The philosopher Aristippus the Socratic, having been shipwrecked and cast upon the Rhodian shore, when he noticed geometrical figures drawn there, is said to have exclaimed to his companions, 'Let us hope well, for I see the tracks of men.' He at once hastened into the town of Rhodes and went straight to the gymnasium, and there, disputing of philosophy, he was presented with gifts, so that he not only adorned himself but also provided for those who had been with him clothing and the other things needed for maintenance. But when his companions wished to return to their country, and asked him what he wished reported home, then he commanded them to say this: that such possessions and provisions ought to be prepared for their children as might swim out with them even from a shipwreck. §1
For these are the true defenses of life, which neither the unjust storm of fortune, nor changes of public affairs, nor the devastation of war can harm. No less does Theophrastus, amplifying this opinion, exhorting that men be learned rather than trustful in money, so set it: the learned man alone, of all, is neither a stranger in foreign places, nor, when his household and kindred are lost, in want of friends; but in every city he is a citizen, and can, without fear, despise the difficult chances of fortune; whereas he who thinks himself fortified not by the defenses of learning but by those of fortune is fighting with an unstable life, walking on slippery paths. §2
Epicurus, not unlike, says that fortune grants to the wise few things; but those which are most and necessary are governed by the thoughts of soul and mind. Many philosophers have said these things likewise. No less did the poets who wrote the ancient comedies in Greek pronounce the same sentences in verses on the stage, as Eucrates, Chionides, Aristophanes, and especially with them Alexis, who says that the Athenians ought for this reason to be praised: that the laws of all Greeks compel children to support their parents, but those of the Athenians do not compel all, but only those whose parents have educated them in the arts. For all the gifts of fortune, when they are given by her, are easily taken away; but the disciplines joined with the mind never fail, but abide steadfastly to the ending of life. §3
Therefore I give and hold the greatest and unbounded thanks to my parents, that, approving the law of the Athenians, they caused me to be brought up in an art, and that very art which cannot be approved without literature and a training in the encyclic disciplines. Since therefore by the care of my parents and by the teachings of masters I had had supplies of the disciplines augmented, delighting myself in things philological and philotechnic and in the writings of commentaries, I have prepared these possessions for my mind, from which this is the crown of fruits: that there be no necessities of possessing more, and that the chief property of wealth be, to desire nothing. But perhaps some, judging these things light, think those are wise who are abundant in money. So many, striving for that end with applied boldness, have attained along with riches also a reputation. §4
I, however, Caesar, gave my study from the art not to the winning of money, but rather approved the course of preferring slenderness with good fame to abundance with infamy. So reputation has pursued me less. But yet, with these volumes issued, I shall, as I hope, become known also to posterity. Nor is it to be wondered at why I am unknown to so many. The other architects ask and canvass to be made architects; to me, however, it was handed down by my teachers that one ought to undertake care when asked, not when asking, because a noble color is moved by shame when one asks for a suspicious thing. For those who give benefits are courted, not those who receive them. What then do we think one must suspect, who, being asked to spend outlays from his estate to oblige the petitioner, would not judge it to be done for the sake of that man's profit and gain? §5
Therefore our forebears used to hand over the work first to architects approved by birth; then they inquired whether they had been honorably brought up, judging that so great a matter was to be entrusted to noble shame, not to the effrontery of audacity. And the craftsmen themselves did not train any save their own children or their kinsmen, and instructed them as good men, to whom the trust of so great matters could without doubt be committed. But when I observe the magnitude of so great a discipline flaunted by the unlearned and the inexperienced, and by those who have not even a knowledge not only of architecture but of carpentry at all, I cannot help but praise those fathers of households who, confirmed by confidence in literature, build for themselves, and judge that, if they must trust to the unskilled, they themselves are more worthy to spend the sum of money in fulfilling their own will rather than another's. §6
So no one attempts any other art at home, such as shoemaking or the fuller's or others that are easier, except architecture; because those who profess it are called architects not by true art but by false name. For which reason I have thought fit to write out most diligently the body of architecture and its reasonings, thinking this service would not be unwelcome to all peoples. Since therefore in the fifth I have written of the convenience of public works, in this volume I shall unfold the reasonings and commensurate symmetries of private buildings. §7
These will be rightly disposed if first it be observed in what quarters or inclinations of the world they are established. For one way in Egypt, otherwise in Spain, not in the same manner in Pontus, differently at Rome, and likewise in the other properties of lands and regions, it seems that the kinds of buildings ought to be established; because in one part the earth is pressed by the sun's course, in another stands far from it, in another through the middle is tempered. Therefore as the constitution of the world, by the inclination of the zodiac and the sun's course, has been naturally placed with unequal qualities over the space of the earth, so also the placings of buildings seem necessary to be directed according to the reasons of regions and the varieties of the sky. §8
Under the north, buildings seem ought to be roofed and chiefly shut in, and not open, but turned to the warm quarters. On the contrary, under the onset of the sun in southern regions, because they are pressed by the heat, they are to be made more open and turned towards the north and northeast. Thus what nature wounds by excess, shall be emended by art. Likewise in the other regions, in the same way ought to be tempered, as the sky is placed to the inclination of the world. §9
These things are to be noted and considered from the nature of things, and also to be observed from the members and bodies of peoples. For in places where the sun moderately pours out its vapors, it preserves bodies tempered; but where, running near, it burns, it takes away by burning the temper of moisture. Conversely, in the cooled regions, because they are far from the south, moisture is not drawn out by heats, but dewy air from the sky, pouring into bodies moisture, makes ampler bodily frames and graver voices of sound. For this reason too the nations nourished under the north are formed of vast bodies, fair colors, straight and red hair, gray eyes, and abundant blood from the fullness of moisture and the coolings of the sky. §10
But those who are nearest the southern axis and subject to the course of the sun are perfected of smaller bodies, of dusky color, curled hair, dark eyes, slender legs, and scanty blood, by the onset of the sun. So they, through the scantiness of their blood, are more timid to resist steel, but bear heats and fevers without fear, because their members have been nurtured with warmth. Bodies that are born under the north are more timid of fever and weak, but, by abundance of blood, resist steel without fear. §11
No less the voice of sound has, in the kinds of peoples, unlike and various qualities. Because the limits of east and west, about the earth's level (by which the upper and lower part of the world is divided), seems to have a natural leveled course, which the mathematicians call ὁρίζοντα (horizon). Therefore, when we hold this to be certain, taking from the point which is in the northern region, a line drawn to that which is above the southern axis, and thence another oblique, into the height, to the topmost pole which is behind the stars of the north, without doubt we shall observe that thence arises the figure of a triangle for the world, like the instrument which the Greeks call σαμβύκην. §12
Therefore the space which is nearest the lowest pole from the axis-line on the southern bounds, under which place the nations are, on account of the shortness of their height to the world, make in their voice a thin and most acute sound, as in the instrument the string which is next to the angle. Following it, the others, to the middle of Greece, produce slacker gradations of sounds in the nations; likewise, increasing in sequence from the middle to the farthest north, under heights of sky, the nations' breaths are wrought by the nature of things with graver sounds. Thus the whole conception of the world, on account of its inclination, seems most consonantly composed through the sun's tempering into harmony. §13
Therefore the nations which are placed in the middle between the poles of the southern and northern axis have, as in the musical diagram, in their speech the sound of the middle notes; and those nations advancing toward the north, because their distances to the world are loftier, having the breaths of their voice driven back by moisture toward the hypatai and the proslambanomenos, are compelled by the nature of things to use a graver sound. By the same reasoning, peoples advancing from the middle toward the south produce the thinnest sounds of voice of the paranetai and the netai. §14
That this is true, that from moist natural places heavier sounds are made, and from fervid, sharper, one may so see by trial. Take two cups baked in one furnace, of equal weight, and to the clash of one sound let them be struck. Of these let one be plunged into water, then taken out, then both struck. For when this is done, the sound between them will differ largely, and they will not be able to have equal weight. So too men's bodies, conceived in one kind of shaping and one conjunction of the world, yield some, on account of the burning of the region, a sharp blast of air on being struck; others, on account of the abundance of moisture, pour forth the heaviest qualities of sound. §15
Likewise, on account of the thinness of the sky, the southern nations, with their keen minds by fervor, are more easily and swiftly moved to the reflections of counsels. The northern nations, suffused with the thickness of the sky, because of the obstruction of moist air, have stunned minds cooled down. This one may see from snakes too, which in the heat, when they have the coolness of moisture drawn out, are most keenly moved; but through wintry and frosty times, cooled by the change of sky, they are motionless in stupor. So it is not to be marveled at if warm air makes men's minds sharper, and cooled air, on the contrary, slower. §16
Since therefore the southern nations are of most acute minds and infinite dexterity of counsel, yet as soon as they come to valor there they fall, because they have the virtues of their spirits drawn out by the sun; but those who are born in cooled regions are readier, by their great virtues, for the vehemence of arms, without fear, yet by the slowness of mind, rushing on without consideration, fail themselves without dexterity in their own counsels. Since therefore these things are so placed in the world by the nature of things, and all nations are distributed by immoderate mixtures, truly in the space of the whole orb of earth and regions, the Roman people possesses its boundaries in the middle. §17
For the peoples most temperately tempered to both sides are in Italy, both in the members of their bodies and in the vigors of their minds, to valor. For as the star of Jupiter, running in the middle between the most fiery Mars and the coldest Saturn, is tempered, by the same reasoning Italy, placed between the northern and the southern, from both mixtures is made temperate, and has unconquered praises. And so by counsel it breaks the strength of the barbarians, by a strong hand the reflections of the southerners. Thus the divine mind has placed the state of the Roman people in an outstanding and tempered region, that it might possess the empire of the orb of the earth. §18
If then it be so that unlike regions, by the inclinations of the sky, have been compounded in various kinds, so that even the natures of the nations would be born with different minds and figures and qualities of bodies, let us not doubt also to distribute the reasonings of buildings aptly to the properties of nations and peoples, since we have from the very nature of things a dexterous and ready instruction. As far as I have been able by chief reasoning to observe the properties of places disposed by the nature of things, I have set forth, and have said how one ought to establish, by the sun's course and the inclinations of the sky, the qualities of buildings to the figures of the nations. Therefore now I shall briefly unfold the commensurations of symmetries of the single kinds in buildings, both whole and separate. §19
No care should be greater to the architect than that by fixed-proportions of the rule, the buildings have workings-out of their reasonings. When therefore the reasoning of symmetries has been established, and the commensurations unfolded by reasonings, then it is also proper to the keen eye to provide, for the nature of the place, or use, or appearance, adjustments by diminishings or additions; so that when there has been deducted from, or added to, the symmetry, the thing may appear rightly formed, and nothing to be wished for in view. §20
For one appearance seems to be to the hand, another on a height; not the same in enclosed places, unlike in open; in which things of great judgment it is to provide what must at last be done. For sight does not seem to have true effects, but the mind is often deceived by its judgment. In painted scenes, for instance, the projections of columns, the protrusions of mutules, the jutting figures of statues seem to stand forth, when the tablet is without doubt flat to the rule. Likewise on ships, oars, although straight below water, yet appear broken to the eyes, and so far as their parts touch the topmost plane of the liquid, they appear as they are, straight, but when they are sunken under water, through the transparent rareness of nature, swimming up from their bodies they send back to the top of the water flowing images, which, moved there, seem to make broken the look of the oars to the eye. §21
Whether this be by the impulse of images or by effusions of rays from the eyes, as the natural philosophers hold, we see; by either reasoning it appears so, that the sight holds false judgments of the eyes. §22
When therefore those things which are true appear false, and some things by eyes are approved otherwise than they are, I do not think there should be doubt, but that for the natures or necessities of places reductions or additions should be made, so that nothing in these works be wished for. This is brought about also by the keenness of talent, not only by learnings. §23
First therefore the reasoning of symmetries must be established, from which without doubt adjustment may be taken. Then let the lowest space of length and breadth of the places of the future work be unfolded; and when its size has once been established, let there follow the preparation of proportion for the decor, so that to the considerers the look of the eurythmy be not doubtful. Of this, by what reasonings it may be effected, I must now pronounce; and first of the halls of houses, as they ought to be made, I will speak. §24
The halls of houses are distinguished in five kinds, whose figures are thus named: Tuscan, Corinthian, tetrastyle, displuviate, testudinate. Tuscan are those in which beams are thrown across the breadth of the atrium, have supporting crossbeams and valleys running from the corners of the walls to the corners of the joists; likewise, with laths, the drippings are thrown into the middle compluvium. In Corinthians, with the same reasoning the beams and compluvia are placed, but the beams, receding from the walls, are arranged in a circuit around columns. Tetrastyle are those in which, with columns placed beneath the corner beams, they furnish both utility to the beams and firmness, because they are neither constrained to have a great span, nor burdened by crossbeams. §25
Displuviate, however, are those in which gutters sustain the box, and throw off the drippings. These chiefly give uses for winter rooms, because their compluvia, being upright, do not obstruct the light of the dining-rooms. But these have great trouble in repairs, because along the walls, pipes hold the flowing drippings, which do not quickly receive the water flowing from the channels, and so, overflowing, they stagnate, and corrupt the joinery and the walls in such kinds of buildings. Testudinate are made there, where there are no great spans, and in upper stories, spacious dwellings are rendered above. §26
The breadths and lengths of atria are formed in three kinds. And the first kind is distributed thus: that when the length has been divided into five parts, three parts be given to the breadth; the second, when it is divided into three parts, two parts be given to the breadth; the third, that the breadth be described in a square with equal sides, and in this square a diagonal line be drawn, and whatever space this diagonal line shall have, such length be given to the atrium. §27
Let the height of atria, up to the beams, be raised with a quarter taken off from the breadth; the rest being reasoned for the coffers and box above the beams. The breadth of the wings, on right and left, when the length of the atrium is from thirty to forty feet, be established at a third part of it. From forty to fifty feet, the length be divided into three and a half parts; of these, one part be given to the wings. When the length is from fifty to sixty, a fourth part of the length be given to the wings. From sixty to eighty, the length be divided into four and a half parts; of these, one part be made the breadth of the wings. From eighty to a hundred, divided into five parts, it will establish the just breadth of the wings. The transverse beams above be set as high as the breadths. §28
For the tablinum, if the breadth of the atrium be twenty feet, with a third of its space taken off, the rest be assigned. If it be from thirty to forty, of the atrium's breadth let half be given to the tablinum. When from forty to sixty, let the breadth be divided into five parts; of these, two be set for the tablinum. For smaller atria cannot have the same reasonings of symmetry as larger. For if we use the symmetries of larger in the smaller, neither tablinum nor wings will have utility; but if we use those of smaller in larger, these members will be vast and monstrous in them. So by kinds I have thought fit to write out the principles of magnitudes diligently, both for use and for aspect. §29
Let the height of the tablinum up to the beam be set with an eighth of the breadth added. Let its coffered ceiling be raised a third of the breadth added to the height. Let the fauces for smaller atria be established with a third part taken off the tablinum's breadth; for larger, with a half. The images, with their ornaments, are to be placed as high as the breadth of the wings. Let the breadths of the doors be made in proportion to the height: if Doric, in the Doric fashion; if Ionic, in the Ionic, as has been set forth in the fourth book concerning doorways. Let the light of the compluvium in breadth be left not less than a fourth nor more than a third of the breadth of the atrium; the length in like proportion to the atrium. §30
Let the peristyles in the transverse be a third part longer than inwards; the columns as tall as the portico is wide. Let the intercolumniations of the peristyles be not less than three, not more than four column-thicknesses apart. If however in the peristyle the columns are to be made in the Doric manner, as I wrote in the fourth book of the Doric, so let modules be taken, and to those modules let the reasonings of the triglyphs be disposed. §31
Let the triclinia, whatever be their breadth, have the length twice as great. The heights of all the rooms that are oblong ought to have this reasoning: let the measure of the length and of the breadth be combined, and of that sum half be taken, and as much as it is, so much be given to the height. But if the exedrae or oeci be square, let the height be raised with half of the breadth added. Let picture-galleries, as exedrae, be established of ample size. Let Corinthian and tetrastyle oeci, and those called Egyptian, have their reasoning of breadth and length as the symmetries of triclinia written above; but, on account of the interpositions of columns, be set more spacious. §32
Between Corinthian and Egyptian there will be this distinction. Corinthian have single columns, either placed on a podium or on the ground, and above they have architraves and coronas either of joinery or of stucco; besides, above the coronas, curved coffers swept by the compasses. In Egyptian, on the other hand, above the columns are architraves, and from the architraves to the surrounding walls a floor is to be laid; above the boarding a pavement, that there may be a walk in the open; then upon the architrave, perpendicular to the lower columns, smaller columns be set, less by a fourth part. Above their architraves and ornaments they are adorned with coffers, and between the upper columns windows are placed. Thus it seems a similitude of basilicae rather than of Corinthian triclinia. §33
There are made also oeci not of Italian custom, which the Greeks call Cyzicene. These are placed looking north, and chiefly looking out on greenery, and have folding doors in the middle. They are so long and wide that two triclinia, with their circuits, facing each other, may be placed; and they have on right and left windows with doors, so that from the couches, through the spaces of the windows, greenery may be seen. Their heights are established with half of the breadth added. §34
In these kinds of buildings all those reasonings of symmetries are to be made, which can be made without hindrance of the place; and the windows will be easily arranged if they are not obscured by heights of walls; but if they are hindered by narrowness or by other necessities, then by talent and keenness of mind adjustments of the symmetries by deductions or additions may be made, so that beauties not unlike true symmetries be wrought. §35
Now I shall unfold by what proprieties the kinds of buildings ought to look, aptly for use and the regions of the sky. Winter triclinia and bathing-rooms should look to the winter west, because use of evening light is needed; and, besides, the setting sun, striking with its splendor opposite, giving back heat, makes that region in the evening time more mild. Bedchambers and libraries should look to the east, for use demands morning light; and in libraries, books will not rot. For whatever look to south and west, books are spoiled by moths and moisture, because moist winds coming produce them and feed them, and, pouring in moist breaths, corrupt the volumes with mold. §36
Spring and autumn triclinia to the east, for having the lights in front, opposite the sun's onset going toward the west, they make them tempered to the time at which it is usual to use them. Summer to the north, because that region is not, like the others, through the solstice made sultry by heat, and for the reason that it is turned away from the sun's course is always cool, and furnishes healthfulness and pleasure in use. No less picture-galleries and the embroiderers' workshops and painters' workshops, that by constancy of light their colors may remain in their works of unchanged quality. §37
When these have been arranged according to the regions of the sky, it must then be observed by what reasonings, in private buildings, the rooms proper to the heads of households, and how those common with outsiders, ought to be built. For those which are proper, there is no right for all to enter unless invited, as the bedchambers, triclinia, bathrooms, and the rest that have the same use. The common places are those in which even the uninvited, by their own right, from among the people may come, that is, vestibules, the halls of houses, peristyles, and those which can have the same use. Therefore he who is of common fortune does not need magnificent vestibules nor tablina nor atria, because he more renders services to others by going about than is attended himself by others. §38
Those, however, who serve the country's fruits, have stables in their vestibules and shops, and in their houses vaults, granaries, cellars, and the rest that can be rather for preserving fruits than for elegance of decor. Likewise for moneylenders and publicani, more convenient, showy, and safe from ambushes; for forensic men and orators, more elegant and spacious to receive assemblies; for noblemen who must discharge offices to the citizens in conducting honors and magistracies, are to be made lofty royal vestibules, atria and peristyles most ample, groves and ampler walks for decor of perfect majesty; besides, libraries, picture-galleries, basilicae, arranged in a manner not unlike the magnificence of public works, because in their houses very often both public counsels and private judgments and arbitrations are transacted. §39
Therefore if by these reasonings for the persons of the several kinds, as in the first book about propriety it is written, so the buildings shall be disposed, there will be nothing to blame. They will have fitting and corrected unfoldings for all things. And of these matters not only in the city shall the reasonings of buildings be, but also in the country, except that in the city the atria are wont to be next the doors, but in the country, in the pseudo-urban manner, there are immediately peristyles; then atria having round about pavemented porticoes facing toward the palaestras and walks. As far as I have been able, I have set forth in summary the urban reasonings of buildings; now I will say how for country houses the arrangements for convenience may be, and by what reasonings they ought to be placed. §40
First, as written in the first book on the placing of walls, let the regions be examined for healthfulness, and so let villas be placed. Let their sizes be proportioned to the measure of the land and the abundance of produce. Let the cattle-yard and its sizes be determined by the number of the stock, and how many yokes of oxen it must be in use there. In the cattle-yard, let the kitchen be designated in a place as warm as possible; joined to it let there be ox-stalls, whose mangers should look toward the fire and the eastern quarter of the sky, because oxen, looking upon light and fire, do not become shaggy. Likewise farmers ignorant of regions think that oxen ought to look no other region but the rising of the sun. §41
The breadths of ox-stalls should be not less than ten feet nor more than fifteen, the length such that each yoke may occupy not less than seven feet. The bath-rooms likewise should be joined to the kitchen, for so the service for country bathing will not be far. The wine-press should likewise be very near the kitchen, for then the service for the olive-fruits will be convenient; and it should have, joined to it, the wine-cellar having its windows from the north. For if it had in another part a place for the sun to warm, the wine in that cellar will be made weak and thin by the heat. §42
The oil-room is so to be placed that it have light from the south and warm regions. For oil must not be frozen, but must be kept thin by the warmth of heat. Their sizes are to be made proportional to the fruits and the number of jars; which, being of culei (large jars), must occupy, through the middle, four feet. The press itself, if it be not turned by screws but pressed by levers and the beam, is to be established not less than forty feet long, for so there will be an easy space for the leverman. Its breadth not less than sixteen feet, for thus there will be free and easy turning for those doing the full work. But if for a place of two presses, let twenty-four feet be given for the breadth. §43
Sheep-pens and goat-pens are to be made so large that the single beasts may have not less than four and a half, not more than six feet of floor-space. Granaries, raised high and looking to the north or northeast, let be placed, for thus grains will not quickly heat, but, cooled by the blast, will be preserved long. For the other regions produce weevils and the other small insects which are wont to harm grain. For stables let those places be chosen in the villa which are warmest, provided only that they do not face the kitchen. For when beasts are stalled next to fire, they become shaggy. §44
Nor are the mangers useless which are placed outside the kitchen in the open, facing the east. For when in the winter of the year, on a clear day, in the morning oxen are led into them, taking food in the sun they become sleeker. Granaries, hay-lofts, spelt-bins, and bakeries seem ought to be made outside the villa, that the villa may be safer from the danger of fire. If something more delicate is to be made in villas, let it be built from the symmetries which have been written above for town ones, so arranged that they be built without hindrance to country utility. §45
All buildings, that they may be well-lit, must be cared for; but those which are in villas seem easier, because no neighbor's wall can obstruct; in the city, however, either the heights of party walls or the narrowness of the site, by obstructing, make obscurities. In this matter let the following be tried. From the part whence the light ought to be taken, let a line be extended from the height of the wall that seems to obstruct to that place where it is to be let in; and if from that line, looking up, a considerable space of pure sky can be seen, there will be a light in that place without hindrance. §46
If however beams or lintels or joists obstruct, let the light be opened from higher parts and thus be let in. And in general it is so to be governed that from whichever parts the sky can be seen, through those let the places of windows be left; so the buildings will be bright. But since in triclinia and other rooms the greatest use is of lights, so also in passages, slopes, stairs, because in these, often, the one meeting the other carrying burdens are wont to run against one another. As far as I have been able, I have unfolded the distributions of our own works, that they may not be obscure to builders. Now I shall also summarily set forth in what manner, by the customs of the Greeks, buildings are distributed, that they may not be unknown. §47
Because the Greeks do not use atria, nor build them, they make, for those entering from the door, passages of no spacious breadth, and on one side stalls for horses, on the other cells for porters, and at once the inner doors end. This place between the two doors is called in Greek θυρωρεῖον (porter's lodge). Then there is the entrance into the peristyle. This peristyle has porticoes on three sides, and on that side which looks to the south two antae distant from each other by an ample space, on which beams are laid; and whatever is between the antae, from it a third part being taken off, a space is given inward. This place, among some, is called prostas; among others, pastas. §48
In these places, inward, great oeci are established, in which matrons with wool-working maids have their session. On right and left of the prostas, bed-chambers are placed, of which one is called thalamos (bridal chamber), the other amphithalamos. Around, in the porticoes, common daily triclinia, bedrooms, and also servants' cells are established. This part of the building is called γυναικωνῖτις. §49
Joined to these are larger houses having more elegant peristyles, in which the four porticoes are equal in height, or one that looks to the south is built with loftier columns. This peristyle, which has one higher portico, is called rhodian. These houses have excellent vestibules and their own doors with dignity, and the porticoes of the peristyles adorned with stucco and plaster and joinery coffers; and in the porticoes that look north, Cyzicene triclinia and picture-galleries; on the east, libraries; on the west, exedrae; but looking to the south, square oeci of so ample size that in them, easily, with four triclinia spread, there be a spacious place for the service and for the operations of games. §50
In these oeci men's banquets are held. For it had not been customary, by their manners, for mothers of households to recline at table. These peristyles of the house are called andronitides, because in them men are engaged without interruption of women. Besides, on right and left, little houses are established, having their own doors, triclinia, and convenient bedrooms, so that guests arriving are received not in peristyles but in these guest-quarters. For when the Greeks were more delicate and richer by fortune, for arriving guests they provided triclinia, bedrooms with provisions, store-rooms; on the first day they invited them to dinner; on the next they sent fowls, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and other country things. So painters, imitating those things which were sent to guests with their paintings, called them xenia (guest-gifts). So the fathers of households in the lodging did not seem to be abroad, having a private liberality in these guest-quarters. §51
Between the two peristyles there are passages to the guest-chambers which are called mesauloe, because they are placed between two aulai (courts); and ours call them andrones. But this is very much to be wondered at, for it fits neither Greek nor Latin. For the Greeks call andrones the oeci where men's banquets are held, because women do not come to them. Other things are similar, as xystos, prothyrum, telamones, and some others of this kind. ξυστός in Greek appellation is a portico of ample breadth in which athletes, during the winter seasons, exercise. Ours, however, call hypaethral walks xysta, which the Greeks call παραδρομίδας. Likewise πρόθυρα in Greek are those vestibules which are before the doors, but we call prothyra what in Greek are called διάθυρα. Likewise, if there be figures of male form sustaining mutules or coronas, ours call them telamones, of which the reasons why or wherefore they are so called are not found from history, but the Greeks call them Ἄτλαντας. For Atlas is figured in history as sustaining the world, because he first, by vigor of mind and skill, took care to hand down to men the reasonings of the sun's course, and of the moon, and of all the turnings of the stars; and for that benefit he is shaped by painters and sculptors sustaining the world; and his daughters, the Atlantides (whom we call Vergiliae, and the Greeks πλειάδας), with the stars in the world are dedicated. I have not, however, proposed these that the custom of nomenclatures or of speech be changed, but I have judged that they ought to be set out so that they may not be unknown to philologists. With what customs buildings are shaped in the Italian manner and in the institutions of the Greeks I have set forth, and of the proportions of each kind's symmetries I have written. Therefore, since of beauty and decor it has been written before, now we shall set forth concerning firmness, how these may be placed without faults, abiding to antiquity. §52
Buildings which are built on a level base, if their foundations have been so made as we have set forth in the previous books about walls and theaters, they will be firm to old age without doubt. But if underground rooms and vaults are built, their foundations must be made thicker than the structures which are to be in the buildings above; and their walls, piers, and columns be placed perpendicular to the middle of those below, that they may correspond to solid. For if the weights of the walls or columns be on hanging parts, they will not be able to have enduring firmness. §53
Furthermore, if jambs are set beneath lintels along the piers and antae, they will not be defective. For lintels and beams, when they are loaded by structures, sagging in the middle, break the built supports. But when jambs have been placed under them and wedged, they do not suffer the beams to settle nor to harm them. §54
Likewise it must be provided that the vaults of arches lighten the loads of walls by divisions of wedges, their closures responding to the center. For when beyond the beams or the tops of lintels arches have been closed with wedges, first, the material, relieved of load, will not sag; then, if by age it take some defect, without the trouble of propping it will easily be changed. §55
Likewise in buildings that are made on piers, when with divisions of wedges and joints responding to the center the arches are closed, the end piers in these must be made broader, so that, having strength, they may resist when the wedges, pressed by the loads of the walls, pushing themselves through the joints toward the center, push out the abutments. So if the corner piers be of spacious magnitudes, by holding the wedges they will give firmness to the works. §56
When in these matters it has been observed that such diligence is applied to them, no less also it must be observed that all the structures respond to the perpendicular, and do not have leanings in any part. The greatest care must be of substructures, because in these the heap of earth is wont to make unbounded faults. For it cannot be always of one weight, such as it is wont to be in summer, but in wintry seasons, taking from the rains a great amount of water, growing in both weight and amplitude, it breaks through and pushes out the partitions of the structures. §57
So that this defect may be remedied, it must be done thus: first, let the thickness of the structure be established in proportion to the amplitude of the heap; next, at the front, anterides (or erismae, buttresses) be built together with it; and let these stand off from each other by such a space as the height of the substructure shall be; of the same thickness as the substructure. Let them run forward at the bottom in proportion to the thickness established of the substructure; then let them be drawn in step by step so that at the top they have a projection as great as the thickness of the work. §58
Besides this, on the inside, facing the earth, conjoined with the wall, let saw-toothed structures be built, so that the single teeth stand off from the wall by as much as the height shall be of the substructure; and let the thicknesses of the teeth be of the same structure as the wall. Likewise at the extreme angles, a space having been taken back from the interior angle by the height of the substructure, in each direction let marks be made; and from these marks let a diagonal structure be placed, and from the middle of that, another conjoined with the angle of the wall. Thus the teeth and diagonals of structure will not suffer it to press with whole force on the wall, but will dissipate, by holding back, the onset of the heap. §59
How works ought to be established without faults, and how provision should be made for those beginning, I have set forth. For about tiles or timbers or laths to be changed, the same care is not needed as about these, because though they be faulty, they are easily changed. So those things which are not thought to be solid, by what reasonings these can be firm, and how they may be established, I have set forth. §60
What kinds of supplies ought to be used is not in the power of the architect, because not in all places do all kinds of supplies grow, as is set forth in the first volume. Further, it is in the power of the owner whether he wishes to build of brick or of rubble-work or of squared stone. So the approvals of all works are considered threefold, that is, in workmanship's subtlety, in magnificence, and in arrangement. When a work is seen magnificently completed, the owner's expenses are praised; when subtly, the workman's execution is approved; but when it has authority in its gracefulness, by its proportions and symmetries, then is the glory of the architect. §61
These things are rightly established when the architect suffers himself to take counsels both from craftsmen and from laymen. For all men, not only architects, can approve what is good; but between laymen and craftsmen is this difference: that the layman cannot know, unless he sees it done, what shall be; the architect, however, as soon as he has conceived in his mind, before he begins, has defined what shall be in beauty, use, and decor. Those things useful for private buildings, and how they are to be made, as openly as I could, I have written. Of their finishes, that they be elegant and without faults abiding to age, I shall unfold in the following volume. §62