Roman Thermae and Balnea

The Romans, in the earlier periods of their history, used the bath but seldom, and only for health and cleanliness, not as a luxury. Thus we learn from Seneca that the ancient Romans washed their legs and arms daily, and bathed their whole body once a week.

It is not recorded at what precise period the use of the warm bath was first introduced amongst the Romans; but we learn from Seneca that Scipio had a warm bath in his villa at Liternum; which, however, was of the simplest kind, consisting of a single chamber, just sufficient for the necessary purposes, and without any pretensions to luxury. It was "small and dark," he says "after the manner of the ancients." Seneca also describes the public baths as obscura et gregali tectorio inducta, and as so simple in their arrangements that the aedile judged of the proper temperature by his hands. These were baths of warm water; but the practice of heating an apartment with warm air by flues placed immediately under it, so as to produce a vapor bath, is stated by Valerius Maximus and by Pliny to have been invented by Sergius Orata, who lived in the age of L. Crassus, the orator, before the Marsic war. The expression used by Valerius Maximus is balnea pensilia, and by Pliny balineas pensiles, which is differently explained by different commentators; but a single glance at the plans inserted below will be sufficient in order to comprehend the manner in which the flooring of the chambers was suspended over the hollow cells of the hypocaust, called by Vitruvius suspensura caldariorum, so as to leave no doubt as to the precise meaning of the invention, which is more fully exemplified in the following passage of Ausonius:—

By the time of Cicero, the use of baths, both public and private, of warm water and hot air, had become general; and we learn from one of his orations that there were already baths (balneas Senias) at Rome, which were open to the public upon payment of a small sum

In the earlier ages of Roman history a much greater delicacy was observed with respect to bathing, even amongst the men, was usual among the Greeks for according to Valerius Maximus it was deemed indecent for a father to bathe in company with his own son after he had attained the age of puberty, or a son-in‑law with his father-in‑law. But virtue passed away as wealth increased; and when the thermae came into use, not only did the men bathe together in numbers, but even men and women stripped and bathed promiscuously in the same bath. It is true, however, that the public establishments often contained separate baths for both sexes adjoining to each other, as will be seen to have been the case at the baths of Pompeii. Aulus Gellius relates a story of consul's wife who took a whim to bathe at Teanum (Teano), a small provincial town of Campania in the men's baths (balneis virilibus); probably, because in a small town, the female department, like that at Pompeii, was more confined and less convenient than that assigned to the men; and an order was consequently given to the Quaestor, M. Marius, to turn the men out. But whether the men and women were allowed to use each other's chambers indiscriminately, or that some of the public establishments had only one common set of baths for both, the custom prevailed under the Empire of men and women bathing indiscriminately together. This custom was forbidden by Hadrian and by M. Aurelius Antoninus and Alexander Severus prohibited any baths, common to both sexes (balnea mixta), from being opened in Rome.

When the public baths (balneae) were first instituted, they were only for the lower orders, who alone bathed in public; the people of wealth, as well as those who formed the equestrian and senatorial orders, used private baths in their own houses. But as early as the time of Julius Caesar we find no less a personage than the mother of Augustus making use of the public establishments and in process of time even the emperors themselves bathed in public with the meanest of the people.

The baths were opened at sunrise, and closed at sunset; but in the time of Alexander Severus, it would appear that they were kept open nearly all night. The allusion in Juvenal probably refers to private baths.

The price of a bath was a quadrans, the smallest piece of coined money, from the age of Cicero downwards, which was paid to the keeper of the bath (balneator); and hence it is termed by Cicero, in the oration just cited, quadrantaria permutatio, and by Senec res quadrantaria. Children below a certain age were admitted free.

Strangers, also, and foreigners were admitted to some of the baths, if not to all, without payment, as we learn from an inscription found at Rome, and quoted by Pitiscus

The baths were closed when any misfortune happened to the republic and Suetonius says that the Emperor Caligula made it a capital offence to indulge in the luxury of bathing upon any religious holiday. They were originally placed under the superintendence of the aediles, whose business it was to keep them in repair, and to see that they were kept clean and of a proper temperature. In the provinces the same duty seems to have devolved upon the quaestor, as may be inferred from the passage already quoted from Aulus Gellius.

The time usually assigned by the Romans for taking the bath was the eighth hour, or shortly afterwards. Before that time none but invalids were allowed to bathe in public.Vitruvius reckons the hours best adapted for bathing to be from mid-day to about sunset. Pliny took his bath at the ninth hour in summer, and at the eighth in winter and Martial speaks of taking a bath when fatigued and weary, at the tenth hour, and even later.

When the water was ready, and the baths prepared, notice was given by the sound of a bell — aes thermarium. One of these bells, with the inscription FIRMI BALNEATORIS, was found in the thermae Diocletianae, in the year 1548, and came into the possession of the learned Fulvius Ursinus.

Whilst the bath was used for health merely or cleanliness, a single one was considered sufficient at a time, and that only when requisite. But the luxuries of the empire knew no such bounds, and the daily bath was sometimes repeated as many as seven and eight times in succession — the number which the Emperor Commodus indulged himself with Gordian bathed seven times a day in summer, and twice in winter. The Emperor Gallienus six or seven times in summer, and twice or thrice in winter. Commodus also took his meals in the bath a custom which was not confined to a dissolute Emperor alone.

It was the usual and constant habit of the Romans to take the bath after exercise, and previously to their principal meal (coena); but the debauchees of the empire bathed after eating as well as before, in order to promote digestion, so as to acquire a new appetite for fresh delicacies. Nero is related to have indulged in this practice.

Upon quitting the bath it was usual for the Romans as well as the Greeks to be anointed with oil; but a particular habit of body, or tendency to certain complaints, sometimes required this order to be reversed; for which reason Augustus, who suffered from nervous disorders, was accustomed to anoint himself before bathing and a similar practice was adopted by Alexander Severus (Lamprid. Alex. Sev. l.c.). The most usual practice, however, seems to have been to take some gentle exercise (exercitatio), in the first instance, and then, after bathing, to be anointed either in the sun, or in the tepid or thermal chamber, and finally to take their food.

The Romans did not content themselves with a single bath of hot or cold water; but they went through a course of baths in succession, in which the agency of air as well as water was applied. It is difficult to ascertain the precise order in which the course was usually taken, if indeed there was any general practice beyond the whim of the individual. Under medical treatment, the succession would, of course, be regulated by the nature of the disease for which a cure was sought, and would vary also according to the different practice of different physicians. It is certain, however, that it was a general practice to close the pores, and brace the body after the excessive perspiration of the vapour bath, either by pouring cold water over the head, or by plunging at once into the piscina, or into a river. Musa, the physician of Augustus, is said to have introduced this practice, which became quite the fashion, in consequence of the benefit which the emperor derived from it, though Dion accuses Musa of having artfully caused the death of Marcellus by an improper application of the same treatment. In other cases it was considered conducive to health to pour warm water over the head before the vapour bath, and cold water immediately after it and at other times, a succession of warm, tepid, and cold water was resorted to.

The two physicians Galen and Celsus differ in some respects as to the order in which the baths should be taken; the former recommending first the hot air of the Laconicum next the bath of warm water, afterwards the cold, and finally to be well rubbed whilst the latter recommends his patients first to sweat for a short time in the tepid chamber (tepidarium), without undressing; then to proceed into the thermal chamber (calidarium), and after having gone through a regular course of perspiration there, not to descend into the warm bath (solium), but to pour a quantity of warm water over the head, then tepid, and finally cold; afterwards to be scraped with the strigil (perfricari), and finally rubbed dry and anointed. Such, in all probability, was the usual habit of the Romans when the bath was resorted to as a daily source of pleasure, and not for any particular medical treatment; the more so, as it resembles in many respects the system of bathing still in practice amongst the Orientals, who, as Sir W. Gell remarks, "succeeded by conquest to the luxuries of the enervated Greeks and Romans".

Having thus detailed from classical authorities the general habits of the Romans in connection with their system of bathing, it now remains to examine and explain the internal arrangements of the structures which contained their baths; which will serve as a practical commentary upon all that has been said. Indeed there are more ample and better materials for acquiring a thorough insight into Roman manners in this one particular, than for any other of the usages connected with their domestic habits.

But it would be almost hopeless to attempt to arrange the information obtained from these writers, were it not for the help afforded us by the extensive ruins of ancient baths, such as the Thermae of Titus, Caracalla, and Diocletian, but above all the public baths (balneae) at Pompeii, which were excavated in 1824‑25, and were found to be a complete set, constructed in all their important parts upon rules very similar to those laid down by Vitruvius, and in such good preservation that many of the chambers were complete, even to the ceilings.

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES

Some of the thermae were large enough to accomodate thousands of bathers. The Diocletian bath had a capacity for 6,000 bathers. Such mass bathing could have only been possible with significant advances in Greek and early Roman technology.

The logistics of bath location were solved by improving the aqueduct, borrowed from the Greeks. Two other ingenius inventions acted like growth pills for the Roman bath: vaulted ceilings which suported massive roofs, and the hypocaust heating system.

The Romans either adopted, or at least tolerated, local customs so bathing rituals usually varied from province to province in the vast Empire and some of the baths survive even today. (The bath of Diocletian, for example, is now being used as a church in Rome, thanks to the restoration efforts of Michelangelo.) However, we infer by their design that the concept of a thermae was an all-encompassing recreational center.

Most thermae walls enclosed sports centers, swimming pools, parks, libraries, little theatres for poetry readings and music, and great halls for parties--a city within a city. There were also restaurants and sleeping quarters where a traveler or local could spend an intimate hour or two in pleasant company. Local bathers would spend an afternoon in the baths and then return home for dinner--the baths reputedly whetted the appetite.

Each thermae offered a particular attraction. One may have advertised a splendid view, another an excellent library and another a unique sports hall. Many were considered "free zones," outside the jurisdiction of authorities. Perhaps this explains why, at times, the thermae were teeming with prostitutes in spite of municipal ordinances prohibiting them.

At the center, of course, the main attraction was always the baths themselves--hot water baths, cold water baths, hot-air baths, virtually every type of bath that ingenuity and lust for bathing could devise. The baths usually opened at midday so sportsmen could bathe and rest after their morning exercise. In the mornings prisoners were often brought under escort to bathe.

During the dawning years of Christianity, before the decline of Rome, it was forbidden to bathe on Sundays and holidays, but before then the thermae were rarely closed for any reason. Sometimes men and women bathed together, but this custom varied from one period to another and depended upon local attitudes. At Pompeii and Badenweiler, for example, men and women bathed separately.

Patricians, accompanied by a slave, brought their own bathing implements: brushes, an oil flask, a flat dish for scooping water and the strigil, a curved metal tool, for scraping off oils and sweat. All of these were attached to a ring for easy carrying. The poorer subjects of the Empire used the flour of lentils in lieu of oils and either scraped their own backs or enlisted the services of a friend.

A typical routine might begin with a strenuous workout in the palestra, or courtyard, where various sports and activities loosened up the body and stimulated circulation. Games, using small leather balls, were popular in Rome and were considered a splendid way of conditioning the body--Caesar was said to have been an excellent ball player. Another popular sport was wrestling with a heavy sand-filled leather sack suspended from the ceiling.

Afterwards, the bather would trek through three rooms, progressing from tepid to hot. The first room was known, appropriately enough, as the tepidarium, the largest and most luxurious in the thermae. Here, the bather relaxed for an hour or so while being annointed with oils. Then he moved into the little bathing stalls of the caldarium, much like the halvet in Islamic hammams, providing a choice of hot or cold water for private bathing. They were usually built on the periphery of the main bathing room, under which the central fire burned. (As you might suspect. our English word "caldron" comes from the Latin caldarius which means warming. Hence the caldarium was warmer than the tepidarium.)

The final and hottest chamber was the laconicum. (The English word "laconic" comes from the regimented province of Laconica where people were characterized as brief, concise and terse.) After an understandably laconic stay in the laconicum, the body was primed for a vigorous massage, followed by a scraping off of dead skin with the strigil. A thorough scrubbing and a cool dip in the pool of the frigidarium was next. Refreshed and smelling like a rose, the bather then retired to the outer areas of the thermae where a library or an assembly room were among several attractions that encouraged intellectual pursuits.