Vitruvius Pollio

Little is known for certain about his life, but he is generally placed in the age of Julius Caesar and Augustus and is often described as a Roman architect and military engineer. The name most commonly attached to him is Vitruvius, sometimes expanded to Marcus Vitruvius Pollio.

His lasting fame comes from De architectura (On Architecture), a ten-book work that brings together practical building advice with broader ideas about proportion, planning, water systems, temples, machines, and the education of an architect. It is the only major ancient Roman treatise on architecture to survive complete.

The book became especially important many centuries later during the Renaissance, when artists and architects turned to it for guidance on classical design. Vitruvius is also closely linked to the famous idea that the human body can express ideal proportion, a concept that helped inspire Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.