Roman Baths

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Roman Baths

• M.A. Anderson, 2006

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Public Baths

• Existed in early Egyptian palaces
• Greeks bathing rooms in palace of Knossos from
  1700 BC.
• The Romans developed bathing to high degree of
  sophistication
• Roman baths were initially on a small scale used
  simply for cleansing after physical training
  exercises.
• Balnea private baths or neighborhood baths.
• Their popularity lead to Thermae public baths.

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The Thermae Public Bath

• Excavations at Olympia, (Hellenistic era) show
• From modest, functional buildings, with a cold
  pool, hot slipper baths, and a steam bath, The
  thermae developed into pleasure palaces.
• Their role expanded from one of facilitating
  cleanliness to one of making life as pleasant as
  possible.
• The opulence of the Roman bath embodies the
  essence of a culture that thrived on pleasure and
  leisure.

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Roman Baths

• By the early 500s A.D., there were almost 900
  baths in Rome.
• Baths of Titus AD 81
• Baths of Domitian AD 95
• Trajan's Baths AD 100
• Baths of Caracalla AD 217
• Thermae of Diocletian capacity for 6,000 bathers

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Thermae
Trajan Bath House

• Some of the thermae were large enough to
  accommodate thousands of bathers
• Roman baths were built wherever the Romans made
  conquests.
• The imperial bathing establishment was repeated
  in its essential form throughout the Roman
  Empire.

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The Roman Bath

• Communal bathing in public facilities was an
  essential part of Roman life.
• It formed part of the daily routine for all
  classes in Rome.
• Cicero the gong that announced the opening of
  the public baths each day was a sweeter sound,
  than the voices of the philosophers in their
  school.
• Much of daily Roman life surrounded the thermae
  and a good proportion of a citizen's day would be
  spent there.

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The Roman Bath

• Providing social and recreational activities was
  a basic responsibility for Roman rulers and the
  larger baths were owned by the state.
• They were frequently the pet projects of the
  Roman emperors, and, to ensure their popularity,
  and the emperor's notoriety, entrance fees were
  kept to the very minimum.

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The Thermae

• The thermae were all-encompassing establishments
  acting as social, recreational, and cultural
  centres.
• The typical bath had a mosaic of uses and served
  as a community center, restaurant, fitness
  center, bar, and also as a performance center,
  where a juggler, a musician, or even a
  philosopher might entertain.
• The most likely time you would have visited is in
  the afternoon, as the Roman workday for most
  ended by noon.

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Daily Routine

• The custom was to open the bathhouses to women
  during the early part of the day and reserve it
  for men from 200 pm until closing time (usually
  sundown).
• Republican bathhouses often had separate bathing
  facilities for women and men.

• Mixed bathing is first recorded in the 1st
  century AD, but was condemned by respectable
  citizens and prohibited by the emperors Hadrian
  and Marcus Aurelius.
• Women who were concerned about their
  respectability did not frequent the baths when
  the men were there, and the baths were an
  excellent place for prostitutes to promote their
  trade.

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The Water Supply

• By the 3rd century A.D. the Romans had built many
  baths and had acquired great skill in designing
  functional, fully integrated complexes.
• The water supply and drainage system, required
  careful planning to ensure an adequate flow to
  and from the numerous hot and cold basins.

• It is estimated that the baths used 15-20,000
  cubic meters of water per day.
• The baths were fed by a branch of the Aqua
  Marcia aqueduct, which brought pure water to Rome
  from springs in the hills near Subiaco, over 90
  km away.

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The Distribution System

• The water flowed into a huge cistern, divided
  into 18 separate chambers for easy maintenance
  and with a total capacity of 10,000 cu. m.

• From here it went by gravity flow through pipes
  underneath the gardens to the main building.
• Inside the main building a complicated
  distribution system carried the water directly to
  the cold pools or to boilers over wood fires
  where it was heated for the warm and hot baths.

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The Distribution System

• Outlets from each basin and in the floor of each
  room led to the drains, which ran below the level
  of the distribution pipes and took the waste
  water to the municipal drain in the valley.
• Both distribution and drainage pipes were housed
  in tunnels providing easy access for inspection
  and maintenance.

Bath of Caracalla, Caldarium with floor tiles
removed.
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Baths of Caracalla

• One of the most elegant and massive Roman baths
  ever built.
• As late as the fifth century A.D., over 200 years
  after it was built, it still was ranked as one of
  Rome's seven wonders.

Caracalla opera
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The Baths of Caracalla

• The Baths of Caracalla covered 27 acres and could
  accommodate 1,600 people at a time.
• All would come infants and elderly, men and
  women, healthy and ill, freemen and slaves, all
  of whom often bathed naked and together.
• If you were there at the right time, you might
  even share a bath with the emperor himself.

Caracalla palastra
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Apodyterium

• You enter the changing room.
• It had cubicles or shelves where you could tuck
  away your clothing and other belongings while you
  bathed.
• Leaving belongings behind unprotected was a
  risk, of course, for one of the most common
  visitors to the Roman baths apparently was
  thieves.
• Privately owned slaves, or one hired at the
  baths, called a capsarius, would watch your
  belongings while you enjoyed the pleasures of the
  baths.

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Tepidarium

• Soap was a rare luxury for the rich only so this
  was done instead of using soap.
• The place where "strigiling" often took place.
• In this room the Romans would rub oils into their
  bodies.
• They would use a scraper called a strigil to
  scrape it off.
• These were curved metal tools to wipe oil, sweat
  and dirt.
• This might have been done by your own slave, if
  you had one, or by one who worked at the baths,
  if you could afford one.

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Laconicum

• A very hot and dry room like a sauna.

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Caldaraium

• The hottest room of all projected beyond the line
  of the building to take full advantage of the
  sun's rays.
• Hollow terracotta tubes ran inside the walls to
  provide insulation and channel hot air.
• A very hot and steamy room, like a modern Turkish
  bath.
• The floors of these rooms where heated by the
  Hypocaust.
• There were baths of hot water sunk into the
  floor.

Caldaraium Pompeii
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Caldarium

• At the Baths of Caracalla, the room was 115 feet
  wide and crowned with a concrete dome.
• The hot water and steamy air were designed to
  open your pores, and water and air temperatures
  may have risen well above 100ºF, with 100
  humidity.
• At the Baths of Caracalla, the caldarium
  consisted of a large hall that contained a large
  pool a little over three feet deep.
• If you had slaves attending you, they might use a
  pouring dish called a patara to refresh you with
  cool water.

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Hypocaust

• The system used for heating the building and the
  pools.
• The floor was raised off the ground by pillars
  and spaces were left inside the walls so that hot
  air from the furnace could circulate through
  these open areas.
• The furnace heated the air drawn underneath the
  floor of the caldarium to heat its tiles.
• Hot air then rose up through hollowed-out bricks
  that lined the walls before exiting through
  chimneys.
• Rooms requiring the most heat were placed closest
  to the furnace, whose heat could be increased by
  adding more wood.

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Hypocaust

• Large numbers of people were, offered an
  enclosed place that was always warm. At a time
  when people had no source of heat at home, the
  baths were a place to keep warm.

• The warm air flows through wall ducts into the
  rooms at the baths and quickly heats them.
• In some baths the floors would be so hot that the
  bathers would have to wear wooden sandals or
  clogs to stop their feet from being burnt.
• The fires in the basement where stocked by slaves
  of the baths.

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Frigidarium

• Now it's time to close all the skin pores that
  have been opened. You can do this by plunging
  into the frigidarium's cold waters.
• The dip is meant to refresh and is often the
  final bath.

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Toilets / Latrines

• Romans were far less shy about bodily functions
  than we are.
• Acts we consider privatebathing and going to
  the toiletwere done by the Romans in public and
  without shame.

• Some privacy was provided by the Roman's loose
  togas, since they were hiked up rather than
  pulled down.
• Bathhouses had large public latrines, often with
  marble seats over channels whose continuous flow
  of water constituted the first flush toilets.
• A shallow water channel in front of the seats was
  furnished with sponges attached to sticks for
  patrons to wipe themselves.

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The Roman Bath

• After their baths, patrons could stroll in the
  gardens, visit the library, watch performances of
  jugglers or acrobats, listen to a literary
  recital, or buy a snack from the many food
  vendors.

• The philosopher Seneca complained that baths were
  noisy, but attractive places.
• Many ancient writers comment on the beauty and
  luxury of the bathhouses, with their
  well-lighted, airy rooms with high vaulted
  ceilings, lovely mosaics, paintings, colored
  marble panels, and silver faucets and fittings.

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Thermae The Food Court

• The place to pick up a fast snack. Good food from
  vendors (L) and the amphora fridge for cold
  drinks (R).

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Art

• The Baths were often adorned with dozens of
  brightly painted, often gilded statues perched
  in wall niches.
• Floors, walls, and columns were carved from a
  rainbow assortment of colored marble imported
  from the far corners of the Empire.
• Paint and brightly colored stucco adorned bare
  stone and walls.
• Roofs and floors covered with glass mosaics
  glittered in the sunlight that passed through
  holes in domed chambers.

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FINI