Opuscula Kingship
Chapter 6
That the city should have wholesome air
After deciding on the locality of the kingdom, the king must select a site suitable for building a city. Now the first requisite would seem to be wholesome air, for civil life presupposes natural life, whose health in turn depends on the wholesomeness of the air. According to Vitruvius, the most healthful spot is a high place, troubled neither by mists nor frosts and facing neither the sultry nor the chilly parts of the sky. Also, it should not lie near marsh country. The altitude of the place contributes to the wholesomeness of the atmosphere because highlands are open to all the breezes which purify the air; besides, the vapors, which the strength of the sun’s rays causes to rise from the earth and waters, are more dense in valleys and in low-lying places than in highlands. For this reason the air on mountains is rarer.
Now this rarified air, which is the best for easy and natural breathing, is vitiated by mists and frosts which are frequent in very damp places; as a consequence, such places are found to be inimical to health. Since marshy districts have an excess of humidity, the place chosen for the building of a city must be far from any marshes. For when the morning breezes come at sunrise to such a place, and the mists that rise from the swamps join them, they will scatter through the town the breath of the poisonous beasts of the marshes mingled with the mist, and will render the site pestilential. Should, however, the walls be built in marshes that lie along the coast and face the north (or thereabouts) and if these marshes be higher than the seashore, they would seem to be quite reasonably built, since, by digging ditches, a way will be opened to drain the water of the marshes into the sea, and when storms swell the sea it will flow back into the marshes and thus prevent the propagation of the animals there. And if any animals come down from higher places, the unwonted saltiness of the water will destroy them.
When laying out the city, further provision for the proper proportion of heat and cold must be made by having it face the correct part of the sky. If the walls, particularly of a town built on the coast, face the south, it will not be healthy, since such a locality will be cold in the morning, for the rays of the sun do not reach it, but at noon will be baked in the full glare of the sun. As to places that face the west, at sunrise they are cool or even cold, at noon quite warm, and in the evening unpleasantly hot, both on account of the long-continued heat and the exposure to the sun. On the other hand, if it has an eastern exposure, in the morning, with the sun directly opposite, it will be moderately warm, at noon it will not be much warmer since the sun does not reach it directly, but in the evening it will be cold, as the rays of the sun will be entirely on the other side. And there will be the same or a similar proportion of heat and cold if the town faces the north. By experience we may learn that the change from cold to heat is unhealthy: Animals which are transferred from cold to warm regions cannot endure but are dissolved, since the heat sucks up their moisture and weakens their natural strength; whence even in salubrious districts all bodies become weak from the heat.
Again, since suitable food is very helpful for preserving health, we must further judge of the salubrity of a place which has been chosen as a town-site by the condition of the food which grows upon its soil. The ancients were wont to explore this condition by examining the animals raised on the spot. For man, like other animals, finds nourishment in the products of the earth. Hence, if in a given place we kill some animals and find their entrails to be sound, the conclusion will be justified that man also will get good food in the same place. If, however, the members of these animals should be found diseased, we may reasonably infer that that country is no healthy place for men either.
Just as temperate air is required, so is good water, for the body depends for its health on those things which men more frequently put to their use. With regard to the air it is clear that, breathing it continuously, we draw it down into our very vitals; as a result, purity of air is what conduces most to the preservation of men. But of all things put to use as nourishment, water is used most frequently both as drink and food. Nothing, therefore, so much helps to make a district healthy as does pure water (except good air).
There is still another means of judging the healthfulness of a place: by the ruddy complexion of the inhabitants, their sturdy, well-shaped limbs, the presence of many and vivacious children, and of many old people. On the other hand, there can be no doubt about the deadliness of a climate where people are misshapen and weak, their limbs either withering or swollen beyond proportion, where children are few and sickly, and old people rather scarce.
Chapter 7
That the city should have an abundant supply of food
It is not enough, however, that the place chosen for the site of a city be such as to preserve the health of the inhabitants; it must also be sufficiently fertile to provide food. A multitude of men cannot live where there is not a sufficient supply of food. Thus Vitruvius narrates that when Dinocrates, a brilliant architect, was explaining to Alexander of Macedon that a beautifully laid out city could be built upon a certain mountain, Alexander asked whether there were fields that could supply the city with sufficient grain. Finding out that there were not, he said that an architect who would build a city on such a site would be blameworthy. For just as a newborn infant cannot be fed nor made to grow as it should except on the nurse’s milk, so a city cannot have a large population without a large supply of food.
Now there are two ways in which an abundance of food can be supplied to a city. The first we have already mentioned, where the soil is so fertile that it amply provides for all the necessities of human life. The second is by trade, through which the necessaries of life are brought to the town in sufficient quantity from different places. It is quite clear that the first means is better. The more dignified a thing is, the more self-sufficient it is, since whatever needs another’s help is by that fact proven to be deficient. Now the city which is supplied by the surrounding country with all its vital needs is more self-sufficient than another which must obtain those supplies by trade. A city, therefore, which has an abundance of food from its own territory is more dignified than one which is provisioned through trade. It seems that self-sufficiency is also safer, for the import of supplies and the access of merchants can easily be prevented, whether owing to wars or to the many hazards of the sea, and thus the city may be overcome through lack of food.
Moreover, this first method of supply is more conducive to the preservation of civic life. A city which must engage in much trade in order to supply its needs also has to put up with the continuous presence of foreigners. But association with foreigners, according to Aristotle’s Politics, is particularly harmful to civic customs. For it is inevitable that strangers, brought up under other laws and customs, will in many cases act contrary to the citizens’ customs, and thus, since the citizens are drawn by their example to act likewise, their own civic life is upset.
Again, if the citizens themselves devote their lives to matters of trade, the way will be opened to many vices. Since the foremost tendency of tradesmen is to make money, greed is awakened in the hearts of the citizens through the pursuit of trade. The result is that everything in the city will become venal; good faith will be destroyed and the way opened to all kinds of trickery; each one will work only for his own profit, despising the public good; the cultivation of virtue will fail since honor, virtue’s reward, will be bestowed upon the rich. Thus, in such a city, civic life will necessarily be corrupted.
The pursuit of trade is also very unfavorable to military activity. Tradesmen, not being used to the open air and not doing any hard work, but enjoying all pleasures, grow soft in spirit and their bodies are weakened and rendered unsuited to military labors. In accordance with this view, civil law forbids soldiers to engage in business. Finally, that city enjoys a greater measure of peace whose people are more sparsely assembled together and dwell in smaller proportion within the walls of the town, for when men are crowded together it is an occasion for quarrels and all the elements for seditious plots are provided. Hence, according to Aristotle’s doctrine, it is more profitable to have the people engaged outside the cities than for them to dwell constantly within the walls. But if a city is dependent on trade, it is extremely necessary for the citizens to stay within the town and engage in trade there. It is better, therefore, that the supplies of food be furnished to the city from its own fields than that it be wholly dependent on trade.
Still, trade must not be entirely kept out of a city, since one cannot easily find any place so overflowing with the necessaries of life as not to need some commodities from other parts. Also, when there is an over-abundance of some commodities in one place, these goods would serve no purpose if they could not be carried elsewhere by professional traders. Consequently, the perfect city will make a moderate use of merchants.
Chapter 8
That the city should have a pleasant site
When choosing a site for the founding of a city, it should also charm its inhabitants by its beauty. A spot where life is pleasant will not easily be abandoned, nor will men commonly be ready to flock to unpleasant places, since the life of man cannot endure without enjoyment. A beautiful place has a broad expanse of meadows, fruitful trees, mountains to be seen close at hand, pleasant groves, and overflowing waters.
However, if a country is too beautiful, it will draw men to indulge in pleasures, and this is most harmful to a city. In the first place, when men give themselves up to pleasure their senses are dulled, since this sweetness immerses the soul in the senses so that man cannot pass free judgment on the things which cause delight. Hence, according to Aristotle’s sentence, the judgment of prudence is corrupted by pleasure. Again, indulgence in superfluous pleasure leads from the path of virtue, for nothing conduces more easily to immoderate increase, which upsets the mean of virtue, than pleasure. Pleasure is greedy by its very nature, and thus a slight occasion precipitates a man into the seductions of shameful pleasures, just as a little spark is sufficient to kindle dry wood. Moreover, indulgence does not satisfy the appetite, for the first sip only makes the thirst all the keener. Consequently, it is part of virtue’s task to lead men to refrain from pleasures. By thus avoiding any excess, the mean of virtue will be more easily attained.
Also, they who give themselves up to pleasures grow soft in spirit and become weak-minded when it is a question of tackling some difficult enterprise, enduring toil, and facing dangers. Thus, likewise, indulgence in pleasures is detrimental to warfare, as Vegetius puts it in his On the Art of Knighthood: He fears death less who knows that he has had little pleasure in life. Finally, men who have become dissolute through pleasures usually grow lazy, and, neglecting necessary matters and all the pursuits that duty lays upon them, devote themselves wholly to the quest of pleasure, on which they squander all that others had so carefully amassed. Thus, reduced to poverty and yet unable to deprive themselves of their accustomed pleasures, they do not shrink from stealing and robbing in order to have the means to indulge their craving for pleasure. It is therefore harmful to a city to superabound in delightful things, whether it be on account of its situation or from whatever other cause.
However, in human community it is best to have a moderate share of pleasure as a spice of life, so to speak, so that man’s mind may find some recreation.