagenes, and said to have been finished later by Demetrius, who
was himself a slave of Diana, and by Paeonius the Milesian. At Miletus,
the temple of Apollo, also Ionic in its proportions, was the undertaking
of the same Paeonius and of the Ephesian Daphnis. At Eleusis, the cella
of Ceres and Proserpine, of vast size, was completed to the roof by
Ictinus in the Doric style, but without exterior columns and with plenty
of room for the customary sacrifices.

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