Ergo quoniam neque lex neque morum institutio id potest cogere et quotannis et praetores et aediles ludorum causa machinationes praeparare debent, visum mihi est, imperator, non esse alienum, quoniam de aedificiis in prioribus voluminibus exposui, in hoc, quod finitionem summam corporis habet constitutam, quae sint principia machinarum, ordinata praeceptis explicare.
For since neither law nor custom can compel this, while every year the praetors and aediles must prepare the machinery for the spectacles, I thought it not irrelevant, your Highness, after dealing with buildings in the former books, to explain in this book (which rounds off the entire completion of the treatise) what the principles of machinery are, and the rules which guide them.
final_alignments\Vitruvius_Architecture_Book_10.json