‹‹‹ Vitr. 1.4.4 | Table of Contents | Vitr. 1.4.6 ›››
5Much care, then, should be taken so to set out the walls of a city, that it may not be obnoxious to the pestilential blasts of the hot winds. For as, according to those principles which the Greeks call στοιχεῖα, all bodies are compounded of fire, water, earth, and air, by whose union and varying proportions the different qualities of animals are engendered;
5It appears, then, that in founding towns we must beware of districts from which hot winds can spread abroad over the inhabitants. For while all bodies are composed of the four elements (in Greek στοιχεἱα), that is, of heat, moisture, the earthy, and air, yet there are mixtures according to natural temperament which make up the natures of all the different animals of the world, each after its kind.