Ten Books on Architecture (De Architectura)

Furthermore, if we are not deceived by conjecture, we believe that this Marcus Aurelius was the father of that M. Aurelius Cotta who served as consul under Tiberius together with M. Valerius Messalla. Indeed, in the consular records he is called the son of M. and grandson of M. As for Cn. Cornelius, he is the one who was an Augur while Augustus was Emperor, or that Cornelius Cinna who was consul under the same Emperor with Valerius Messalla Volusus. However that may be, it is most certain that the commanders of war machines in that century, as in our own, were always held in great esteem, but especially in the camps. Furthermore, that he took charge of such machines in war seems to be derived clearly from what he relates in Book X, Chapter 16, where he writes thus regarding the ratios of ballistae:

original: "Itaque, ut etiam qui Geometriae, Arithmeticaeque rationes non noverint, habeant expeditum, ne in periculo bellico cogitationibus detineantur, quae ipse faciendo certa cognovi, quaeque in parte accepi a praeceptoribus, finita exponam."
Translation: "And so, so that even those who do not know the principles of geometry and arithmetic may have an easy method, and not be held back by thoughts during the danger of war, I shall explain the finished results which I have known for certain through doing, and which I have partly received from my teachers."

But just as he was in charge of machines in war, so in time of peace he was set in charge of constructing public buildings: among which is numbered that noble Basilica which he placed and oversaw the construction of at the Colonia Iulia Fanestris modern Fano, Italy, as he himself relates in Book V, Chapter 1. He does not teach who his teachers were, nor have we received it from others: it is certain that he provided himself with a most dense and abundant store of knowledge pertaining to architecture not only from Latin authors but from the excellent authors of all Greece. For we have it that he not only read the writings of Archimedes, Archytas, and Aristoxenus, but also had in his hands the commentaries of Aristarchus, Eratosthenes, Berosus, Ctesibius, Athenaeus, Diades, Eudoxus, Apollonius, and other mechanics and geometers. It is also clearer than light itself that he took from the book which Aristotle wrote on mechanics those things which he inserted in Chapter 8 of Book X, dealing with the extension and rounding of machines for the lifting of weights.