Architecture was considered one of the lesser sciences by the ancient Romans, though many would argue it to be the most useful. Architecture in the ancient world was the summation of many schools of thought used to directly benefit the people. Ancient architects were much closer to a combination of civil and mechanical engineers, modern architects, carpenters, and many other odd jobs making them master builders in many fields. Architects were vital to the design and implication of technologies essential to the progress of ancient Rome. Due to their importance architects were held to standards of skill and knowledge. Vitruvius states in his mechanical treatise De Architectura that an architect must be “ingenious and apt in the acquisition
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Evidence of the major philosophical schools of thought (Stoicism and Epicureanism) are evident in several areas of his mechanical texts. Epicureanism focused on describing the world in terms of indivisible atoms and a void. Interactions and recycling of these atoms in the void of the universe is what they believed makes up the Earth and its constituents. While controversial at the time, the epicurean atomist views are used by Vitruvius in explaining the different forms of matter and their creation to be used in building. Concrete was an invention by the Romans that put them steps ahead of everyone else in terms of building strength and efficiency. De Architectura book II explains the mixtures of substances used in the creation of concrete such as lime and sand as particles and not as continuous substances such as a stoic might. Furthermore, when Vitruvius discusses the formation of lime from stone he mentions how the expansion of the particles making up the stone expand with heat, and take on water into its pores (void). In discussing the formation of proper bricks, Vitruvius details how a brick improperly dried will shrink in the summer due to the loss of water and the shrinking of the clay particles into the void left. He also mentions the property of density as the epicureans do; a brick will lose a third of its weight while remaining the same size because the water has left it, and there is now void instead. These principles of atoms and void are also used in the description of air and water pressure
Evidence of the major philosophical schools of thought (Stoicism and Epicureanism) are evident in several areas of his mechanical texts. Epicureanism focused on describing the world in terms of indivisible atoms and a void. Interactions and recycling of these atoms in the void of the universe is what they believed makes up the Earth and its constituents. While controversial at the time, the epicurean atomist views are used by Vitruvius in explaining the different forms of matter and their creation to be used in building. Concrete was an invention by the Romans that put them steps ahead of everyone else in terms of building strength and efficiency. De Architectura book II explains the mixtures of substances used in the creation of concrete such as lime and sand as particles and not as continuous substances such as a stoic might. Furthermore, when Vitruvius discusses the formation of lime from stone he mentions how the expansion of the particles making up the stone expand with heat, and take on water into its pores (void). In discussing the formation of proper bricks, Vitruvius details how a brick improperly dried will shrink in the summer due to the loss of water and the shrinking of the clay particles into the void left. He also mentions the property of density as the epicureans do; a brick will lose a third of its weight while remaining the same size because the water has left it, and there is now void instead. These principles of atoms and void are also used in the description of air and water pressure