(, published as ) is a treatise on
architecture written by the
Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and dedicated to his patron, the emperor
Caesar Augustus, as a guide for building projects. The work is one of the most important sources of modern knowledge of Roman building methods, as well as the planning and design of structures, both large (aqueducts, buildings, baths, harbours) and small (machines, measuring devices, instruments). It is also the prime source of the famous story of
Archimedes and his bath-time discovery.