Vitruvius

Hello. My name is Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, and I lived a very long time ago in ancient Rome. Ever since I was a child, I loved to build things and figure out how they worked. I lived in a world filled with grand temples and long stone roads, and I always wondered how they were made. I wanted to create buildings that were not only big and impressive but also smart and beautiful. My dream was to discover the best ways to build things so they would be strong enough to last for many, many years.

When I was a young man, I joined the Roman army. But I wasn't a soldier who fought in battles. I was an engineer. Around the year 50 BCE, I had the important job of working with the famous general, Julius Caesar. My role was to use my knowledge of math and physics to help the army. I designed and built powerful war machines, like catapults that could throw large stones across great distances. It was a very important job that required careful planning to make sure everything worked just right.

After my time in the army, the kind Emperor Augustus helped me so that I would have time to write down all of my ideas. I wrote a very large book made of ten smaller books, which I called 'De architectura.' In your language, that means 'On Architecture.' In my book, I shared my three most important rules for any building. I believed every building must be strong, which I called firmitas. It also had to be useful for the people inside it, which I called utilitas. Finally, it had to be beautiful to look at, which I called venustas. These three rules were the secret to creating wonderful buildings.

My book became very famous because it was one of the only ones about architecture from my time that survived through the centuries. Hundreds of years later, my ideas about the perfect shapes of the human body inspired a great artist named Leonardo da Vinci. He used my writings to create his famous drawing, the 'Vitruvian Man.' I lived a full life, and I am happy that my ideas about building things that are strong, useful, and beautiful still help architects all over the world today.