 Book 7 of Ten Books on Architecture, Introduction 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 the writings. 2. If they had not done so, we could not have known what deeds were done in Troy, nor what Thales, democrates and exegoras, Xenophonists and 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 Cruses, 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 on their writings not on their own ideas, but who enviously do wrong to the works of others and both 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 transmitted to us. 4. The kings of the House of Atlas, having established, under the influence of the great charms of literature, an excellent library at Pergamos to give pleasure to the public, Ptolemy also was aroused with no end of enthusiasm and emulation into exertions to make a similar provisions 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 in development for which he sowed the seed. He established public contests in honor of the muses and Apollo, and appointed prizes and honors for victorious authors in general, as is done in the case of athletes. 5. These arrangements having been made and the contest 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 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 Aristophanus 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, Aristophanus was summoned with the rest and sat down in the place, a sign to him. 6. A group of poets were 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 Aristophanus, 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 Aristophanus, 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 honored the Aristophanus 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 pariside. Some writers have said that he was crucified by Philadelphus, others that he was stoned at Kyos, 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 in his just due. For one who accuses men that cannot answer and show face to face what was the meaning of the writings obviously deserves no other treatment. 10. But for my part, Caesar, I'm not bringing forward the present treatise after changing the titles of other men's book and inserting my own name, nor has it been my plan to win approbation by finding fault with 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 a 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, Agathaercus in Athens, when Aeschylus was bringing out a tragedy, painted a scene and left a commentary about it. This has led democracies in Anaxagoras to write on the same subject, showing how, given a center in a definite place, the lines should naturally correspond with due regard to the point of sight and the divergence of the visual race, 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 façade, 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 Summers, Cursifron and Metagonus, on the Ionic Temple at Ephesus, which is Dianas, Pithios, on the Ionic Fane of Minerva, which is at Praen, Ictinus and Carpion, on the Doric Temple of Minerva, which is on the Acropolis of Athens. Theodorus, the Faustion, on the Round Building, which is at Delphi, Philo, on the proportions of temples and on the naval arsenal, which was at the port of Piraeus, Hermogenus, on the Ionic Temple of Diana, which is at Magnesia, Pseudodipterus, and on that of Father Bacchus, Atheus and Monopterus, Arcesius, on the Corinthian Proportions, and on the Ionic Temple of Asculapius Atralus, which it is said that he built with his own hands, on the Melsoleum, Satyrus and Pithios, who were favoured with the greatest and highest good fortune. 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 façades were undertaken by different artists in emulation with each other. Leocheres, Braioxes, Scopus, 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, Theosidus, Demophilus, Polis, Leonidus, Silanion, Melampus, Sarnacus, and Ebranor. 15. Others again on machinery, such as Diades, Arcytus, Archimedes, Sticebius, Nymphadorus, Phylo of Byzantium, Dephilos, Democles, Carius, Polyides, Pyrus, and Agisistratus. 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 on this field had been published by the Greeks, but very few indeed by our countrymen. Phythius, in fact, was the first to undertake to publish a book on this subject. Terencius Varro, also in his work on the Nine Sciences, has one book on architecture, and Publius Septimius II. 15. But to this day, nobody else seems to have bent his energies to his 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 Antestates, Kalescarus, Antimachides, and Pormus laid the foundations when Pace Stratus began the Temple of Olympian Job, but after his death they abandoned the undertaking on account of political troubles. Hence, it was that when, about 400 years later, King Antiochus promised to pay the expenses of that work, the huge cellar, 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 a workmanship and marble that causes them to be mentioned in a class by themselves, with the highest renown. To their 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 Corsifron of Gnosis and his son Metagnes, and said to have been finished later by Demetrius, who was himself a slave of Diana and by Peonius the Melisian. At Miletus, the Temple of Apollo, also Ionic in its proportions, was the undertaking of the same Peonius and the Ephesian Daphnis. At Elepsis, the cellar of Ceres and Prosopin, of vast size, was completed to the roof by Ictonus in the Doric style, but without exterior columns and with plenty of rooms for the customary sacrifices. 17. Afterwards, however, when Demetrius of Valorum was master of Athens, phylo set up columns in front before the temple and made it pro-style. Thus, by adding an entrance hall, he gave the initiates more room and imparted the greatest dignity to the building. 18. Finally, in Athens, the Temple of Olympian, with its dimensions on a generous scale and built in the Corinthian style and proportions, is said to have been constructed as written above by Cossutius, no commentary by whom has been found. But Cossutius is not the only man by whom we should like to have writings on our subject. 19. Another is Gaius Mousius, who, having great knowledge on which to rely, completed the cellar, columns and tablature of the Marian Temple of Honor and Valor in symmetrical proportions according to the accepted rules of the art. If this building had been of marble, so that besides the refinement of its art, it possessed dignity coming from magnificence and a great outlay, it would be reckoned among the first and greatest of works. 18. Since it appears then that our architects in the old days and our good men even in our own times have been as great as those of the Greeks, and nevertheless only a few of them have published treatises, I resolved not to be silent, but to treat the different topics methodically in different books. Hence, since I have given an account of private houses in the sixth book, in this, which is the seventh in order, I shall treat our polished finishings and the methods of giving them both beauty and durability. End of Book 7, Introduction If this concrete flooring is to be laid level with the ground, let the soil be tested to see whether it is everywhere solid, and if it is, level it off and up on it, lay the broken stone with its bedding. But if the floor is either holy or partly filling, it should be rammed down hard with great care. In case a wooden framework is used, however, we must see that no wall which does not reach up to the top of the house is constructed under the floor. Any wall which is there should preferably fall short, so as to leave the wooden planking above it an unsupported span. If a wall comes up solid, the unyielding nature of its solid structure must, when the joists begin to dry or to sag and settle, lead to cracks in the floor on the right and left along the line of the wall. 2. We must also be careful that no common oak gets in with the winter oak boards, for as soon as common oak boards get damp, they warp and cause cracks in floors. But if there is no winter oak and necessity drives, for lack of this it seems advisable to use common oak boards cut pretty thin, for the less thick they are, the more easily they can be held in place by being nailed on. Then, at the end of every joist, nail on two boards that they shall not be able to warp and stick up at the edges. As for turkey oak or beech or ash, none of them can last to a great age. When the wooden planking is finished, cover it with fern if there is any, otherwise with straw to protect the wood from being hurt by the lime. 3. Then, upon this lay the bedding, composed of stones not smaller than can fill the hand. After the bedding is laid, mix the broken stone in the proportion if it is new, of three parts to one of lime, if it is old material used again, five parts may answer to two in the mixture. Next, lay the mixture of broken stone, bring on your gangs, and beat it again and again with wooden beetles into a solid mass, and let it be not less than three-quarters of a foot in thickness when the bedding is finished. On this lay the nucleus, consisting of pounded tile mixed with lime in the proportions of three parts to one, and forming a layer not less than six digits thick. On top of the nucleus, the floor, whether made of cut slips or of cubes, should be well and truly laid by rule and level. 4. After it is laid and set at the proper inclination, let it be rubbed down so that if it consists of cut slips, the lozenges or triangles or squares or hexagons may not stick up at different levels, but be all jointed together on the same plane with one another, if it is laid in cubes so that all the edges may be level, for the rubbing down will not be properly finished unless all edges are on the same level plane. The herringbone pattern made of Tiber-burned brick must also be carefully finished so as to be without gaps or ridges sticking up, but all flat and rubbed down to rule. When the rubbing down is completely finished by means of the smoothing and polishing processes, sift powdered marble on top and lay on a coating of lime and sand. 5. In the open air, specially adapted kinds of floor must be made because their framework, swelling with dampness or shrinking from dryness or sagging and settling injures the floors by these changes. Besides, the frost and rhyme will not let them go unhurt. Hence, if necessity drives, we must proceed as follows in order to make them as free from defects as possible. After finishing the plank flooring, lay a second plank flooring over it at right angles and nail it down so as to give double protection to the framework. Then, mix with a new broken stone one third the quantity of pounded tile and let lime be added to the mixture in the mortar trough in the proportion of two parts to five. 6. Having made the bedding, lay on this mixture of broken stone and let it be not less than a foot thick when the beating is finished. Then, after laying the nucleus as above described, construct the floor of large cubes cut about two digits each way and let it have an inclination of two digits for every ten feet. If it is well put together and properly rubbed down, it will be free from all flaws. In order that the mortar in the joints may not suffer from frosts, drench it with oil dregs every year before winter begins. Thus treated, it will not let the whorefrost enter it. 7. If, however, it seems needful to use still grater care, lay two-foot tiles jointed together in a bed of mortar over the broken stone with little channels of one-fingers-breadth cut into the faces of all the joints. Connect these channels and fill them with a mixture of lime and oil, then rub the joints hard and make them compact. Thus, the lime sticking in the channels will harden and solidify into a mass and so prevent the water or anything else from penetrating through the joints. After this layer is finished, spread the nucleus upon it and work it down by beating it with rods. Upon this lay the floor, at the inclination above described, either of large cubes or burnt brick and herringbone pattern and floors thus constructed will not soon be spoiled. 2. The slaking of lime for stucco 1. Leaving the subject of floors, we must next treat of stucco work. This will be all right if the best lime taken in lumps is slaked a good while before it is to be used so that if any lump has not been burned long enough in the kiln it will be forced to throw off its heat during the long course of slaking in the water and will thus be thoroughly burned to the same consistency. When it is taken not thoroughly slaked but fresh it has little crude bits concealed in it and so when applied it blisters. When such bits complete the slaking after they are on the building they break up and spoil the smooth polish of the stucco. 2. But when the proper attention has been paid to the slaking and grative paints have thus been employed in the preparation for the work take a hoe and apply it to the slaked lime in the mortar bed just as you would. If it sticks to the hoe in bits the lime is not yet tempered and when the iron is drawn out dry and clean it will show that the lime is weak and thirsty but when the lime is rich and properly slaked it will stick to the tool like glue proving that it is completely tempered. Then get the scaffolding ready and proceed to construct the vaultings in the rooms unless they are to be decorated with flat, coffered ceilings. 3. Vaultings and stucco work 1. When vaulting is required the procedure should be as follows set up the horizontal furring strips at intervals of not more than two feet apart using preferably cypress as fur is soon spoiled by decay and by age arrange these strips as to four back curve and make them fast to the joist of the floor above or to the roof if it is there by nailing them with many iron nails to ties fixed at intervals. These ties should be made of a kind of wood that neither decay nor time nor dampness can spoil such as box, juniper, olive, oak, cypress or any other similar wood except common oak for this warps and causes cracks in work in which it is used. 2. Having arranged the furring strips take cord made of Spanish broom and tie Greek reeds previously pounded flat to them in the required contour. Immediately above the vaulting spread some mortar made of lime and sand to check any drops that may fall from the joist or from the roof. If the supply of Greek reeds not to be had gather slender marsh reeds and make them up with silk cord into bundles all of the same thickness and adjusted to the proper length provided that the bundles are not more than two feet long between any two knots then tie them with cord to the beams as above described and drive wooden pegs into them make all the other preparations as above described. 3. Having thus set the vaultings in their places and interwoven them apply the rendering coat to their lower surface then lay on the sand mortar and afterwards polish it off with a powdered marble. After the vaultings have been polished set the imposed moldings directly beneath them. These obviously ought to be made extremely slender and delicate for when they are large their weight carries them down and they cannot support themselves. Gypsum should by no means be used in their composition but powdered marble should be laid on uniformly lest gypsum by setting too quickly should keep the work from drying uniformly. We must also beware of the ancients scheme for vaultings for in their moldings the soffits overhang very heavily that are dangerous. 4. Some moldings are flat others in relief. In rooms where there has to be a fire or good many lights they should be flat so that they can be wiped off more easily. In summer apartments and in exedrai where there is no smoke nor suit to hurt them they should be made in relief if it is always the case that stucco in the pride of its dazzling white gathers smoke not only from its own house but also from others. 5. Having finished the moldings apply a very rough rendering coat to the walls and afterwards when the rendering coat gets pretty dry spread upon it the layers of sand motor exactly adjusted in length to rule and line in height to the plummet and at the angles to the square. The stucco will thus present a faultless appearance for paintings. When it gets pretty dry spread on a second coat and then a third. After that is laid on the stronger and more durable in its solidity will be the stucco. 6. When not less than 3 coats of sand motor besides the rendering coat have been laid on then we must make the mixture for the layers of powdered marble the mortar being so tempered that when mixed it does not stick to the trowel but the iron comes out freely and clean from the mortar trough. After this powdered marble has been spread on and gets dry a medium second coat. When that has been applied and well rubbed down spread on a finer coat. The walls being thus rendered solid by 3 coats of sand motor and as many of marble will not possibly be liable to cracks or to any other defect. 7. And further such walls owing to the solid foundation given by thorough working with polishing instruments and the smoothness of it due to the hard and dazzling white marble will bring out the radiant splendor the colors which are laid on at the same time with the polishing. These colors when they are carefully laid on stucco still wet do not fade but are permanent. This is because the lime having had its moisture burned out in the kiln becomes porous and loses its strength and its dryness makes it take up anything that may come in contact with it. On mixing with the seeds or elements that come from other substances it forms a solid mass with them and no matter what the constituent parts may then be it must obviously on becoming dry possess the qualities which are peculiar to its own nature. Hence stucco that is properly made does not get rough as time goes on nor lose its colors when it is wiped off unless they have been laid on with little care and after it is dry. So when the stucco on walls is made as described above it will have strength and brilliancy and an excellence that will last to a great age. But when only one coat of sand motor and one of fine marble had been spread on its thin layer is easily cracked from want of strength and from its lack of thickness it will not take on the brilliance due to polishing which it ought to have. Nine. Just as a silver mirror that is formed of a thin plate reflects indistinctly and with a feeble light while one that is substantially made can take on a very high polish with a radiant and distinct image when one looks therein so it is with stucco. When the stuff of which it is formed is thin it not only cracks but also soon fades. When, however, it has a solid foundation of sand motor and of marble thickly and compactly applied it is not only brilliant after being subjected to repeated polishings but also reflects from its surface a clear image of the beholder. Stucco worker not only employ these methods to make their works durable but also construct a motor trough mixed the lime and sand in it bring on a gang of men and beat stuff with wooden beetles and do not use it until it has been thus vigorously worked. Hence some cut slabs out of old walls and use them as panels and the stucco of such panels and reflectors has projecting bevelled edges all round it. Eleven. There has to be made on a wattle and daub there has to be cracks at the uprights and cross-ticks because they must take in moisture when they are daubed with a mud and cause cracks in the stucco when they dry and shrink the following method will prevent this from happening. After the whole wall has been smeared with a mud, nail rows of reeds to it by means of fly nails then spread on the mud a second time and if the first rows have been nailed with a shaft transfers nail on a second set with a shaft vertical and then as above described spread on the sand mortar, the marble and the whole mass of stucco. Thus the double series of reeds with the shafts crossing on the walls will prevent any chipping or cracking from taking place. Ten books on architecture by Vitruvius translated by Morris Hickey Morgan Chapter 4 On stucco work in damp places and on the decoration of dining rooms. 1. Having spoken of the method by which stucco work should be done in dry situations, I shall next explain how the polished finish is to be accomplished in places that are damp in such a way that it can last without defects. First in apartments which are level with the ground apply a rendering coat of mortar mixed with burnt brick instead of sand to a height of about 3 feet above the floor and then lay on the stucco so that those portions of it may not be injured by the dampness. But if a wall is in a state of dampness all over construct a second thin wall a little way from it on the inside at a distance suited to circumstances and in the space between these two walls run a channel at a lower level than that of the apartment with vents to the open air. Similarly when the wall is brought up to the top leave air holes there for if the moisture has no means of getting out by vents at the bottom and at the top it will not fail to spread all over the new wall. This done, apply a rendering coat of mortar made with burnt brick to this wall spread on the layer of stucco and polish it too. But if there is no room enough for the construction of a wall make channels with vents extending to the open air then lay two foot tiles resting on the margin of the channel on one side and on the other side construct a foundation of pillars for them made of 8 inch bricks on top of each of which the edges of two tiles may be supported. Each pillar being not more than a hands breath distant from the wall. Then above set hooked tiles fastened to the wall from bottom to top carefully covering the inner sides of them with pitch so that they will reject moisture. Both at the bottom and at the top above the vaulting they should have air holes. 3. Then whitewash them with lime and water so that they will not reject the rendering coat of burnt brick. For as they are dry from the loss of water burnt out in the kiln they can either take nor hold the rendering coat unless lime has been applied beneath it to stick the two substances together and make them unite. After spreading the rendering coat upon this apply layers of burnt brick mortar instead of sand mortar and finish up all the rest in the manner described above for stucco work. 4. The decoration of the polished surfaces of the walls ought to be treated with due regard to propriety so as to be adapted to their situations and not out of keeping with differences in kind. In winter dining rooms neither paintings on grand subjects nor delicacy of decoration and cornice work of the vaultings is a serviceable kind of design because they are spoiled by the smoke from the fire and the constant soot from the lamps. In these rooms there should be panels above the daddows worked in black and polished with the yellow or where million blocks interposed between them. After the vaulting has been treated in the flat style and polished the greek method of making floors for use in winter dining rooms may not be unworthy of one's notice as being very inexpensive and yet serviceable. 5. An excavation is made below the level of the dining room to a depth of about two feet and after the ground has been rammed down the mass of broken stones or the pounded brick spread on at such an inclination that it can find vents in the drain. Next having filled in with charcoal compactly trodden down a mortar mixed of gravel, lime and ashes spread on to a depth of half a foot. The surface having been made true to rule and level and smoothed off with the wet stone gives the look of a black pavement. Hence at their dinner parties whatever is poured out of the cups from the mouth no sooner falls than it dries up and the servants who wait there do not catch cold from that kind of floor although they may go barefoot. 5. The decadence of fresco paintings 1. For the other apartments that is those intended to be used in spring, autumn and summer as well as for atriums and peristals the ancients required realistic pictures of real things. A picture is in fact a representation of a thing which really exists which can exist. For example a man, a house a ship or anything else from whose definite and actual structure copies resembling it can be taken. Consequently the ancients who introduced polished finishings began by representing different kinds of marble slabs in different positions and then cornices and blocks of yellow ochre arranged in various ways. 2. Afterwards they made such progress as to represent the forms of buildings and of columns and projecting and overhanging pediments. In their open rooms such as Exidrai on account of the size they depicted the facades of scenes in the tragic comic or satiric style and their walks on account of their great length they decorated with a variety of landscapes copying the characteristics of definite spots. In these paintings there are harbours promontories, seashores rivers, fountains, straits faines, groves, mountains, flocks shepherds. In some places there are also pictures assigned in the grand style with figures of the gods or detailed mythological episodes of the battles at Troy or the wanderings of Ulysses with landscape backgrounds and other subjects reproduced on similar principles from real life. 3. But those subjects which were copied from actual realities are scorned in these days of bad taste. We now have fresco paintings of monstrosities rather than truthful representations of definite things. For instance reeds are put in the place of columns, fluted appendages with curly leaves and volutes instead of pediments, candelabras supporting representations of shrines and on top of their pediments numerous tender stocks and volutes growing up from the roots and having human figures senselessly seated upon them. Sometimes stocks having only half length figures, some with human heads, others with the heads of animals. 4. Such things do not exist and cannot exist and never have existed. Hence it is the new taste that has caused bad judges of poor art to prevail over true artistic excellence. For how is it possible that a reed should really support a roof or a candelabrum a pediment with its ornaments or that such a slender, flexible thing as a stock should support a figure perched upon it or that roots and stocks should produce now flowers and now half length figures? Yet when people see these frauds they find no fault with them but on the contrary are delighted and do not care whether any of them can exist or not. Their understanding is darkened by decadent critical principles so that it is not capable of giving its approval authoritatively and on the principle of propriety to that which really can exist. The fact is that pictures which are unlike reality ought not to be approved and even if they are technically fine this is no reason why they should offhand be judged to be correct if their subject is lacking in the principles of reality carried out with no violations. 5. For instance at Charles Apaturius of Alabanda designed with skillful hand the scene of the little theater which is there called the ecclesiastereon representing columns in it and statues, cantors supporting the architraves, retundas with round roofs on them, pediments with overhanging returns and coronesses ornamented with lion's which are meant for nothing but the rain water from the roofs. And then on top of it all he made an epicenium in which were painted retundas, porticoes, half pediments and all the different kinds of decoration employed in a roof. The effect of high relief in this scene was very attractive to all who beheld it and they were ready to give their approval to the work. When Lysiminius the mathematician came forward and said that the Alabandians were considered bright politics but that on account of one slight defect the lack of the sense of propriety they were believed to be unintelligent. In their gymnasium the statues are all pleading courses, in their forums throwing the discus, running or playing ball. This disregard of propriety in the interchange of statues appropriate to different places has brought the state as a whole into disrepute. Let us then beware unless this scene of Apatarius make Alabandians are abderites of us. Which of you can have houses or columns or extensive pediments on top of this tile roof? Such things are built above the floors not above the tile roofs. Therefore if we give our approval to pictures of things which can have no reason for existence in actual fact we shall be voluntarily associating ourselves with those communities which are believed to be unintelligent on account of just such defects. 7. Apatarius did not vent you to make any ass but removed the sena altered it so that it conformed to reality and gave satisfaction with it in its improved state. Would to God that Lysimnius could come to life again and reform the present condition of folly and mistaken practices in fresco painting. It may not be out of place to explain why this false method prevails over the truth. The fact is that the artistic excellence which the ancients and of war to attain by working hard and taking pains is now attempted by the use of colors and the brave show which they make. An expenditure by the employer prevents people from missing the artistic refinements that once lent authority to works. 8. For example, which of the ancients can be found to have used vermilion otherwise than sparingly like a drug. But today whole walls are commonly covered with it everywhere. Then too there is malachite, green, purple and Armenian blue. When those colors are laid on they present a brilliant appearance to the eye even although they are in artistically applied and as they are costly they are made with exceptions in contracts to be furnished by the employer not by the contractor. I have now sufficiently explained all that I could suggest for the avoidance of mistakes in stucco work. Next I shall speak of the components as they occur to me and first I shall treat of marble since I spoke of lime at the beginning. 6. Marble for use in stucco Marble is not produced everywhere of the same kind. In some places the lumps are found to contain transparent grains like salt and this kind when crushed and ground is extremely serviceable in stucco work. In places where this is not found the broken bits of marble or chips as they are called which marble workers throw down as they work may be crushed and ground and used in stucco after being sifted. In still other places for example lined up Magnesia and Ephesus there are places where it can be dug out already to use without the need of grinding or sifting but as fine as any that is crushed and sifted by hand. 7. Natural colors As for colors some are natural products found in fixed places and dug up there while others are artificial compounds of different substances treated and mixed in proper use so as to be equally serviceable. 1. We shall first set forth of natural colors that are dug up as such like yellow ochre which is termed okra in greek. This is found in many places including Italy but attic which was the best is not now to be had because in the times when there were slaves in the Athenian silver mines they would dig galleries underground in order to find the silver. Whenever a vein of ochre was found they would follow it up like silver and so the ancients had a fine supply of it to use in the polished finishings of their stack of work. 2. Red earths are found in abundance in many places but the best in only a few for instance at Sinoppa in Pontus in Egypt in the Balearic islands of Spain as well as in Lemnos an island the enjoyment of whose revenues the senate and Roman people granted to the Athenians. 3. Paratonium white gets its name from the place where it is dug up the same is the case with the Melian white because there is said to be a mine of it in Melos one of the islands of the Cyclades. 4. Green chalk is found in numerous places but the best is Smyrna the Greeks call it Theodetaeon because this kind of chalk was first found on the state of a person called Theodotus. 5. Orpiment which is termed Arsenecon in Greek is dug up in Pontus Sandarak in many places but the best is mined in Pontus close by the river Hypenis. 6. Book 7. 8-14 of 10 books on architecture this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Fredrik Carlson 10 books on architecture by Vitruvius translated by Morris Hickey Morgan 8. Cinnabar and Quicksilver 1. I shall now proceed to explain the nature of Cinnabar. It is said that it was first found in the Sylbian country belonging to Ephesus and both it and its properties are certainly very strange. First, before getting to the vermilion itself by methods of treatment they dig out what is called the clod an ore like iron but rather of a reddish color and covered by a red dust. During the digging it sheds under the blows of the tools tier after tier of Quicksilver which is at once gathered up by the diggers. 2. When these clods have been collected they are so full of moisture that they are thrown into an oven in the laboratory to dry and the fumes that are sent up from them by the heat of the fire settle down on the floor of the oven and are found to be Quicksilver. The main are so small that they cannot be gathered up but they are swept into a vessel of water and there they run together and combine into one. Four pints of it when measured and weighed will be found to be one hundred pounds. 3. If the Quicksilver is poured into a vessel and a stone weighing one hundred pounds is laid upon it the stone swims on the surface and cannot depress the liquid nor break through nor separate it. If we remove the hundred pound weight and put on a scruple of gold it will not swim but will sink to the bottom of its own acorn. Hence it is undeniable that the gravity of a substance depends not on the amount of its weight but on its nature. 4. Quicksilver is a useful thing for many purposes. For instance neither silver nor copper can be gilded properly without it and when gold has been woven into a garment and the garment becomes worn out with age that it is no longer respectable to use the pieces of cloth are put into earthen pots and burned up over a fire. The ashes are then thrown into water and Quicksilver added there too. This attracts all the bits of gold and makes them combined with itself. The water is then poured off and the rest emptied into a cloth and squeezed into the hands where upon the Quicksilver being a liquid escapes through texture of the cloth but the gold which has been brought together by the squeezing is found inside in a pure state. 9. Cinnabar 1. I will now return to the preparation of vermillion. When the lumps of ore are dry they are crushed into iron mortars and repeatedly washed and hered until the impurities are gone and the colors come. When the Cinnabar has given up its Quicksilver and thus lost the natural virtues that it previously had it becomes soft in quality and its powers are feeble. 2. Hence though it keeps its color perfectly when applied in the polished stucco finish of closed apartments yet in open apartments such as peristiles or exodry or other places of the sort where the bright rays of the sun and moon can penetrate it is spoiled by contact with them loses the strength of its color and turns black. Among many others the secretary Faberius who wished to have his house on the aventine finished in elegant style applied vermillion to all the walls of the peristyle but after 30 days they turned to an ugly and mottled color. He therefore made a contract to have other colors applied instead of vermillion. 3. But anybody who is more particular about the polished finish of vermillion that will keep its proper color should after the wall has been polished and is dry apply with a brush Pontic wax melted over a fire and mixed with a little oil then after this he should bring the wax to sweat by warming it and the wall at close quarters with charcoal enclosed in an iron vessel and finally he should smooth it all off by rubbing it down with a wax candle and clean lining cloths just as painted marble statues are treated. 4. This process is termed gnosis in Greek. The protecting coat of Pontic wax prevents the light of the moon and the rays of the sun from licking up and drawing the color out of such polished finishing. The manufacturers which were once at the mines of the Ephesians have now been transferred to Rome because this kind of ore was later discovered in Spain. The clods are brought from the mines there by public contractors. These manufacturers are between the temples of flora and queerness. 5. Cinnabar is adulterated by mixing lime with it. Hence one will have to proceed as follows if one wishes to prove that it is un adulterated. Take an iron plate put the Cinnabar upon it and lay it on the fire until the plate gets red hot. When the glowing heat makes the color change and turn black, remove the plate from the fire and if the Cinnabar when cooled returns to its former color it will be proved to be un adulterated. But if it keeps the black color it will show that it has been adulterated. 6. I have now said all that I could think of about Cinnabar. Malachite green is brought from Macedonia and is dug up in the neighborhood of copper mines. The names Armenian blue and India ink show in what places these substances are found. Chapter 10 Artificial Colors Black 1. I shall now pass to those substances which by artificial treatment are made to change their composition and to take on the properties of colors. And first I shall treat of black, the use of which is indispensable in many works in order that the fixed technical methods for the preparation of that compound may be known. 2. A place is built like a laconium and nicely finished and marble smoothly polished. In front of it a small furnace is constructed with vents into the laconium and with a stoke hole that can be very carefully closed to prevent the flames from escaping and being wasted. Resin is placed in this furnace. The force of the fire and burning it compels it to give out soot into the laconium through the vents and the soot sticks to the walls and the curved vaulting. It is gathered from them and some of it is mixed and worked with gum for use as writing ink while the rest is mixed with size and used on walls by fresco painters. 3. But if these facilities are not at hand we must meet the exigency as follows so that the work may not be hindered by tedious delay. Burn shavings and splinters of pitch pine and when they turn to charcoal put them out and pound them in a mortar with size. This will make a pretty black for fresco painting. 4. Again if the leaves of wine are dried and roasted in an oven and then ground up with size and applied to a wall the result will be a color even more delightful than ordinary black and the better the wine of which it is made the better imitation it will give. Not only of the color of ordinary black but even of that of india ink. Chapter 11 Blue Burnt ochre 1. Methods of making blue were first discovered in alexandria and afterwards Vistorius set up the making of it at Pusuli. The method of obtaining it from the substances of which it has been found to consist is strange enough. Sand and the flowers of nature are braided together so finally that the product is like a meal and copper is grated by means of coarse files over the mixture like sawdust to form a conglomerate. Then it is made into balls by rolling it in the hands and thus bound together for drying. The dry balls are put in an earthen jar and the jars in an oven. As soon as the copper and the sand grow hot and unite under the intensity of the fire they mutually receive each other's sweat relinquishing their peculiar qualities and having lost their properties through the intensity of the fire they are reduced to a blue color. 2. Burnt ochre which is very serviceable in stucco work is made as follows A clod of good yellow ochre is heated to a glow on a fire it is then quenched in vinegar and their salt is a purple color. Chapter 12 White Lead, Verdigris and Artificial Sonderac 1. It is now in place to describe the preparation of white lead and of verdigris which with us is called Euroka In roads they put shavings and jars, pour vinegar over them and lay pieces of lead on the shavings then they cover the jars with lids to prevent evaporation After a definite time they open them and find that the pieces of lead have become white lead In the same way they put in plates of copper and make verdigris which is called Euroka 2. White lead on being heated in an oven changes its colors on the fire and becomes Sanderac This was discovered as the result of a more observable than the natural Sanderac dug up in Mayans Chapter 13 Purple 1. I shall now begin to speak of purple which exceeds all the colors that have so far been mentioned both in costliness and the superiority of its delightful effect It is obtained from a marine shellfish from which is made the purple dye which is as wonderful to the careful observer as anything else in nature for it has not the same shade in all the places where it is found but is naturally qualified by the course of the sun 2. That which is found in Pontus and Gaul is black because those countries are nearest to the north As one pauses on from north to west it is found on a blueish shade due east and west what is found is of a violet shade That which is obtained in southern countries is naturally red in quality and therefore this is found in the island of Rhodes and in other such countries that are nearest to the course of the sun 3. After the shellfish have been gathered they are broken up with iron tools the blows of which drive out the purple fluid like a flood of tears and then it is prepared by braying it in mortars It is called Ostrum because it is taken from the shells a marine shellfish On account of its saltiness it soon dries up unless it has honey 4. Substitutes for purple, yellow ochre, malachite green and indigo 1. Purple colors are also manufactured by dying chalk with madder root and with histinum. Other colors are made from flowers thus when fresco painters wish to imitate attic yellow ochre they put dried violets into a vessel of water and heat them over a fire. Then when the mixture is ready they pour it onto the grinding cloth and squeeze it out with the hands cashing the water which is now colored by the violets in a mortar. Into this they pour chalk and bray it obtaining the color of attic yellow ochre 2. They make a fine purple color by treating bilberry in the same way and mixing it with milk. Those who cannot use malachite green on account of its dearness die blue with a plant called dire's weed and thus the most vivid green. This is called dire's malachite green. Again for want of indigo they die silinousian and anularian chalk with a vote which the Greeks call isotis and make an imitation of indigo. 3. In this book I have written down so far as I could recall them the methods and means of attaining durability and polish finishings, how pictures that are appropriate should be made and also the natural qualities of all the colors and so having prescribed in 7 books the suitable principles which should govern the construction of all kinds of buildings I shall treat in the next of water showing how it may be found in places where it is wanting by what method it may be conducted and by what means it wholesomeness and fitness may be tested. End of book 7. Book 8 introduction and chapters 1 and 2 of 10 books on architecture this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Fredrik Carlson 10 books on architecture by Vitruvius translated by Morris Hickey Morgan Book 8 Introduction 1. Among the 7 sages Thales of Miletus pronounced for water as the primordial element in all things Heraclitus for fire the Priests of the Magi for water and fire a pupil of Anaxagoras and called by the Athenians the philosopher of the stage for air and earth earth he held was impregnated by the rains of heaven and thus conceiving brought forth the young of mankind and all of the living creatures in the world whatever is sprung from her goes back to her again when the compelling force of time brings about a dissolution and whatever is born of the air returns in the same way to the regions nothing suffers annihilation but a dissolution there is a change and things fall back to the essential element in which they were before but Pythagoras and Petrogles Epicarmus and other physicists and philosophers have set forth the primordial elements of foreign number air, fire, earth and water and that it is from their coherence to one another under the molding power of nature that the qualities of things are produced according to different classes and in fact we see not only that all which comes to birth is produced by them but also that nothing can be nourished without their influence nor grow nor be preserved the body for example can have no life without the flow of the breath to and fro that is unless an abundance of air flows in causing dilations and contractions in regular succession without the right proportion of heat the body will lack vitality will not be well set up will not properly digest strong food again without the fruits of the earth nor is the bodily frame it will be enfeebled and so lose its admixture of the earth element three finally without the influence of moisture living creatures will be bloodless and having the liquid elements sucked out of them will wither away accordingly the divine intelligence has not made what is really indispensable for man either hard to get or costly like pearl gold silver and so forth the lack of which neither our body nor our nature feels but has spread abroad ready to hand through all the world the things without which the life of mortals cannot be maintained thus to take examples suppose there is a deficiency of breath in the body the air to which is assigned the function of making up the deficiency performs that service to supply heat the mighty sun is ready and the invention of fire makes life secure then again the fruits of the earth satisfying our desires with a more than sufficient store of food stuffs support and maintain living beings with a regular nourishment finally water not merely supplying drink but filling an infinite number of practical needs does a services which make us grateful because it is gratis four hence to those who are clothed in the priest hoods of the egyptian orders declare that all things depend upon the power of the liquid elements so when the water pot is brought back to precinct and temple with water in accordance with the holy right they throw themselves upon the ground and raising their hands to heaven thank the divine benevolence for its invention therefore since it is held by physicists and philosophers and priests that all things depend upon the power of water I have thought that as in the former seven books the rules for buildings have been set forth and this I ought to write on the methods of finding water on those special merits which are due to the qualities of localities on the ways of conducting it and how it may be tested in advance for it is the chief requisite for life for happiness and for everyday use chapter one how to find water one this will be easier if there are open springs of running water but if there are no springs which gush forth we must search for them underground and conduct them together the following test should be applied before sunrise lie down flat in the place where the search is to be made and placing the chin on the earth and supporting it there take a look out over the country in this way the site will not range higher than it ought the chin being immovable but will range over definitely limited height on the same level through the country then dig in the places where vapours are seen curling and rising up in the air this sign cannot show itself in a dry spot two searches for water must also study the nature of different localities for those in which it is found are well defined in clay the supply is poor meager and at no great depth it will not have the best taste in fine gravel the supply is also poor but it will be found at a greater depth it will be muddy and not sweet in black earth some slight drippings and drops are found that gather from the storms of winter and settle down in compact hard places they have the best taste among pebbles the veins found are moderate and not to be depended upon these too are extremely sweet in coarse grained gravel in carbuncular sand the supply is shorter and more lasting and it has a good taste in red in stufa it is copious and good if it does not run down through the fissures and escape at the foot of mountains and in lava it is more plentiful and abundant and here it is also colder and more wholesome in flat countries the springs are salt, heavy-budded tepid and ill-flavoured accepting those which run underground from mountains and burst forth in the middle of a plain where if protected by the shade of trees their taste is equal to that of in the kinds of soil described above science will be found growing such as slender rushes, wild willows, alders, agnus castus trees reeds, ivy and other plants of the same sort that cannot spring up of themselves without moisture but they are also accustomed to grow in depressions which being lower than the rest of the country receive water from the rains in the surrounding fields during the winter and keep it for a comparatively long time on account of the power. These must not be trusted but the search must be made in districts and soils yet not in depressions where those signs are found growing not from seed but springing up naturally of themselves. Four if the indications mentioned appear in such places the following tests should be applied dig out a place not less than 3 feet square and 5 feet deep and put into it about sunset, a bronze or leaden bowl or glass in whichever is at hand smear the inside with oil lay it upside down and cover the top of the excavation with reeds or green bows throwing earth upon them. Next day uncover it and if there are drops and drippings in the vessel the place will contain water. Five again, if a vessel made of unbaked clay will be put in the hole and covered in the same way it will be wet when uncovered and already beginning to see if the place contains water. If a fleasawool is placed in the excavation and water can be wrung out of it on the following day it will show that the place has a supply. Further if a lamp be trimmed filled with oil lighted and put in that place and covered up and if on the next day it is not burnt out but still contains some remains of oil and wick and is itself found to be damp it will indicate that the place contains water for all heat attracts moisture. Again if a fire is made in that place and if the ground when thoroughly warmed and burned sends up a misty vapor from its surface the place will contain water. Six. After applying these tests and finding the signs described above a well must next be sunk in the place and if a spring of water is found more wells must be dug there about and all conducted by means of subterranean channels into one place. The mountains and districts where the northern exposure are the best spots in which to search for the reason that springs are sweeter more wholesome and more abundant when found there. Such places face away from the sun's course and the trees are thickened them and the mountains being themselves full of woods cast shadows of their own preventing the rays of the sun from striking uninterruptedly upon the ground drying up the moisture. Seven. The valleys among the mountains receive the rains more abundantly and on account of the thick woods the snow is kept in them longer by the shade of the trees and mountains. Afterwards on melting it filters through the fissures in the ground and thus reaches the very foot of the mountains from which the gushing springs come belching out. But in flat countries on the contrary a good supply cannot be had for however great it is it cannot be wholesome because there is no shade in the way the intense force of the sun draws up and carries off this moisture from the flat plains with its seed and if any water shows itself there the lightest and purest and the delicately wholesome part of it is summoned away by the air and dispersed to the skies while the heaviest and the hard and unpleasant parts are left in springs that are in flat places. Chapter 2 Rainwater 1. Rainwater has therefore more wholesome qualities because it is drawn from the lightest and most delicately pure parts of all the springs and then after being filtered through the agitated air it is liquefied by storms and so returns to the earth and rainfall is not abundant in the plains but rather on the mountains or close to mountains for the reason that the vapor which is set in motion at sunrise comes forth and drives the air before through the heaven in whichever direction it inclines then when once in motion it has currents of air rushing after it on account of the void which it leaves behind. 2. This air driving the vapor everywhere as it rushes along produces gales and constantly increases currents by its mighty blasts wherever the winds carry the vapor which rolls in masses from springs to marshes and the sea it is brought together by the heat of the sun drawn off and carried upward in the form of clouds then these clouds are supported by the current of air until they come to mountains where they are broken up from the shock of the collision and the gales turn into water on account of their own fullness and weight and in that form are dispersed upon the earth. 3. That vapor, mists and humidity from the earth seems due to the reason that it contains burning heat mighty currents of air intense cold and a great quantity of water. So as soon as the earth which has cooled off during the night is struck by the rays of the rising sun and the winds begin to blow while it is yet dark mists begin to rise upward from damp places. 4. That the air when thoroughly heated by the sun can make vapor's rise rolling up from the earth and may be seen by means of an example drawn from baths. 4. Of course there can be no springs about the vaultings of hot bathrooms but the atmosphere in such rooms becoming well warmed by the hot air from the furnaces ceases upon the water on the floors and takes it up to the curled vaultings and holds it up there for the reason that hot vapor always pushes upwards. At first it does not let the moisture go for the quantity but as soon as it has collected a considerable amount it cannot hold it up on account of the weight but sprinkles it upon the heads of the bathers. In the same way when the atmospheric air feels the heat of the sun it draws the moisture from all about causes it to rise and gathers it into clouds for the earth gives out moisture under the influence of heat just as a man's heated body emits sweat. 5. The winds are witnesses to this fact those that are produced and come from the coolest directions the north and northeast winds blow in blasts that are rarefied by the great dryness in the atmosphere but the south wind and the others that assail us from the direction of the sunscores are very damp and always bring rain because they reach us from the warm regions after being well heated there and licking up and carrying off the moisture from the whole country they pour it out on the regions 6. That this is the state of the case may be proved by the sources of rivers the majority and the longest of which as drawn and described in the geographies of the world are found to rise in the north first in India the Ganges in Indus spring from the Caucasus in Syria the Tigris and Euphrates in Pontus in Asia the Nipur Bug and Don in Colchis the Fasis in Gaul the Rhone in Celtica on the Rhine on this side of the Alps the Timavo and Poe in Italy the Tiber in Maurusia which we call Mauritania the Deurus rising in the atlas range and running westally to Lake Heptagonus where it changes its name and is called Agar then from Lake Haptobolus it runs at the base of barren mountains flowing southerly and emptying into the marsh called it surrounds Merui which is a kingdom in southern Ethiopia and from the marsh grounds they are winding round by the rivers Astanzoba and Astoboa and a great many others it passes through the mountains to the cataract and from there it dashes down and passes to the north between Elephantis and Sain and the plains of Thebes into Egypt where it is called the Nile 7. that the source of the Nile is in Mauritania is known principally from the fact that there are other springs on the other side of the atlas range flowing into the ocean to the west and that ignomons, crocodiles and other animals and fishes of like nature are found there although there are no hippopotamuses 8. therefore since in descriptions of the world it appears that all rivers of any size flow from the north and since in the plains of Africa which are exposed to the cause of the sun in the south the moisture is deeply hidden springs not common and rivers rare it follows that the sources of springs which lie to the north or northeast are much better unless they hit upon a place which is full of sulfur, alum or asphalt in this case there are completely changed and flow in springs which have had a bad smell and taste whether the water is hot or cold 9. the fact is heat is not at all a property of water but when a stream of cold water happens upon a hot place it burles up and issues through the fissures and out of the ground in a state of heat this cannot last very long but in a short time the water becomes cold if it were naturally hot it would not cool off and loose its heat its taste however and its smell and color are not restored because it has become saturated and compounded with these qualities on account of the rarity of its nature 9. 8. Book 8, Chapter 3 of 10 Books on Architecture this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Fredrik Carlson 10 Books on Architecture by Vitruvius translated by Morris Hickey Morgan Chapter 3 Various properties of different waters 1. there are however some hot springs that supply water of the best taste which is so delightful to drink that one does not think with the regret of the fountain of Muses or the Marcian Aqueduct these hot springs are produced naturally in the following manner when fire is kindled down beneath an alum or asphalt or sulfur it makes the earth immediately over it very hot and emits a glowing heat to the parts still farther above it so that if there are any springs of sweet water found in the upper strata they begin to boil in their fissures when they are met by this heat they run out with their taste unimpaired 2. and there are some cold springs that have a bad smell and taste they rise deep down in their lowest strata across places which are on fire and then are cooled by running a long distance through the earth coming out above ground with the taste, smell and color spoiled as for instance the river Albula on the road to Tivoli and the cold springs of Ardea which have the same smell and are called sulfur springs in similar places although they are cold yet at first sight they seem to be hot for the reason that when they happen upon a burning spot deep down below the liquid and the fire meet and with a great noise at the collision they take in strong currents of air and thus swollen by a quantity of compressed wind they come out at the springs in a constant state of evolution when such springs are not open but confined by rocks the force makes them up through the narrow fissures to the summits of hills 3. Consequently those who think that they have excavated sources of springs at the height of such hills find themselves mistaken when they open up their excavations suppose a bronze vase filled not to the very lips but containing two thirds of the quantity of water which forms its capacity and with a cover placed upon it when it is subjected to a very hot fire the water must come thoroughly heated and from the rarity of its nature it greatly expands by taking in the heat so that it not only fills the vase but raises its cover by means of the currents of air in it and swells and runs over but if you take the cover off the expanding forces are released in the open air and the water settles down again to its proper level so it is where the sources of springs as long as they are confined in narrow channels the currents of air in the water rush up in bubbles to the top but as soon as they are given a wider outlet they lose the air on account of the rarity peculiar to water and so settle down and resume their proper level 4. Every hot spring has healing properties because it has been boiled with foreign substances and thus acquires a new useful quality for example sulfur springs cure pains in the sinews by warming up and burning out the corrupt humors of the body by their heat alumina springs used the treatment of limbs when enfeebled by paralysis of the stroke of any such melody introduce warmth through the open pores counteracting the chill by the opposite effect of their heat and thus equably restoring the limbs to their former condition as fault springs taken as purges cure internal maladies 5. There is also a kind of cold water containing nature found for instance at Penn in the Westin country where they lie and at other similar places it is taken as a purge and is passing through the bowels reduces scruffleous tumours copious springs are found where there are mines of gold, silver, iron copper, lead and the like but they are very harmful for they contain like hot springs sulfur, alum, asphalt and when it passes into the body in the form of drink and spreading through the veins reaches the sinews and joints it expands and hardens them and the sinews swelling with this expansion are contracted in length and so commend the cramp or the gout for the reason that their veins are saturated with very hard, dense and cold substances. 6. There is also a sort of water which since it contains that are not very perfectly clear and it floats like a flower on the surface in colour like purple glass. This may be seen particularly in Athens where there are aqueducts from places and springs leading to the city and the port of Perias from which nobody drinks for the reason mentioned but they use them for birthing and so forth and drink from wells thus avoiding their unwholesomeness. At Trötzen it cannot be avoided because no other kind of water at all is found except for the Cypdeli furnish and so in that city all or most of the people have diseases of the feet. At the city of Tarsus in Cilicia is a river named Sydenus in which gouty people soak their legs and fight relief from pain. 7. There are also many other kinds of water which have peculiar properties. For example the river Himera in Sicily which after leaving its source is divided into two branches. One flows in the direction of Etruria and has an exceedingly sweet taste in account of a sweet juice in the soil through which it runs. The other runs through our country where there are salt pits and so it has a sweet taste. At Paritonium and on the road to Amun and at Cassius in Egypt there are marshy lakes which are so salt that they have a crust of salt on the surface. In many other places there are springs and rivers and lakes which are necessarily rendered salt because they run through salt pits. 8. Others flow through such greasy veins of soil that they are overspread with oil when they are in town in Cilicia, the river named Liparis in which swimmers or bathers get anointed merely by the water. Likewise there is a lake in Ethiopia which anoints people who swim at it and one in India which emits a great quantity of oil when the sky is clear. At Carthage is a spring that has oil swimming on its surface and smelling like sawdust from Citruswood with which oil sheep are anointed. In the Synthes and about Syria are springs which discharge a great quantity of pitch with their water. In Babylon a lake of very great extent called Lake Asfaltitis has liquid asphalt swimming on its surface with which asphalt and with burnt bricks semi-ramis built the walls surrounding Babylon. At Jaffa in Syria and among the nomads in Arabia are lakes of enormous size that yield very large masses of asphalt which are carried off by the inhabitants of their bouts. 9. There is nothing marvelous in this for quarries of hard asphalt are numerous there. So when a quantity of water bursts its way through the asphaltic soil it carries asphalt out with it and after passing out of the ground the water is separated and so rejects the asphalt from itself. Again in Cappadocia on the road from Masaka to Tiana there is an extensive lake into which if a part of a reed or of some other thing be plunged and withdraw the next day it will be found that the part thus withdrawn has turned into stone while the part which remained above water retain its original nature. 10. In the same way at Hierapolis in Phrygia there is a multitude of boiling hot springs from which water is let into ditches surrounding gardens and vineyards and this water becomes an incrustation of stone at the end of a year. Hence every year they construct banks of earth to the right and left letting the water and thus out of these incrustations make walls for their fields. This seems due to natural causes since there is a juice having a coagulating potency like granite underground in those spots in that country. When this potency appears above ground mingled with spring water the mixture cannot but be hardened by the heat of the sun and air as appears in salt pits. 11. There are also springs which issue exceedingly bitter owing to a bitter juice in the soil such as the river Hypenis in Pontus. For about 40 miles from its source its taste is very sweet then it reaches a point about 160 miles from its mouth where it is joined by a very small brook. This runs into it and at once makes the vast river bitter for the reason that the water of the brook becomes bitter by flowing through the kind of soil in the veins in which there are sandaric mines. 12. These waters are given their different flavours by the properties of the soil as is also seen in the case of fruits. If the roots of trees, vines or other plants did not produce their fruits by drawing juices from soil of different properties the flowers of all would be of the same kind in all places and districts. But we find in the island of Lesbos the protropome wine in the Catasecoma Nights. In Ligia the Tumulian in Sicily the Marmotin in Campania the Philurnian between Terracina and Fondi the Caicubian and wines of countless varieties and qualities produced in many other places. This could not be the case where it not that the juice of the soil introduced with its proper flavours into the roots feeds the stem and mounting along it to the top imparts a flavour to the fruit to its situation and kind. 13. If soils were not different and unlike in their kinds of juices, Syria and Arabia would not be the only places in which the reeds, rushes and all the plants are aromatic and in which there are trees bearing frankincense or yielding pepperberries and lumps of myrrh nor would as a photograph be found only in the stalks growing in Cyrene but everything would be of the same sort and produced in the soil of all countries. It is the inclination of the firmament and the force of the sun as it draws nearer or recedes in its course that makes these diversities such as we find them in different countries and places through the nature of the soil and its juices. And not only in the case of the things mentioned but also in that of sheep and cattle, these diversities would not exist if the different properties of the soils and the juices were not qualified of the sun. 14. For instance there are in Buizia the rivers Cephesus and Melas. In Lusenia the Cratis in Troy the Santhus and certain springs in the country of the classominians the Arethrians and the Laodesians. When sheep are ready for breeding at the proper season of the year they are driven every day during the season to those rivers to drink and the result is that however white they may be they beget in some places whitey brown lambs in other places grey and in others black as a raven. Thus the peculiar character of the liquid entering their body produces in each case the quality with which it is imbued. Hence it is said that the people of Ilium gave the river Santhus its name because reddish cattle and whitey brown sheep are found in the plains of Troy near that river. 15. Deadly kinds of water also found which run through the soil containing a nauseous juice and take in its poisonous quality. For instance there is said to have been a spring at Teresina called the Spring of Neptune which caused the death of those who thoughtlessly drank from it. In consequence it is said that the ancients stopped it up. At Crubs in Thrace there is a lake which causes death not only of those who drink of it but also of those who bath in it. In Thessaly there is a gushing fountain of which sheep never taste any sort of creature drawn near to it and close by this fountain there is a tree with crimson flowers. 16. In Macedonia at the place where Euripides is buried two streams approach from the right and left of its tome and unite. By one of these travelers are in the habit of lying down and taking luncheon because its water is good but nobody goes near the stream on the other side of the tome because its water is said to be death dealing. 17. In Arsadia there is a tract of land called Nonacris which has extremely cold water trickling from a rock in the mountains. This water is called water of the sticks and no vessel, whether of silver, bronze or iron can stand it without lying to pieces and breaking up. Nothing but a mule's hoof can keep it together and hold it and tradition says that it was thus conveyed by anti-pater through his oniolas into the province where Alexander was staying and King was killed by him with this water. 17. Among the Elves in the Kingdom of Cotus there is a water those who taste of which immediately fall lifeless. In the Feliscan country on the Via Campana in the campus Cornitus is a grove in which rises a spring and there the bones of birds and of lizards and other reptiles are seen lying. Some springs are acid, as at Lund Sisters and in Italy in the Vilean country at Campania and in many other places. These when used as drinks have the power of breaking up stones in the bladder which form in the human body. 18. This seems to be due to natural causes as there is a sharp and acid juice contained in the soil there which imparts a sharpness to these springs as they issue from it and so on entering the body they disperse of all the deposits and concretions due to the use of other waters which they find in the body. Why such things are broken up by acid waters we can see from the following experiments. If an egg is left for some time in vinegar its shell will soften and dissolve. Again if a piece of lead which is very flexible and heavy is put in a vase and vinegar poured over it and the vase covered and sealed up the lead will be dissolved and turn into white lead. 19. On the same principle copper which is naturally more solid will disperse and turn into vertebrates if similarly treated so also a pearl. Even drops of lava which neither iron nor fire alone can dissolve split into pieces and dissolve when heated with fire and then sprinkled with vinegar. Hence since we see these things taking place before our very eyes we can infer that on the same principle even patients with stone may in the nature things be cured in like manner by means of acid waters on account of the sharpness of the potion. 20. Then there are springs in which wine seems to be mingled like the one in Paflagonia the water which intoxicates those who drink of the spring alone without wine. The Aquians in Italy and the tribe of the Medulli in the Alps have a kind of water which causes swellings in the throats of those who drink it. 21. In Arcadia is the well-known town of Clita in whose territory is a cave with running water which makes people who drink of it abstemious. At this spring there is an epigram in Greek verses described on stone to the effect that the water is unsuitable for bathing and also injurious to vines because it was at this spring that Malampus cleansed the daughters of Protus of their madness by sacrificial rites and restored those maidens to their former sound state of mind. The inscription runs as written below 21. Swain if by noon tide thirst though art oppressed when with a flocks to Clita is bounced those heed take from this fountain a draught and grant a rest to all thy goats the water nymphs beside. But bath not in when full of drunk cheer lest the mere vapor may bring thee to bane shun my vine-hating spring Malampus here from madness once watched Protius' daughters sane and although off-scoring here did hide when they from Argus came to rugged Arkidae. 22. In the island of Zia is a spring of which those who thoughtlessly drink lose their understanding and an epigram is cut there to the effect that a draught from the spring is delightful but that he who drinks will come dull as a stone these are the verses this stone sweet streams of cooling drink doth drip but stone his wits become who doth its sip. 23. At Susa the capital of the Persian kingdom there is a little spring those who drink of which lose their teeth an epigram is written there the significance of which is to this effect that the water is excellent for bathing but that taking as drink is teased by the roots the verses of this epigram are in Greek as follows Stranger you see the waters of a spring in which to save for men their hands to lave but if the weedy bassin entering you drink of its unpalatable wave your grinders tumble out that self-same day from jaws that orphaned sockets will display 24. There are also in some places springs which have the peculiarity of giving fine singing voices to the natives as at Tarsus in Magnesia and in other countries of that kind then there is Zama an African city which King Juba fortified by enclosing it with a double wall and he established his royal residence there 20 miles from it is the world town of Ismuk the lands belonging to which are marked off by a marvellous kind of boundary for although Africa was the mother and nurse of wild animals particularly serpents yet not one is ever born in the lands of that town and if ever one is imported and put there it dies at once and not only this but if soil is taking from this spot to another place the same is true there it is said that this kind of soil is also found in the Balearic islands the above mentioned soil has a still more wonderful property of which I have learned in the following way 25 Caius Julius Magnesia's son who owned all the lands about that town served with Caesar the father he was once my guest hence in our daily intercourse we naturally talked of literary subjects during a conversation between us on the efficacy of water and its qualities he stated that there were springs in that country of a kind which caused people born there to have fine singing voices and that consequently they always sent abroad and bought handsome lads and ripe girls and mated them so that their progeny might have not only finer voices but also beautiful forms 26 this great variety in different things is a distribution due to nature for even the human body which consists in part of the earthy contains many kinds of juices such as blood milk, sweat, urine and tears if all this variation of flavors is found in a small portion of the earthy we should not be surprised to find in the great earth itself countless varieties of juices through the veins in which the water runs and becomes saturated with them before reaching the outlets of springs in this way different varieties of springs of peculiar kinds are produced on account of diversity of situation, characteristics of country and the similar properties of soils 27 some of these things I have seen for myself others I have found written in greek books the authorities for these writings being theophrates, teemius, posidonius, hegesias, herodotus, Aristides and metrodorus these men with much attention and endless pains showed by the writings that the peculiarities of sites, the properties of waters and the characteristics of countries are conditioned by the inclination of the heaven following their investigations I have sat down in this book which I thought sufficient about different kinds of water to make it easier by means of these directions for people to pick out springs from which they can conduct the water in aqueducts for the use of cities and towns 28 for it is obvious that nothing in the world is so necessary for use as water seeing that any living creature can if deprived of grain or fruit or meat or fish or any one of them support life by using other foodstuffs but without water no animal nor any proper food can be produced kept in good condition or prepared consequently we must take great care and pains in searching for springs and selecting them keeping in view the health of mankind end of book 8 chapter 3 book 8 chapters 4 to 6 of 10 books on architecture this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Fredrik Karlsson 10 books on architecture by Vitruvius translated by Morris Hickey Morgan chapter 4 tests of good water 1 springs should be tested and proved in advance in the following ways if they run free and open inspect and observe the risk of the people who dwell in the vicinity before beginning to conduct the water and if their frames are strong their complexions fresh legs sound and eyes clear the springs deserve complete approval if it is a spring just dug out its water is excellent if it can be sprinkled into a Corinthian vase or into any other sort made of good bronze without leaving a spot on it again if such water is boiled in a bronze cauldron afterwards left for a time and then poured off without sand or mud being found at the bottom of the cauldron that water also will have proved its excellence 2 and if green vegetables cook quickly when put into a vessel of such water and set over fire it will be approved that the water is good and wholesome likewise if the water in the spring is itself limpid and clear if there is no growth of moss or reeds where it spreads and flows and if its bed is not polluted by filth of any sort but has a clean appearance these signs indicate that the water is light and wholesome in the highest degree 5 leveling and leveling instruments 1 I shall not treat of the ways in which water should be conducted to dwellings and cities first comes the method of taking the level leveling is done either with horizontal levels or with the corrobates but it is done with great accuracy by means of the corrobates because dioptri and levels are deceptive the corrobates is a straight edge about 20 feet long at the extremities it has legs made exactly alike and jointed on perpendicularly to the extremities of the straight edge and also cross pieces fastened by tendons connecting the straight edge and the legs these cross pieces have vertical lines drawn upon them and there are plumb lines hanging from the straight edge over each of the lines when the straight edge is in position and the plumb lines strike both the lines alike and at the same time they show that the instrument stands level 2 but if the wind interposes and constant motion prevents any definite indication by the lines then have a grove on the upper side 5 feet long 1 digit wide and a digit and a half deep 4 water into it if the water comes up uniformly to the rims of the groom it will be known that the instrument is level when the level is thus found by the means of the corrobates the amount of fall will also be known 3 perhaps some reader of the works of Archimedes will say that there can be no true leveling by means of water because he holds that water has not a level surface but is of a spherical form having its center at the center of the earth still where the water is plane or spherical it necessarily follows that when the straight edge is level it will support the water evenly at its extremities on the right and left but that it slopes down at one end the water at the higher end will not reach the rim of the grove in the straight edge for though the water wherever poured in must have a swelling and curvature in the center yet the extremities on the right and left must be on a level with each other a picture of the corrobates will be found drawn at the end of the book if there is to be a considerable fall the conducting of the water will be comparatively easy but if the course is broken by depressions we must have recourse to substructures 6 aqueducts, wells and cisterns 1 there are three methods of conducting water in channels through masonry conduits or in lead pipes or in pipes of baked clay if in conduits let the masonry be as solid as possible and let the bed of the channel have a gradient of not less than a quarter of an inch for every hundred feet and let the masonry structure be arched over so that the sun may not strike the water at all when it has reached the city build a reservoir with a distribution tank and three compartments connected with the reservoir to receive the water and let the reservoir have three pipes, one for each of the connecting tanks so that when the water runs over from the tanks at the ends it may run into the one between them 2 from this central tank, pipes will be laid to all the basins and fountains from the second tank to baths so that they may yield an annual income to the state and from the third to private houses the water for public use will not run short for people will be unable to divert it if they have only their own supplies from headquarters this is the reason why I have made these divisions and also in order that individuals who take water into their houses may by their taxes help to maintain the conducting of the water by the contractors 3 if, however, there are hills between the city and the source of supply subterranean channels must be dug and brought to a level at the gradient mentioned above if the bed is of tufa or other stone let the channel be cut in it but if it is of earth or sand there must be a vaulted masonry walls for the channel and if the water should thus be conducted with shafts built at every 240 feet 4 but if the water is to be conducted in lead pipes first build a reservoir at the source then let the pipes have an interior area corresponding to the amount of water and lay these pipes from this reservoir to the reservoir which is inside the city walls the pipes should be cast in lengths of at least 10 feet if they are hundreds they should weigh 1200 pounds each length if 80's 960 pounds if 50's 600 pounds 40's 480 pounds 30's 160 pounds 20's 240 pounds 15's 180 pounds 10's 120 pounds 8's 100 pounds 5's 60 pounds the pipes get the names of their sizes from the width of the plates taken in ditches before they are rolled into tubes thus when a pipe is made from a plate 50 ditches in width it will be called a 50 and so on with the rest 5's the conducting of the water through lead pipes is to be managed as follows if there is regular fall from the source to the city without any intervening hills there are high enough to interrupt it but with depressions in it then we must build substructures to bring it up to the level as in the case of channels and conduits if the distance rounds as depressions is not great the water may be carried round circuitlessly but if the valleys are extensive the course will be directed down their slope on reaching the bottom a low substructure is built so that the level there may continue as long as possible this will form the ventor termed coilia by the Greeks then on reaching the hill on the opposite side the length of the ventor makes the water slow in swelling up to rise to the top of the hill 6's but if there is no such ventor made in the valleys substructure built on a level but merely an elbow the water will break out and burst the joints of the pipes and in the ventor water cations must be constructed to relieve the pressure of the air thus those who have to conduct water through lead pipes will do it most successfully on these principles because its descents circuits, ventors and risings can be managed in this way when the level of the fall from the sources to the city is once obtained 7 it is also not ineffectual to build reservoirs at intervals of 24,000 feet so that if a break occurs anywhere it will not completely ruin the whole work and the place where it has occurred can easily be found but such reservoirs should not be built at a descent nor in the plain of a ventor nor at risings nor anywhere in valleys but only where there is an unbroken level 8 but if we wish to spend less money we must proceed as follows clay pipes with a skin at least 2 digits thick should be made but these pipes should be tongued at one end so that they can fit into and join one another their joints must be coated with quick line mixed with oil and at the angles at the level of the ventor a piece of red tooth stone with a hole bored through it must be placed right at the elbow so that the last length of pipe used in the descent is jointed into the stone and also the first length of the level of the ventor similarly at the hill on the opposite side the last length of the level of the ventor should stick into the hole in the red tootha and the first of the rise should be similarly jointed into it 9 the level of the pipes being thus adjusted they will not be sprung out of place by the force generated at the descent and at the rising for a strong current of air is generated in an aqueduct which bursts its way even through stones unless the water is let in slowly and sparingly from the source at first and checked at the elbows or turns by bands or by the weight of sand ballast all the other arrangements should be made as in the case of lead pipes and ashes are to be put in beforehand when the water is let in from the source for the first time so that if any of the joints have not been sufficiently coated they may be coated with ashes 10 clay pipes for conducting water have the following advantages in the first place, in construction if anything happens to them anybody can repair the damage secondly, water from clay pipes is much more wholesome than that which is conducted through lead pipes because lead is found to be harmful for the reason that white lead is derived from it and this is said to be hurtful to the human system hence, if what is produced from it is harmful no doubt the thing itself is not wholesome 11 this we can exemplify from plumbers since in them the natural colors of the body is replaced by a deep pallor for when lead is smelted in casting the fumes from it settle upon their members and day after day burn out and take away all the virtues of the blood of the limbs hence, water ought by no means to be conducted in lead pipes if we want to have it wholesome that the taste is better when it comes from clay pipes may be proved by everyday life for though our tables are loaded with silver vessels yet everybody uses earthenware for the sake of purity of taste 12 but if there are no springs from which we can construct aqueducts it is necessary to dig wells in the beginning of wells we must not disdain reflection but must devote much acuteness and skill to the consideration of the natural principles of things because the earth contains many various substances in itself for like everything else it is composed of the four elements in the first place it is itself earthy and of moisture it contains springs of water also heat which produces sulfur, alum and asphalt and finally it contains kernels of air which coming up in a pregnant state through the porous fishes to the places where wells are being dug and finding men engaged in digging there stop up the breadth of life in the nostrils by the natural strength of the exhalation so those who do not quickly escape from the spot are killed there 13 to guard against this we must proceed as follows let down a lighted lamp deeps on burning a man may make the descent without danger but if the light is put out by the strength of the exhalation then dig air shafts beside the well on the right and left thus the vapors will be carried off by the air shafts as if through nostrils when these are finished and we come to the water then a wall should be built around the well without stopping up the vein 14 but if the ground is hard or if the veins lie too deep the water supply must be obtained from roofs or higher ground and collected in cisterns of signinium work signinium work is made as follows in the first place procure the cleanest and sharpest sand break up lava into bits of not more than a pound in weight and mix the sand in a motor trough with the strongest lime in the proportion of five parts of sands to two of lime the trench for the signinium work down to all of the proposed depth of the cistern should be beaten with wooden beetles covered with iron 15 then after having beaten the walls let all the earth between them be cleared out to a level with the very bottom of the walls having even this off let the ground be beaten to the proper density if such constructions are in two compartments or in three so as to ensure clearing by changing one to another they will make the water much more wholesome and sweeter to use for it will become more limpid and keep its taste without any smell if the mud has somewhere to settle otherwise it will be necessary to clear it by adding salt in this book I have put what I could about the merits and varieties of water its usefulness and the ways in which it should be conducted and tested in the next I shall write about the subject and the principles of time pieces end of book 8