Epilogue

Abstract

The epilogue examines the implications of Vitruvius’s claim at the end of the preface to De architectura 2 to have relied on his scripta and scientia rather than his physique to achieve renown. Vitruvius designs for himself a palimpsestic body. His textual corpus and the knowledge occluded by it (cf. chapter 3) complement his physical corpus (cf. chapters 4 and 5) in an iconic definition of a pistos hetairos who is remarkable for the power he claims over the emperor’s legacy no less than for his alleged subservience. Professionalism was, as ever, political. Again, this is not to say that Vitruvius was a mere shill for Augustus. The chapter ends with a discussion of how Vitruvius’s characterization of Alexander works to caution Augustus against tyranny and even (perhaps) to encourage artistic autonomy by comparison with later accounts of the meeting with Dinocrates, in which Alexander rejects the project for its hubris and connotations of flattery, which may yet remain perceptible beneath the surface of the Vitruvian version.