Roman Baths
From ZuluNotes - Free Leaving Cert Notes
Many Romans visited the Thermae or the public baths, as we know them. They went to the baths for entertainment, healing, or just to get clean. There were 170 baths in Rome during the reign of Augustus and by 300 A.D that number had increasd to over 900 baths.
The baths were huge buildings built at public expense or by rich emperors who wished to impress their subjects. Sometimes rich Romans who were trying to gain popularity paid entry for a whole day for anyone wishing to visit the baths. Many private baths were built by wealthy Romans. The public baths built by the state are the ones covered on the leaving cert course.
Aquaducts or springs supplied the public baths.
The Aedile was the person who supervised the upkeep of public Baths. The most famous Aedile was Marcus Agrippa. Agrippa was the head architect behind many other Roman buildings such as The Pantheon and was also the person behind the first free baths. Many emperors followed Agrippa's example and made public baths which were free for all to use.
By 117 a.d. there were approximately 1,000 Public Baths. Some were free and others charged for entry, but children were free in all. The larger baths had gardens, promenades, libraries, museums, lecture halls and arcades containing shops.
The Baths remained open from noon until dusk, and if they were not large enough to have seperate male and female sections, a certain time was designated for women to visit.
Contents |
Layout
Apodyterium
- The changing room
- Stone benches along the wall
- Square holes for clothes above the benches
Caladarium
This was a very hot room and would not only be hot but it would be steamy aswell, like a modern day Turkish bath. It was often lit by the sun, and/or by Hypocaust. This room would contain baths of hot water sunk into the floor, and there was sometimes even a laconicum - a very hot and dry room like a sauna.
Tepidarium
This was a warm room with a warm pool. The layout of many baths intended this as a transit room to acclimatise bathers between the Caladarium and the Frigidarium. These hot rooms where heated by Hypocaust. In this room the Romans would rub oils into their bodies and they would use a scraper called a strigil to scrape it off. They did this because soap was a rare luxury for the rich only.
Frigidarium
- Contained cold plunge pool
- Not roofed completely
Laconicium
- Small heated room
- Like a sauna
- Used by the elderly who wouldn't work up a sweat by playing sport
Prafurnium
- Contained hypocausis
- Heated baths
- Circulate hot air through the walls and the floor
Routine
- Exercise in the Palestra or sit in the Laconicium to sweat
- Then into the Caladarium. Using a strigil to remove dead skin
- Tepidarium - to cool off gradually
- Then plunge in the Frigidarium pool
