And as great
care should be taken of the health of the inhabitants, the first thing
to be attended to is, that the city should have a good situation and a
good position; the second is, that they may have good water to drink;
and this not be negligently taken care of; for what we chiefly and
most frequently use for the support of the body must principally
influence the health of it; and this influence is what the air and
water naturally have: for which reason in all wise governments the
waters ought to be appropriated to different purposes, and if they are
not equally good, and if there is not a plenty of necessary water,
that which is to drink should be separated from that which is for
other uses. As to fortified places, what is proper for some
governments is not proper for all; as, for instance, a lofty citadel
is proper for a monarchy and an oligarchy; a city built upon a plain
suits a democracy; neither of these for an aristocracy, but rather
many strong places. As to the form of private houses, those are
thought to be best and most useful for their different purposes which
are distinct and separate from each other, and built in the modern
manner, after the plan of Hippodamus: but for safety in time of war,
on the contrary, they should be built as they formerly were; for they
were such that strangers could not easily find their way out of them,
and the method of access to them such as an enemy could with
difficulty find out if he proposed to besiege them.
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