On the Art of Building

...how many times has it burned? How many times has it blazed? When the city of the Sybarites had been harassed again and again, and again abandoned, and again destroyed, it finally remained deserted. Indeed, even for those fleeing from there, misfortune followed; for when they had moved themselves elsewhere and cast off the original name of the city, they were nevertheless unable to remain free from calamity. For when new inhabitants burst in, all the oldest and primary families were destroyed by iron and slaughter, and they perished utterly along with their temples and the city. But let us leave these things, of which the histories are most full. Let this be established among us: that it is the mark of a man who is not a fool to attempt to undertake everything so that the care and expense of building will not be in vain, and so that the work itself may be lasting and most wholesome. And truly, in executing so great a matter, it is the duty of a wise and well-considering man to have omitted nothing. Is it not the greatest thing for you and yours to undertake that which makes for health, which is suitable for leading a life with dignity and pleasure, and which contributes to the posterity and fame of your name? There you have the study of the best things; there you have your children and your sweet family; there are the days of leisure and business; there the accounts of your whole life will be consumed. So that I suppose there is nothing to be found in the life of the human race, except virtue, to which one should devote greater care, effort, and diligence than to dwelling well with one's family in safety. And who is there who can affirm that one can dwell well while neglecting these things which we have recounted? But enough of this. It follows that we should investigate the building site. In choosing a site, whatever we have argued regarding the region must be observed. For just as a region is a certain selected part of some larger province, so an area is a certain prescribed and defined space of the whole region, which is occupied for the purpose of having a building. For this reason, an area has almost everything in common with the region that pertains to praise or blame. But even though these things are so, this inquiry and consideration still has certain precepts that seem to belong solely and properly to the area. There are also some that not only pertain to the prescription of the area, but in many respects also pertain to the reasons for the region; and they are of this kind: for it is necessary to consider whether we are undertaking a public work or a private one, a sacred one or a profane one, and...