VITRU'VIUS POL'LIO, MARCUS. A distin guished Roman architect and engineer of the first century B.C., and the author of the earliest extant work on architecture. The place and exact date, alike of his birth and death, are uncertain; but it seems most probable that he was born in Formbe in the first quarter of the century and died during the later years of the reign of Augus tus (n.c. 30-14). His fame rests chiefly on his great work, De Architecture : but he was also the architect of the basilica and -Edes Augusti at Fano, and probably of other buildings, and the custodian of the Imperial engines of war. The was pensioned for life by Julius Caesar.
The work De Architeetura Libri Dceem, by which he is chiefly known, was composed in the later years of his life, and consists of disserta tions upon a wide variety of subjects relating to architecture, engineering and sanitation, prac tical hydraulics, acoustic vases, and the like. It was long lost, but was rediscovered in the fifteenth century in a manuscript at Saint Gall; the oldest manuscript dates from the tenth century, and much doubt has been cast upon the authenticity of certain portions of the text, which suggest the age of Diocletian rather than of Augustus. It
has been studied for the past four centuries as a thesaurus of the practice and theory of building in the Augustan age; but the tendency is now to regard it rather as the work of a theorizer and student of Greek authorities than as the product of practical experience. It was the object of special study, comment, and annotation during the period of the Renaissance. The earliest printed edition was that of Sulpitius (Rome, 1486) the standard modern edition is by Rose (Leipzig, 1339) see also Nohl. Index (Leip zig, 1376). English translations are by Newton (London, 1771-91) and Gwilt 1326; printed 1S74).