Vitruvius

Vitruvius was a Roman architect and military engineer active in the 1st century BC. He is best known for writing *De architectura*, a multi-volume work that is the only surviving architectural treatise from ancient times. Since the Renaissance, this book has been considered the first work on architectural theory and a key source for classical architecture, though it is unclear how original or important his contemporaries thought it was.

According to Vitruvius, every building should possess three qualities: strength, utility, and beauty—principles that appear in much Ancient Roman architecture. His ideas about perfect proportion in architecture and the human body later inspired Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Renaissance drawing of the Vitruvian Man.

Little is known about Vitruvius’s life. He describes himself as having served as an artilleryman, the third class of arms in the Roman military, and likely rose to senior officer in charge of artillery experts and machine operators. As an army engineer, he specialized in building ballista and scorpio war machines for sieges. He may have served under Julius Caesar’s chief engineer, Lucius Cornelius Balbus.

*De architectura* was well known and widely copied during the Middle Ages, surviving in many manuscripts. It was “rediscovered” in 1414 by the Florentine humanist Poggio Bracciolini at the library of Saint Gall Abbey. Leon Battista Alberti later used it in his own influential architectural treatise. The first printed Latin edition appeared in Rome in 1486, followed by translations into Italian, French, English, German, Spanish, and other languages. Although the original illustrations are lost, the first illustrated edition was published in Venice in 1511, with woodcuts based on the text. Architects such as Bramante, Michelangelo, Palladio, and Vignola studied Vitruvius’s work, which significantly influenced architecture across Europe.

Most details about Vitruvius come from his own writing. His full name is sometimes given as Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, but both the first and last names are uncertain. An inscription in Verona names a Lucius Vitruvius Cordo, and one from North Africa names a Marcus Vitruvius Mamurra, leading to speculation that Vitruvius and Mamurra—a military prefect under Caesar—were related or even the same person, but this is not supported by *De architectura* or known facts about Mamurra.

Vitruvius was a military engineer (praefectus fabrum) or a praefect architectus armamentarius in the Roman civil service. Pliny the Elder mentions him in the table of contents for his *Natural History*, and Frontinus refers to “Vitruvius the architect” in his work on aqueducts. Likely born a free Roman citizen, Vitruvius says he served under Caesar alongside Marcus Aurelius, Publius Minidius, and Gnaeus Cornelius—names that vary in different editions. He specialized in building siege artillery, and his service locations can be inferred from his descriptions of foreign building methods, though he does not claim to have been present. He likely served in north Africa, Hispania, Gaul (including Aquitaine), and Pontus.

Vitruvius is the only source for the siege of Larignum in 56 BC. He also references sieges from the Gallic War, including Avaricum (52 BC), Gergovia (52 BC), Alesia (52 BC), and Uxellodunum (51 BC), as well as sites from Caesar’s civil war: Massilia (49 BC), Dyrrhachium (48 BC), Pharsalus (48 BC), Zela (47 BC), and Thapsus (46 BC). The Legio VI Ferrata, which had ballista as an auxiliary unit, matches these locations.

Though mainly known for his writings, Vitruvius was himself an architect. In Roman times, architecture covered a broader range than today, including construction management and engineering.