VITRUVIOUS

TEN BOOKS OF ARCHITECTURE

Book V
• The forum and basilica
• The treasury, prison, and senate house
• The theatre: its site, foundations, and acoustics
• Harmonics
• Sounding vessels in the theatre
• Plan of the theatre
• Greek theatres
• Acoustics of the site of a theatre
• Colonnades and walks
• Baths
• The palaestra
• Harbours, breakwaters, and shipyards
 THE FORUM
AND BASILICA
Forum
•Outdoor public space
•Square plan
•Surrounded by double
colonnades
•1st floor is a walking space
•Proportionate scale
•1st floor height will be
¼ times less than the ground
floor height
•In the colonnades put the bankers' offices; and have
balconies on the upper floor properly arranged so as to
be convenient, and to bring in some public revenue.
•The size of a forum should be proportionate to the
number of inhabitants, so that it may not be too small a
space to be useful, nor look like a desert waste for lack of
population.
•B = 2/3 L
Basilica
•Indoor meeting place
•Adjacent to forum (on the
warmest side because of
winter).
•1/3 L < B < 1/2 L
•Height of basilica = breadth of
side aisle .
•Breadth of aisle = 1/3 times
breadth of middle open
space.
•1st floor height will be ¼ times
less than the ground floor
height.
•Symmetrical plan.
•Basilicas of the greatest dignity and beauty 20 ft 60 ft 20 ft
may also be constructed in the style of Fano.
•In the middle, the main roof between the
columns is 120 feet long and 60 feet wide.
•The columns, of unbroken height, measuring

120 ft
with their capitals fifty feet, and being each five
feet thick.
•The spaces remaining between the beams
supported by the pilasters and the columns, are
left for windows .
THE TREASURY,
PRISON, AND SENATE HOUSE
•The treasury, prison, and senate house ought to adjoin the
forum, but in such a way that their dimensions may be
proportionate to those of the forum.
•The senate house should be constructed with special regard
to the importance of the town or city.
•If L=B, then H = 1.5 B.
•If L≠ B, then H = (L+B)/2.
•The inside walls should be girdled, with coronae made of
woodwork or of stucco.
THE THEATRE
SITE, FOUNDATIONS, AND ACOUSTICS
•a site as healthy as possible should be selected for the theatre.
•If winds come from marshy districts or from other unwholesome
quarters, they will introduce deadly exhalations into the system.
•It should not have a southern exposure. When the sun shines full
upon the rounded part of it, the air, being shut up in the curved
enclosure and unable to circulate, stays there and becomes
heated.
•The foundation walls will be an easier matter if they are on a
hillside, but if they have to be laid on a plain or in a marshy
place, solidity must be assured and substructures are needed.
•It should be so contrived that a line
drawn from the lowest to the highest
seat will touch the top edges and
angles of all the seats. Thus the voice will
meet with no obstruction.
•There should be various entrances and
exits. So that the people may not be
crowded together when let out from
shows.
• To avoid the problems due to echo the
site should contain greatest clearness.
 PLAN OF THE THEATRE
• fixed upon the principal centre.
• in it inscribe four equilateral triangles, at equal distances apart and touching the
boundary line of the circle.
• The platform has to be made deeper because all our artists perform on the
stage, while the orchestra contains the places reserved for the seats of senators.

• The height of this platform must be not more than five feet, in order that those
who sit in the orchestra may be able to see the performances of all the actors.
• The sections for spectators in the theatre should be so divided, that the angles of
the triangles which run about the circumference of the circle may give the
direction for the flights of steps between the sections, as far as up to the first
curved cross-aisle.
• The angles at the bottom, which give the
directions for the flights of steps, will be
seven in number (C, E, F, G, H, I, D).
• The other five angles will determine the
arrangement of the scene: thus, the
angle in the middle ought to have the
"royal door" (K) opposite to it the angles
to the right and left (L, M) will designate
the position of the doors for guest
chambers; and the two outermost angles
(A, B) will point to the passages in the
wings.
• The steps for the spectators' places,
where the seats are arranged, should be
not less than a foot and a palm in height,
nor more than a foot and six fingers; their
depth should be fixed at not more than
two and a half feet, nor less than two
feet.
•The length of the “stage” ought to be double the diameter of the
orchestra.
•The height of the podium starting from the level of the stage should be
one twelfth of the diameter of the orchestra.
•Above the podium the columns should have height of one quarter of
the same diameter.
•There are three kind of scenes-
Tragic
Comic
Satiric
•Their decorations are different
and unlike each other in
scheme.
•Tragic scenes are delineated
with columns, pediments,
statues, and objects suited to THEATRE OF DIONYSUS AT ATHENS

kings.
•Comic scenes exhibit private
dwellings with balconies and
views representing rows of
windows.
•Satiric scenes are decorated
with trees, caverns, mountains,
and other rustic objects
delineated in landscape style.
THE ROMAN THEATRE ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS
GREEK THEATRES
•In the theatres of the Greeks, these
same rules of construction are not to
be followed in all respects.
•First, in the circle at the bottom where E F

the Roman has four triangles, the A H G B

Greek has three squares with their C D

angles touching the line of

circumference.
•The square whose side is nearest to
the "scaena," and cuts off a segment
of the circle, determines by this line the
limits of the "proscaenium" (A, B).
•Parallel to this line and tangent to the
outer circumference of the segment, a
line is drawn which fixes the front of the
"scaena" (C-D).
•Through the centre of the orchestra
and parallel to the direction of the
"proscaenium," a line is laid off, and
centres are marked where it cuts the
circumference to the right and left (E, E F
F) at the ends of the half-circle.
•Then, with the compasses fixed at the A H G B
C D
right, an arc is described from the
horizontal distance at the left to the
left hand side of the "proscaenium" (F,
G); again with the centre at the left
end, an arc is described from the
horizontal distance at the right to the
right hand side of the "proscaenium"
(E, H).
•As a result of this plan with three
centres, the Greeks have a roomier
orchestra, and a "scaena" set further
back, as well as a stage of less depth
THE PALAESTRA
•It is a public place in ancient Greece or Roman devoted to the training of
wrestlers and other athletes.
•The PALAESTRA consisted of a rectangular court surrounded by colonnades
with adjoining rooms.
•These rooms in Palaestra had different functions: Bathings, Ball playing, Dressing
area and storage for clothes, seating area for socializing, observation, or
instruction, and storage of athletic equipment.
A- room with seat.
B- young men’s hall.
C- bag room.
D- dust room.
E- cold washing room.
F- anointing room.
G- cold bath room.
H- passage into the furnace room .
I- vaulted sweating bath .
K- Laconicum (a room for ancient roman baths used
for steam bath).
L- warm washing room .

THE GREEK PALAESTRA

THANK YOU