of Augustus, that is, twenty-five years before the 
Christian æra, inasmuch as he speaks of a temple 
erected to Augustus, in his Basilica at Fano. 
He was, as may be collected from his writings, 
by no means a successful professor, though well 
born and well educated, and certainly, notwith¬ 
standing the common sophisms of the age vhich 
appear in his work, a man of no ordinary talent. 
He was no less a military than a civil architect, as 
may be gathered from the introduction to his first 
book, as well as from the rules, now incompre¬ 
hensible, but doubtless in his time sufficiently 
clear, laid down in the tenth book, respecting 
military engines. From the introduction to the 
third book we learn, that he was of small stature, 
and lived to some age. That he should have met 
with opposition from his brethren is quite conso¬ 
nant with later experience, for the rabble of igno¬ 
rant builders, and artisans, and draftsmen, who in 
the present day call themselves architects, and meet 
with considerable patronage, are of the same class 
as those that flourished subsequently to the time of 
our author, even in the time of Michael Angelo da 
Buonaroti.