Ten Books on Architecture | Page 5

for a work, there are many the
underlying idea of whose employment he should be able to explain to
inquirers. For instance, suppose him to set up the marble statues of
women in long robes, called Caryatides, to take the place of columns,
with the mutules and coronas placed directly above their heads, he will
give the following explanation to his questioners. Caryae, a state in
Peloponnesus, sided with the Persian enemies against Greece; later the
Greeks, having gloriously won their freedom by victory in the war,
made common cause and declared war against the people of Caryae.
They took the town, killed the men, abandoned the State to desolation,
and carried off their wives into slavery, without permitting them,
however, to lay aside the long robes and other marks of their rank as
married women, so that they might be obliged not only to march in the
triumph but to appear forever after as a type of slavery, burdened with
the weight of their shame and so making atonement for their State.
Hence, the architects of the time designed for public buildings statues
of these women, placed so as to carry a load, in order that the sin and
the punishment of the people of Caryae might be known and handed
down even to posterity.
[Illustration: Photo. H. B. Warren CARYATIDES OF THE
ERECHTHEUM AT ATHENS]
[Illustration: CARYATIDES FROM THE TREASURY OF THE
CNIDIANS AT DELPHI]
[Illustration: Photo. Anderson CARYATIDES NOW IN THE VILLA
ALBANI AT ROME]
[Illustration: CARYATIDES (From the edition of Vitruvius by Fra
Giocondo, Venice, 1511)]

6. Likewise the Lacedaemonians under the leadership of Pausanias, son
of Agesipolis, after conquering the Persian armies, infinite in number,
with a small force at the battle of Plataea, celebrated a glorious triumph
with the spoils and booty, and with the money obtained from the sale
thereof built the Persian Porch, to be a monument to the renown and
valour of the people and a trophy of victory for posterity. And there
they set effigies of the prisoners arrayed in barbarian costume and
holding up the roof, their pride punished by this deserved affront, that
enemies might tremble for fear of the effects of their courage, and that
their own people, looking upon this ensample of their valour and
encouraged by the glory of it, might be ready to defend their
independence. So from that time on, many have put up statues of
Persians supporting entablatures and their ornaments, and thus from
that motive have greatly enriched the diversity of their works. There are
other stories of the same kind which architects ought to know.
7. As for philosophy, it makes an architect high-minded and not
self-assuming, but rather renders him courteous, just, and honest
without avariciousness. This is very important, for no work can be
rightly done without honesty and incorruptibility. Let him not be
grasping nor have his mind preoccupied with the idea of receiving
perquisites, but let him with dignity keep up his position by cherishing
a good reputation. These are among the precepts of philosophy.
Furthermore philosophy treats of physics (in Greek [Greek:
physiologia]) where a more careful knowledge is required because the
problems which come under this head are numerous and of very
different kinds; as, for example, in the case of the conducting of water.
For at points of intake and at curves, and at places where it is raised to a
level, currents of air naturally form in one way or another; and nobody
who has not learned the fundamental principles of physics from
philosophy will be able to provide against the damage which they do.
So the reader of Ctesibius or Archimedes and the other writers of
treatises of the same class will not be able to appreciate them unless he
has been trained in these subjects by the philosophers.
8. Music, also, the architect ought to understand so that he may have
knowledge of the canonical and mathematical theory, and besides be

able to tune ballistae, catapultae, and scorpiones to the proper key. For
to the right and left in the beams are the holes in the frames through
which the strings of twisted sinew are stretched by means of windlasses
and bars, and these strings must not be clamped and made fast until
they give the same correct note to the ear of the skilled workman. For
the arms thrust through those stretched strings must, on being let go,
strike their blow together at the same moment; but if they are not in
unison, they will prevent the course of projectiles from being straight.
[Illustration: PERSIANS
(From the edition of Vitruvius by Fra Giocondo, Venice, 1511)]
9. In theatres, likewise, there are the bronze vessels (in Greek [Greek:
êcheia]) which are placed in niches under the seats in accordance with
the musical