OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
zviii 
te h ens eten on e e onehen e ei en e ene laeiae ele 
enrotin Vineins bok o e pet o it fon her glig o ehend. 
The ibore circundances render it probalée that Viruviug pubihed his wok in the reign of Titus: bur 
he had pebaby ben vriling and comfoing it for feverel pears pior to its publeation; for he lyg i lag 
es hin nueh sich and he uered and igen ehen he pelihelite. he ua als enge in e ehaien an 
eriner in de ary, it cannot be sopposed that he could compole so lage a work in à few years, or during 
the chot reign of Titus; but most lkely wrote it at diffrent times, and in the intervals of leisure that his 
professon loved hin. This the folovinig rematks vil lal ontrbute to render probalble. 
Vitruvius (book vili. chap. iv.) speaking of the properties of a spring near Ismuc in Africa, says be had ihe 
acoint from C. Julius, the son of Mafnisa, to wobom ihe lands of the tovon belonged; aubo was in the aruny with Cesar 
the father, and used to be bis (Vitruvius'e) guest. e C. Jalius, Masinisae silius, cujus erant totius oppidi agrorum posesione, 
cum patre Cesare militavit, is bospitio meo et usus. —: Cum patre Cæesare,' witb the fatber Casar, is an extraord- 
nary expression, and seems to relate to a time when there were two Caesars, father and son, reigning together: 
this was the case with Vespasian and Titus; they reigned jointly. Pliny frequently speaks of them in that 
light (see book iii. ch. v. and Suet. in Tit. vi.) ; and the words are perfectly proper, in such a case, to 
distinguish the father from the son Caesar. C. Julius, by his father’s name, and his possessions in that country, 
was probably an African; and joined this father Cæsar, whoever he may have been, in that country. Now 
it is known that Vespasian commanded in Africa, of which province he had the government before he came 
to the empire; and there he married his wife Domitilla, an African lady. Vitruvius was an engineer; he 
therefore may have been also there, in Vespasian's army. 
It appears, by the proem to the first book, that Vitruvius had been known to this father Caesar and his 
family, as he must have been to the general in whose army he served as an engineer. All these circumstances 
therefore agree well with the supposition, that Vitruvius wrote this passage in the time of Vespasian, although 
he might not publish his work till the time when Titus reigned alone; and that Vespasian was the emperor 
Vitruvius alludes to by the words cum patre Caesare. Some have thought the words cum patre Casare re- 
ferred to Julius Cæsar; but divo Cæsare would in that case have been properly used, as at book iii. chap. ii. 
for Cæsar was deified. Galiani however, under that idea, has endeavoured to ascertain who C. Julius and 
Masinissa were, and the time they lived, in order to fix that of Vitruvius. He gives up the idea of Masinissa 
being the famous African king of that name who joined with Scipio, as having been dead too long before the 
time of Augustus to suppose he could have had a son in the army at that time; as also of Julius being written 
instead of Juba; and then suggests an alteration of the text, of Masintha for Masinissa, because one of that 
name is mentioned by Suetonius in Julius Cæsar's life: but all the copies have Masinissa, and there is no 
ground for the alteration. 
(5*) The dedication, or first proem, as it is named, was probably 
written at the time of publication, although other parts of the 
book may have been written before. It appears to be erroneousty 
called the proem: as that which has been marked the first chapter 
leems rather to have been intended as the proem of the first book: 
it consisting of introductory matter, like those of the other books. 
In some other parts of the work also, what appears to have been 
intended by Vitruvius as part of the proem of a book, has been 
separated by the copyists, and divided into chapters. See the first 
three chapters of the ninth book.