Full text: Vitruvius: The architecture of M. Vitruvius Pollio

LIFE OF VITRUVIUS. 
for not opposing the same request from the cities of Asia. I will therefore explain ihe reasen of my silence then, and my 
resolution for the future. The divine Augustus, whose words and actions are to me as so many inviolable laws, having 
consented that the people of Pergamus should dedicate a temple to him and the city of Rome, I thought I might follw 
so great an example ; so much the rather, as the veneration paid to me was joined with that due to the senate: but as 
receiving such honour for once may be pardoned; so to be adored in effigy as a god through all the provinces, would 
appear ambitious and proud, and detract from the honour of Augustus, by making such adoration common. 
This speech evidently implies, that Augustus did not permit many temples to be erected to him; for had 
he done so, as Tiberius refused and condemned the repetition of that honour, it would have been condemning 
Augustus, whose words and actions he was so emulous to follow, and deviating from those actions, by 
refusing the honours which Augustus often permitted. 
Suetonius (in Augus. s. 52.) says, Augustus permitted no temples to be efected to him in any of the pro¬ 
vinces, unless dedicated jointly to him and the city of Rome. Yet Vitruvius ascribes that at Fano to Augustus 
only; which is as strong an evidence, as history can afford, that it was not erected in his reign. 
Should it be alleged that Vitruvius might, from negligence, name Augustus only, although the temple 
may have been dedicated jointly to him and Rome, it may be answered, that if Augustus thought proper, 
from motives of delicacy or policy, to permit no temple to be dedicated to himself alone, it is not probable that 
any author in his time would presume so to express it. 
After the death of Augustus, when Numericus Atticus had pretended that he saw his soul ascend to heaven, 
temples were erected to him. Tacitus (An. i. xi.) fays, after his funeral, a temple and religious rites were 
decreed him; and (l. i. f. 72.) fays, that in the time of Tiberius a temple was built to Augustus at Taragon 
in Spain, which served as an example to all the other provinces. It is therefore probable that it was at this 
time the temple of Augustus at Fano was built ; and, if so, Vitruvius must have written several years after 
the reign of Augustus. 
Vitruvius (Book III. Ch. II.) mentions the temple of Julius Caesar: and several authors, as Plutarch, Sue- 
tonius, Dio, and others, fay Augustus erected this temple on that spot in the forum where Cæsar's body 
was burnt. There is also a medal of Augustus that bears the resemblance of this temple. See Nardini, p. 234. 
In the same chapter, Vitruvius mentions the temple of Venus in Casar's forum; and this temple, although 
it was begun, and the foundation of it laid, by ulius Caesa,is said to have ben finished by Augustus. Seeklooks 
Rom. Hist. vol. i. P. 4— We find there allo mentioned the temple of Ceres at the Circus Maximus: and this 
e) Te hre cdlnns in Cmpo Vacio at omnene vih 7 deg fand opolte he enpe Coneochonbesor nhere ern 
much pobliy thoucht a be the remains of dis enple; thei ancientauchors defribe the enple d Cein tohane stod. Re 
intercolumniation being of that pecies Vitruvius assigns to it: and  Montfaucor's Antiq. vol. i. cn. 17.
	        
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