Vitruvius - Lists of Names Given in Book VII Introduction

Lists of Names Given in Book VII Introduction

In book seven's introduction Vitruvius goes through great lengths to present his credentials for writing De Architectura. Similar in concept to a modern day reference section, the author's position as one who is knowledgeable and educated is established. The topics listed range across many fields of expertise reflecting that in Roman times as today construction is a diverse field. Vitruvius makes the further point that the work of some of the most talented are unknown, while many who are of lesser talent but greater political position are famous. This theme runs through Vitruvius’s ten books repeatedly. Here in the introduction to Chapter 7, he illustrates this by naming what he considers are the most talented individuals in history. He predicts that some of these individuals will be forgotten and their works lost despite their contribution while other less deserving political characters of history will be forever remembered with pageantry; the red links below do not have a Wikipedia page and outside of inclusion on Vitruvius’s list under a categorization, nothing is known of them. Ironically, they may be unknown because the ancient Library of Alexandria was accidentally burned in 48 BC during a siege by Julius Caesar. Vitruvius does not mention the architecture of Egypt so was probably not involved in this siege.

List of physicists Thales, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Xenophanes
List of philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus
List of kings Croesus, Alexander the Great, Darius
On plagiarism Aristophanes, Ptolemy I Soter, Attalus
On abusing dead authors Zoilus Homeromastix, Ptolemy II Philadelphus
On divergence of the visual rays Agatharchus, Aeschylus, Democritus, Anaxagoras
List of writers on temples Silenus, Theodorus, Chersiphron and Metagenes, Ictinus and Carpion, Theodorus the Phocian, Hermogenes, Arcesius, Satyrus and Pytheos
List of Artists Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas, Praxiteles, Timotheus (Timotheos)
List of writers on laws of symmetry Nexaris, Theocydes, Demophilus, Pollis, Leonidas, Silanion, Melampus, Sarnacus, Euphranor
List of writers on machinery Diades of Pella, Archytas, Archimedes, Ctesibius, Nymphodorus, Philo of Byzantium, Diphilus, Democles, Charias, Polyidus of Thessaly, Pyrrus, Agesistratus, Abdaraxus
List of writers on architecture Fuficius, Terentius Varro, Publius Septimius (writer)
List of architects Antistates, Callaeschrus, Antimachides, Pormus, Cossutius
List of greatest temple architects Chersiphron of Gnosus, Metagenes, Demetrius, Paeonius the Milesian, Ephesian Daphnis, Ictinus, (Philo) Philon, Cossutius, Gaius Mucius

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“Behold the Atom—I preferred—
To all the lists of Clay!”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)

“Behold then Septimus Dodge returning to Dodge-town victorious. Not crowned with laurel, it is true, but wreathed in lists of things he has seen and sucked dry. Seen and sucked dry, you know: Venus de Milo, the Rhine or the Coloseum: swallowed like so many clams, and left the shells.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)

“A knowledge that people live close by is,
I think, enough. And even if only first names are ever exchanged
The people who own them seem rock-true and marvelously self-sufficient.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)

“Remember thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

“I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.”
—Pope Gregory VII (c. 1020–1085)

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—Anonymous Stepparent. Making It as a Stepparent, by Claire Berman, introduction (1980, repr. 1986)