De architectura

(, published as ) is a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus, as a guide for building projects. The work is one of the most important sources of modern knowledge of Roman building methods, as well as the planning and design of structures, both large (aqueducts, buildings, baths, harbours) and small (machines, measuring devices, instruments). It is also the prime source of the famous story of Archimedes and his bath-time discovery.