houses for each and every class.

CHAPTER III

THE DEPARTMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE

1. There are three departments of architecture: the art of building, the
making of timepieces, and the construction of machinery. Building is, in
its turn, divided into two parts, of which the first is the construction
of fortified towns and of works for general use in public places, and
the second is the putting up of structures for private individuals.
There are three classes of public buildings: the first for defensive,
the second for religious, and the third for utilitarian purposes. Under
defence comes the planning of walls, towers, and gates, permanent
devices for resistance against hostile attacks; under religion, the
erection of fanes and temples to the immortal gods; under utility, the
provision of meeting places for public use, such as harbours, markets,
colonnades, baths, theatres, promenades, and all other similar
arrangements in public places.

2. All these must be built with due reference to durability,
convenience, and beauty. Durability will be assured when foundations are
carried down to the solid ground and materials wisely and liberally
selected; convenience, when the arrangement of the apartments is
faultless and presents no hindrance to use, and when each class of
building is assigned to its suitable and appropriate exposure; and
beauty, when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste,
and when its members are in due proportion according to correct
principles of symmetry.

CHAPTER IV

THE SITE OF A CITY

1. For fortified towns the following general principles are to be
observed. First comes the choice of a very healthy site. Such a site
will be high, neither misty nor frosty, and in a climate neither hot nor
cold, but temperate; further, without marshes in the neighbourhood. For
when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring
with them mists from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous
breath of the creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of
the inhabitants, they will make the site unhealthy. Again, if the town
is on the coast with a southern or western exposure, it will not be
healthy, because in summer the southern sky grows hot at sunrise and is
fiery at noon, while a western exposure grows warm after sunrise, is hot
at noon, and at evening all aglow.

2. These variations in heat and the subsequent cooling off are harmful
to the p