Author: Vitruvius

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born around 80 BC, died after 15 BC) was a Roman architect and military engineer who built and maintained artillery for the armies of Julius Caesar. Almost nothing of his own construction is known apart from a basilica he says he raised at Fano, and he appears to have written his treatise late in life, supported by a pension that Augustus arranged through his sister Octavia. His reputation rests entirely on De architectura, which survived in medieval copies and drew fresh attention after Poggio Bracciolini found one at the Abbey of St Gall in 1414. Alberti, Palladio and later Renaissance architects treated it as their foundation text.