ROME: VITRUVIUS 31 



was not a Plato or an Archimedes, but an efficient 

 officer of State, conscious of indebtedness to the 

 great scientists and philosophers. With a just sense 

 of his limitations he undertook to write, not as a lit- 

 erary man, but as an architect. His education had 

 been mainly professional, but, the whole circle of 

 learning being one harmonious system, he had been 

 drawn to many branches of knowledge in so far as 

 they were related to his calling. 



In the judgment of Vitruvius an architect should 

 be a good writer, able to give a lucid explanation of 

 his plans, a skillful draftsman, versed in geometry 

 and optics, expert at figures, acquainted with history, 

 informed in the principles of physics and of ethics, 

 knowing something of music (tones and acoustics), 

 not ignorant of law, or of hygiene, or of the mo- 

 tions, laws, and relations to each other of the heav- 

 enly bodies. For, since architecture " is founded upon 

 and adorned with so many different sciences, I am 

 of opinion that those who have not, from their early 

 youth, gradually climbed up to the summit, cannot 

 without presumption, call themselves masters of it." 



Vitruvius was far from sharing the view of Archi- 

 medes that art which was connected with the satis- 

 faction of daily needs was necessarily ignoble and 

 vulgar. On the contrary, his interest centered in the 

 practical ; and he was mainly concerned with scien- 

 tific theory by reason of its application in the arts. 

 Geometry helped him plan a staircase ; a knowledge 

 of tones was necessary in discharging catapults ; law 

 dealt with boundary-lines, sewage-disposal, and con- 

 tracts ; hygiene enabled the architect to show a Hip- 

 pocratic wisdom in the choice of building-sites with 



