M. Vitruvii Pollonis de architectura libri decem ad Caesarem Augustum omnibus omnium editionibus longe emendatiores collatis veteribus exemplis

They did not wish for anything to be left out. Thus, that frugality and restraint in buildings was followed by posterity, both publicly and privately, as far as good customs permitted. Then, abounding in the affluence of things and leisure, they were prompted and enticed by opportunity to the point that they also pursued what might satisfy their pleasures, adding whatever could be devised anywhere for luxury and grace. They thought it was trivial to have satisfied necessity, and ungrateful to have looked out for convenience where the lack of elegance in the work might offend. Hence the wonders of the pyramids, the masses of the amphitheaters, the insane foundations of palaces, the stupendous vaults of temples: hence the arches, porticoes, mausoleums, and thermal baths built on the scale of provinces. They built great things so that they would appear great to posterity, and they were easily led to believe that the beauty of the work could persuade hostile enemies to temper their rage and allow themselves to remain inviolate. Therefore, the most excellent ancients, so that there might be some certain and constant method of building, committed to writing what had been handed down by others regarding these matters and what had been devised by themselves: from the Greeks, Agatarchus, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Ctesiphon, Metagenes, Ictinus, Carpion, Philo, Hermogenes, Argelius, Satyrus, and certain others; from our own, Fuffitius, Varro, P. Septimius, and Corn. Celsus. Their most illustrious monuments (alas) have perished due to the injustice of time or the negligence of men. There remained one work from such a shipwreck, the work of M. Vitruvius Pollio, which can hardly be praised enough according to its merit, but it was so affected, stained, and ulcerated that even the author himself, if he were to come back to life, could hardly recognize it. This caused Vitruvius to be unheard of for many centuries, apart from his name. Added to this was the difficulty, for I omit the strangeness of the words conceived from the necessary requirements of the art, which brought about obscurity, and the ignorance of the things themselves being taught delayed the reader. For we look at and venerate the nearly skeletal remains of the most excellent structures, from which a path is as it were paved, with admiration and tears.