Read the Following Passage From the Womens Baths

Public facilities for bathing in ancient Rome

Roman public baths in Bath, England. The entire structure above the level of the pillar bases is a later reconstruction.

The mosaics of the thermal baths

The thermal baths from inside

In ancient Rome, thermae (from Greek θερμός thermos , "hot") and balneae (from Greek βαλανεῖον balaneion ) were facilities for bathing. Thermae usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while balneae were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout Rome.^[ane]

About Roman cities had at least one – if not many – such buildings, which were centres not only for bathing, but socializing and reading as well. Bathhouses were also provided for wealthy private villas, town houses, and forts. They were supplied with water from an adjacent river or stream, or inside cities past aqueduct. The water would be heated by fire then channelled into the caldarium (hot bathing room). The pattern of baths is discussed past Vitruvius in De architectura (V.10).

Terminology [edit]

Mosaic bath sign from Sabratha, Libya, showing bathing sandals, three strigils, and the slogan SALVOM LAVISSE, "A bathroom is good for you"^[2]

Thermae , balneae , balineae , balneum and balineum may all be translated as 'bathroom' or 'baths', though Latin sources distinguish among these terms.

Balneum or balineum , derived from the Greek βαλανεῖον ^[3] ^[iv] signifies, in its master sense, a bath or bathing-vessel, such every bit most persons of any upshot among the Romans possessed in their own houses,^[five] and hence the chamber which independent the bath,^[6] which is also the proper translation of the word balnearium . The diminutive balneolum is adopted by Seneca^[7] to designate the bathroom of Scipio in the villa at Liternum, and is expressly used to characterize the modesty of republican manners as compared with the luxury of his own times. But when the baths of private individuals became more than sumptuous and comprised many rooms, instead of the i small bedroom described by Seneca, the plural balnea or balinea was adopted, which still, in correct linguistic communication, had reference only to the baths of individual persons. Thus, Cicero terms the baths at the villa of his brother Quintus^[8] balnearia .

Balneae and balineae , which according to Varro^[9] have no singular number, were the public baths, but this accurateness of diction is neglected by many of the subsequent writers, and particularly by the poets, amongst whom balnea is not uncommonly used in the plural number to signify the public baths, since the word balneae could not exist introduced in a hexameter verse. Pliny also, in the same sentence, makes use of the neuter plural balnea for public, and of balneum for a private bathroom.^[10]

Thermae (Greek: Θέρμαι , Thermai , 'hot springs, hot baths',^[eleven] from the Greek adjective thermos , 'hot') meant properly warm springs, or baths of warm h2o; but came to exist applied to those magnificent edifices which grew up under the empire, in identify of the simple balneae of the republic, and which comprised within their range of buildings all the appurtenances belonging to the Greek gymnasia, besides as a regular establishment appropriated for bathing.^[12] Writers, yet, use these terms without distinction. Thus the baths erected by Claudius Etruscus, the freedman of the Emperor Claudius, are styled by Statius^[13] balnea , and by Martial^[fourteen] Etrusci thermulae . In an epigram by Martial ^[fifteen]— subice balneum thermis —the terms are not applied to the whole building, but to 2 different chambers in the same edifice.

Building layout [edit]

A public bath was congenital effectually iii principal rooms: the tepidarium (warm room), the caldarium (hot room), and the frigidarium (cold room). Some thermae also featured steam baths: the sudatorium, a moist steam bathroom, and the laconicum, a dry hot room much like a modernistic sauna.^{[ commendation needed ]} ^{[ dubious – discuss ]}

By mode of illustration, this commodity volition describe the layout of Pompeii'southward Former Baths adjoining the forum, which are amidst the best-preserved Roman baths. The references are to the floor program pictured to the right.^[16]

The whole building comprises a double set of baths, one for men, 1 for women. It has six dissimilar entrances from the street, i of which (b) gives admission to the smaller women'southward set simply. Five other entrances lead to the men's department, of which two (c and c2), communicate direct with the furnaces, and the other 3 (a3, a2, a) with the bathing apartments.

Atrium [edit]

Passing through the principal entrance, a (barely visible, right side, ane third of the total length from above), which is removed from the street by a narrow footway surrounding the building and after descending three steps, the bather would find a small sleeping accommodation on his left (x) with a toilet (latrina), and continue into a covered portico (chiliad, one thousand), which ran round 3 sides of an open court (atrium, A). These together formed the vestibule of the baths ( vestibulum balnearum ),^[17] in which the servants waited.

Use of the atrium [edit]

This atrium was the exercise basis for the young men, or perhaps served as a promenade for visitors to the baths. Within this courtroom the keeper of the baths ( balneator ), who exacted the quadrans paid by each company, was also stationed. The room f, which runs back from the portico, might have been appropriated to him; but most probably it was an oecus or exedra, for the convenience of the ameliorate classes while awaiting the render of their acquaintances from the interior. In this court, advertisements for the theatre, or other announcements of full general interest, were posted up, one of which, announcing a gladiatorial bear witness, yet remains. At the sides of the archway were seats ( scholae ).

The 1898 edition of Harper'south Dictionary of Classical Antiquities provided illustrations envisioning the rooms of the Old Baths at Pompeii:

Apodyterium and frigidarium [edit]

A passage (c) leads into the apodyterium (B), a room for undressing in which all visitors must have met earlier entering the baths proper. Here, the bathers removed their wearable, which was taken in charge by slaves known equally capsarii, notorious in ancient times for their dishonesty.^[eighteen] The apodyterium was a spacious sleeping room, with stone seats along iii sides of the wall (h). Holes are all the same visible on the walls, and probably mark the places where the pegs for the bathers' clothes were set. The bedroom was lighted by a drinking glass window, and had half-dozen doors. 1 of these led to the tepidarium (D) and another to the frigidarium (C), with its cold plunge-bath referred to equally baptisterium (more commonly called natatorium or piscina ), loutron , natatio , or puteus ; the terms natatio and natatorium suggest that some of those baths were likewise swimming pools. The bath in this bedroom is of white marble, surrounded past two marble steps.

Tepidarium [edit]

Pompeian interior, The Thermae by Forum by Joseph Theodor Hansen (1848–1912)

From the apodyterium the bather who wished to get through the warm bath and sweating process entered the tepidarium (D). Information technology did not comprise water either at Pompeii nor at the Baths of Hippias, but was but heated with warm air of an agreeable temperature, in gild to set the body for the not bad heat of the vapour and warm baths, and, upon returning, to prevent a too-sudden transition to the open up air. In the baths at Pompeii this sleeping room also served every bit an apodyterium for those who took the warm bath. The walls feature a number of split up compartments or recesses for receiving the garments when taken off. The compartments are divided from each other by figures of the kind called atlantes or telamones, which project from the walls and support a rich cornice to a higher place them in a wide curvation.

Three bronze benches were also found in the room, which was heated too past its contiguity to the hypocaust of the adjoining chamber, equally by a brazier of bronze (foculus), in which the charcoal ashes were even so remaining when the earthworks was made. Sitting and perspiring beside such a brazier was called ad flammam sudare .^[nineteen]

The tepidarium is more often than not the most highly ornamented room in baths. It was merely a room to sit down and be anointed in. In the Forum Baths at Pompeii the floor is mosaic, the arched ceiling adorned with stucco and painting on a coloured basis, the walls ruddy.

Anointing was performed by slaves called unctores and aliptae. It sometimes took place before going to the hot bath, and sometimes after the cold bath, before putting on the clothes, in guild to bank check the perspiration.^[20] Some baths had a special room (destrictarium or unctorium) for this purpose.

Caldarium [edit]

From the tepidarium a door opened into the caldarium (E), whose mosaic flooring was directly above the furnace or hypocaust. Its walls as well were hollow, behind the decorated plaster one part of the wall was made from interconnected hollow bricks chosen tubuli lateraci , forming a great flue filled with heated air. At one finish was a round basin (labrum), and at the other a quadrangular bathing place ( puelos , alveus , solium , calida piscina ), approached from the platform past steps. The labrum held common cold water, for pouring upon the bather's caput before he left the room. These basins are of marble in the Old Baths, just we hear of alvei of solid silver.^[21] Considering of the groovy heat of the room, the caldarium was but slightly ornamented.

Laconicum [edit]

The Erstwhile Baths take no laconicum, which was a chamber withal hotter than the caldarium , and used simply as a sweating-room, having no bathroom. Information technology was said to have been introduced at Rome by Agrippa^[22] and was also called sudatorium and assa .

Service areas [edit]

A three-tiered water boiler ( miliarium )

The apodyterium has a passage (q) communicating with the mouth of the furnace (i), called praefurnium or propigneum and, passing down that passage, nosotros reach the chamber 1000, into which the praefurnium projects, and which is entered from the street at c. It was assigned to the fornacatores , or persons in charge of the fires. Of its two staircases, one leads to the roof of the baths, and 1 to the boilers containing the water.

At that place were three boilers, one of which ( caldarium ) held the hot h2o; a 2nd, the tepid ( tepidarium ); and the third, the cold ( frigidarium ). The warm water was filled into the warm bath by a pipage through the wall, marked on the plan. Underneath the hot chamber was set the round furnace d, of more than 7 ft. in diameter, which heated the water and poured hot air into the hollow cells of the hypocaustum. It passed from the furnace under the first and last of the caldrons by two flues, which are marked on the plan. The boiler containing hot water was placed immediately over the furnace; equally the water was drawn out from there, it was supplied from the next, the tepidarium , which was raised a little higher and stood a little way off from the furnace. It was already considerably heated from its contiguity to the furnace and the hypocaust below it, so that it supplied the deficiency of the former without materially diminishing its temperature; and the vacuum in this final was once more filled up from the farthest removed, which contained the cold water received directly from the square reservoir seen behind them. The boilers themselves no longer remain, but the impressions which they have left in the mortar in which they were embedded are clearly visible, and enable us to determine their respective positions and dimensions. Such coppers or boilers appear to have been called miliaria , from their similarity of shape to a milestone.^[23]

Behind the boilers, another corridor leads into the courtroom or atrium (K), appropriated to the servants of the bath.

Women's bath [edit]

The adjoining, smaller set of baths were assigned to the women. The entrance is by the door b, which conducts into a small vestibule (yard) and from at that place into the apodyterium (H), which, like the 1 in the men's bathroom, has a seat ( pulvinus , gradus ) on either side built up against the wall. This opens upon a cold bath (J), answering to the natatio of the men's set, simply of much smaller dimensions. There are iv steps on the inside to descend into it.

Opposite to the door of entrance into the apodyterium is another doorway which leads to the tepidarium (G), which also communicates with the thermal chamber (F), on ane side of which is a warm bath in a square recess, and at the further extremity the labrum . The floor of this chamber is suspended, and its walls perforated for flues, similar the respective ane in the men's baths. The tepidarium in the women's baths had no brazier, but it had a hanging or suspended floor.

Purpose [edit]

The baths often included, aside from the three main rooms listed higher up, a palaestra, or outdoor gymnasium where men would engage in diverse ball games and exercises. In that location, among other things, weights were lifted and the discus thrown. Men would oil themselves (every bit lather was even so a luxury good and thus not widely bachelor), shower,^{[ commendation needed ]} and remove the excess with a strigil (cf. the well known Apoxyomenus of Lysippus from the Vatican Museum). Oftentimes wealthy bathers would bring a capsarius , a slave that carried his master'southward towels, oils, and strigils to the baths and then watched over them one time in the baths, as thieves and pickpockets were known to frequent the baths.

The irresolute room was known every bit the apodyterium (from Greek apodyterion from apoduein 'to accept off').

Cultural significance [edit]

In many ways, baths were the ancient Roman equivalent of customs centres. Because the bathing procedure took and then long, conversation was necessary. Many Romans would apply the baths equally a place to invite their friends to dinner parties, and many politicians would become to the baths to convince fellow Romans to join their causes. The thermae had many attributes in addition to the baths. There were libraries, rooms for poesy readings, and places to purchase and eat food. The mod equivalent would be a combination of a library, fine art gallery, mall, restaurant, gym, and spa.^[24]

1 important part of the baths in Roman society was their role equally what we would consider a "branch library" today. Many in the general public did non take access to the grand libraries in Rome and then as a cultural institution the baths served equally an important resources where the more common denizen could enjoy the luxury of books. The Baths of Trajan, of Caracalla, and Diocletian all contained rooms determined to be libraries. They have been identified through the architecture of the baths themselves. The presence of niches in the walls are assumed to have been bookcases and have been shown to be sufficiently deep to have independent ancient scrolls. In that location is little documentation from the writers of the time that at that place did exist definitive public libraries maintained in the baths, merely records have been found that indicated a slave from the imperial household was labelled vilicus thermarum bybliothecae Graecae ('maintenance man of the Greek library of the baths'). Withal, this may merely indicate that the same slave held two positions in succession: "maintenance man of the baths" ( vilicus thermarum ) and "employee in the Greek library" (a bybliothecae Graecae ). The reason for this fence is that, although Julius Caesar and Asinius Pollio advocated for public access to books and that libraries be open to all readers, there is little prove that public libraries existed in the modern sense as we know it. Information technology is more likely that these reserves were maintained for the wealthy elite.^[25]

Baths were a site for important sculpture; amid the well-known pieces recovered from the Baths of Caracalla are the Farnese Bull and Farnese Hercules and over life-size early 3rd century patriotic figures, (now in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples).

The Romans believed that good health came from bathing, eating, massages, and exercise. The baths, therefore, had all of these things in abundance. Since some citizens would be bathing multiple times a week, Roman club was surprisingly clean.^[26] When asked by a greenhorn why he bathed once a day, a Roman emperor is said to accept replied "Because I do non take the time to bathe twice a day."^[27] Emperors oftentimes built baths to gain favour for themselves and to create a lasting monument of their generosity. If a rich Roman wished to gain the favour of the people, he might arrange for a free admission solar day in his name. For example, a senator hoping to go a Tribune might pay all access fees at a detail bathroom on his altogether to become well known to the people of the area.

Location [edit]

Virtual historical reconstruction of the Roman Baths in Weißenburg, Federal republic of germany, using data from laser scan technology

Baths sprang up all over the empire. Where natural hot springs existed (equally in Bath, England; Băile Herculane, Romania or Aquae Calidae near Burgas and Serdica, Bulgaria) thermae were built around them. Alternatively, a system of hypocausta (from hypo 'below' and kaio 'to burn down') were utilised to rut the piped water from a furnace ( praefurnium ).

Remains of Roman public baths [edit]

A number of Roman public baths survive, either as ruins or in varying degrees of conservation. Amid the more than notable are the Roman baths of Bath and the Ravenglass Roman Bath House in England besides as the Baths of Caracalla, of Diocletian, of Titus, of Trajan in Rome and the baths of Sofia, Serdica and Varna.^[28] Probably the virtually consummate are various public and private baths in Pompeii and nearby sites. The Hammam Essalihine is still in use today.

In 1910, Pennsylvania Station was opened in New York Urban center, with a Main Waiting Room that borrowed heavily from the frigidarium of the Baths of Diocletian, especially with the use of repeated groin vaults in the ceiling. The success of the design of Pennsylvania Station in plough was copied in other railroad stations around the world.

References [edit]

Citations [edit]

^ Harry B. Evans (1997). Water Distribution in Ancient Rome: The Evidence of Frontinus. University of Michigan Printing. pp. ix, 10. ISBN0-472-08446-1. Archived from the original on 2018-05-07.
^ More literally, "It is a healthful affair to have bathed."
^ βαλανεῖον . Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
^ Varro, De Ling. Lat. 9. 68, ed. Müller (cited past Rich, 183)
^ Cicero, Ad Atticum ii. 3.
^ Cicero, Ad Fam. xiv. 20 (cited by Rich, 183).
^ Ep. 86 (cited by Rich, 183)
^ Advert Q. Frat. iii. 1. § 1 (cited past Rich, 183)
^ De Ling. Lat. viii. 25, ix. 41, ed. Müller (cited by Rich, 183)
^ Ep. ii. 17. (cited past Rich, 184)
^ Θέρμαι in Liddell and Scott.
^ Juv. Sat. vii. 233 (cited by Rich, 184)
^ Sylv. i. five. 13 (cited by Rich, 184)
^ vi. 42 (cited by Rich, 184)
^ ix. 76 (cited by Rich, 184)
^ The following is adapted from the 1898 Harpers Lexicon of Classical Antiquities entry edited by Harry Thurston Peck.
^ Pro Cael. 26 (cited by Peck)
^ Dig. xlvii. 17 (cited by Peck)
^ Suet. Aug. 82 (cited by Peck)
^ Galen. 10. 49 (cited by Peck)
^ Plin. H. North.xxxiii. 152 (cited by Peck)
^ Dio Cass. liii. 27 (cited by Peck)
^ Pallad. i. 40; 5. viii (cited by Peck)
^ Garrett Thou. Fagan (2002). Bathing in Public in the Roman World. University of Michigan Press. p. 9. ISBN0-472-08865-3. Archived from the original on 2018-05-07.
^ Dix, Keith (1994). "'Public Libraries' in Ancient Rome: Ideology and Reality". Libraries & Culture. 29 (3): 288.
^ Andrews, Cath. "Ancient Roman Baths: Cleanliness and Godliness under one roof." Explore Italian Culture. Spider web. 4/22/12.
^ "NOVA Online | Secrets of Lost Empires | Roman Bathroom | A Day at the Baths". Pbs.org. Archived from the original on 2012-eleven-xiii. Retrieved 2012-08-24 .
^ http://www.ancient-bulgaria.com/2008/05/09/the-roman-thermae-in-varna/

Sources [edit]

This article incorporates text from a publication at present in the public domain:Smith, William, ed. (1890). "Balneae". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (3rd ed.). London: John Murray. p. 183 et seq.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Peck, Harry Thurston, ed. (1898). "Balneae". Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Aaland, Mikkel (May 15, 1998). "Mass Bathing: The Roman BaInea and Thermae". Cyber-Bohemia . Retrieved August 2, 2006.

External links [edit]

William Smith Roman Baths (Balneae) from "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities", pub. John Murray, London, 1875.
ThermeMuseum (Museum of the Thermae) in Heerlen
Traianus – Technical investigation of Roman public works
Roman Bath: a twenty-four hours at the baths An interactive site using the Baths of Caracalla as an example
Barbara F. McManus Roman baths and bathing
3d reconstruction of a Roman baths Limes in Austria
Roman Baths of Weissenburg Digital Media Archive (creative eatables-licensed photos, laser scans, panoramas) with data from a City of Weissenburg/CyArk research partnership
Victorian Turkish bath Information regarding a 19th-century version of the Roman or "Turkish" bath
"The Roman Baths and Solar Heating". solarhousehistory.com.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermae