Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, known as Vitruvius, was a Roman architect who lived in the 1st century BC. AD (his birth is around 90 BC and his death around 20 BC). His name Marcus and his nickname (cognomen) Pollio are in themselves uncertain. It is from his treatise “De architectura” that most of the knowledge about the construction techniques of classical antiquity comes to us.
Most of the known facts about his life come from his only work, " De architectura ", considered one of the most valuable writings of classical ancient architecture. However, he seems to be known to Pliny the Elder who evokes him in his description of mosaic construction in Naturalis Historia without explicitly mentioning his name. Frontin refers to the "Vitruvian architect" in his late first century treatise On Aqueducts.
After having been a soldier in Gaul, Spain and Greece, a manufacturer of war machines, Vitruvius became an architect in Rome. In his writings, Vitruvius tells of himself that he is not a very tall person, and complains of the pains of age. On the other hand, his prose, both technical and pictorial, consists mainly of short sentences, and his vocabulary seems to have been that of artisans.
Known primarily for his writings, Vitruvius was an important architect. In Roman Antiquity, architecture was understood as a broad field that included construction management, civil engineering, chemical engineering, construction, materials engineering, mechanical engineering, military engineering, and urban planning. Frontin mentions Vitruvius as part of standardizing the size of the pipe.
The only building, however, that we know to be attributed to Vitruvius is a basilica completed in 19 BC. It was built in Fanum Fortunae, nowadays the modern city of Fano. The basilica of Fano has completely disappeared, so its site is still uncertain despite several attempts to locate it. The Christian transformation of the Roman civil basilica into a basilica church suggests that the basilica could be integrated into the current Cathedral of Fano. Leonardo da Vinci made a work of this architect, because for him this deserved to be exposed and not ignored
