997 



BATH. 



BATH. 



936 



no communication between these furnaces and the bath of the women, 

 which was heated from them. The furnace was round, and had in the 

 lower part of it two pipes, which transmitted hot air under the pave- 

 ments, and between the walls of the vapour-baths, which were built 

 hollow for that purpose. Close to the furnace, at the distance of four 

 inches, a round vacant space still remains, in which was placed the 

 copper (caldarimn) for boiling water ; near which, with the same 

 interval [between them, was situated the copper for warm water 



(tepidarimn) ; and at the distance of two feet from this was the 

 receptacle (30) for cold water (frir/idarium), which was square, and 

 plastered round the interior, like the piscina or reservoir. A constant 

 communication was maintained between these vessels, so that as fast 

 as hot water was drawn off from the caldarium, the void was supplied 

 from the tepidarimn, which being already considerably heated, did but 

 slightly reduce the temperature of the hotter boiler. The tepidarium 

 in its turn was supplied from the piscina, and that from the aqueduct. 



[Section of the Caldarium of the Men's Baths.] 



1, Window ; 2, a circular aperture by which the temperature was regulated ; 3, another window ; 4, Laconicum j 5, a place for a lamp ; 6, Labrum ; 7. Leaden 

 pipe through which the water of the Labrum was either introduced or made its escape ; 8, Hollow walls of the Caldarium ; 9, Hollow 'pavement covered with 

 Mosaic ; 10, small piers which support the pavement ; 11, the communication between the hollow pavement and the furnace ; 12, Hot bath ; 13, Steps to 

 ascend the bath. (' Museo Borbonico,' vol. ii.) 



The terms frigidarium, tepidarium, and caldarium were applied to the 

 apartments in which the cold, tepid, and hot-baths were placed, as 

 well as to the vessels already described under these respective names. 

 The furnace and the coppers were placed between the men's baths 

 and the women's baths, as near as possible to both, to avoid the waste 

 of heat consequent on transmitting the fluids through a length of pipe. 

 The coppers and reservoir were elevated considerably above the baths, 

 to cause the water to flow more rapidly into them. 



The men's bath had three public entrances (3, 12, 17). Entering at 

 the principal one (12), which opens to the street leading to the forum, 

 we descend three steps into the (5) vestibule, cortile, or portico of the 

 baths, along three sides of which runs a portico (ambulacrum). The 

 seats (8), which are arranged round the walls, were for the slaves who 

 accompanied their masters to the baths, and for the servants of the 

 baths themselves, to whom also the apartment (9) appears to have 

 been appropriated. In this court was found the box for the quadrans, 

 or piece of money, which was paid by each bather. Another door (17) 

 leads to the same vestibule by means of a corridor. From the Street 

 of the Arch (55) we proceed through the passage (17) into the 

 apodyterium, or undressing-room (14), which is also accessible by 

 another corridor (13) from a street called the Street of the Arch : a 

 vast number of lamps were found here. The ceiling of this passage is 

 decorated with stars. The apodyterium has three seats, made of lava, 

 with a step to place the feet on ; holes still remain in the wall, in 

 which (it is conjectured) pegs were fixed for the bathers to hang their 

 clothes upon. This room is highly decorated with stuccoed ornaments, 

 relieved by colour. In the centre of the end of the room is a small 

 opening or recess, once covered with a piece of glass ; in this recess, as 

 is plain from the appearance of smoke, a lamp has been placed. In 

 the archivolt, or vaulted roof, immediately above, is a window two feet 

 eight inches high, and three feet eight inches broad, closed by a single 

 pane of cast glass two-fifths of an inch thick, fixed into the wall, and 

 ground on one side : the floor is paved with white marble worked in 

 mosaic, and the ceiling divided into panels. In this room there are 

 six doors, one leading to the pncfurnium ; another into a small room, 

 perhaps designed for a wardrobe ; the third, by a narrow passage into 

 the street ; the fourth, to the tepidarium ; the fifth, to the frigidarium ; 

 and the sixth, along the corridor to the vestibule or portico of the 

 bath. 



The frigidarium (19), or cold bath, is a round chamber, with a 

 ceiling in the form of a truncated cone ; near the top is a window from 

 which it was lighted. The plinth, or base of the wall, is entirely of 

 marble, and four niches are disposed round the room at equal distances; 

 in these niches were seats (scholse) for the convenience of the bathers. 

 The basin (alveus) is twelve feet ten inches in diameter, two feet nine 

 inches deep, and entirely lined with white marble ; two marble steps 

 facilitate the descent into the basin, and at the bottom is a sort of 

 cushion (pulvinus), also of marble, to enable those who bathed to sit 

 down. The water ran into this bath in a copious stream, through a 

 spout or lip of bronze four inches wide, placed in the wall, three feet 

 seven inches from the edge of the basin. At the bottom of the alveus 

 is a small outlet, for the purpose of emptying and cleansing it ; and in 

 the riln there is a waste pipe to carry off the superfluous water : like 

 the apodyterium, the frigidarium has been highly decorated, and is 

 remarkable for its preservation and beauty. The tepidarium (37), or 



warm-chamber, adjoining the apodyterium, was so called from a 

 warm, but soft mild temperature, which prepared the bodies of 

 the bathers for the more intense heat of the vapour and hot-baths, 

 and vice vend, softened the transition from the hot-bath to the external 

 air. This apartment is decorated with niches, divided by telamdnes. 

 [ATLANTES.] The room was highly enriched, both with stucco orna- 

 ments and colour, and was lighted by a window two feet six inches 

 high and three feet wide, in the bronze frame of which were found set 

 four very beautiful panes of glass, fastened by small nuts and screws, 

 very ingeniously contrived with a view to their being removed at 

 pleasure. In this room a large bronze brazier and three bronze benches 

 were found. A doorway led from the tepidarium into the caldarium, 

 or vapour-bath (39) ; at one end was the laconicum, where a vase (41) 

 for washing the hands and face was placed, called labrum; on 

 the opposite side of the room was the hot-bath, called lavacrum. 

 Vitruvius, in explaining the structure of the apartments, says (cap. xi. 

 lib. v.), " Here should be placed the vaulted sweating-room, twice 

 the length of its width, which should have at one end the laconicum, 

 made as described above, at the other end the hot-bath." This 

 apartment is exactly as described, twice the length of its width, 

 exclusively of the laconicum at one end, and the hot-bath at the other. 

 The pavement and walls of the whole were made hollow, to admit the 

 heat. Vitruvius never mentions the laconicum as being separated 

 from the vapour-bath ; it may therefore be presumed to have been 

 always connected with it in his time, although in the thermae con- 

 structed by the later emperors, it appears always to have formed a 

 separate apartment. In the baths of Pompeii they are united, and 

 adjoin the tepidarium, in this respect exactly agreeing with the 

 description of Vitruvius. 



The laconicum is a large semicircular niche, seven feet wide, and 

 three feet six inches deep, in the middle of which was placed a vase, 

 or labrum. The ceiling was formed by a quarter of a sphere ; and it 

 had on one side a circular opening one foot six inches in diameter, over 

 which, according to Vitruvius, a shield of bronze was suspended, which, 

 by means of a chain attached to it, could be drawn over, or drawn 

 aside from the aperture, and thus regulate the temperature of the 

 bath. 



The laconicum at Pompeii does not exactly correspond with the 

 laconicum painted on the walls of the Baths of Titus, and the laeoni- 

 cum described by Vitruvius. In the laconicum of Pompeii there is 

 no cupola, such as we see represented in the painting of the Baths of 

 Titus, nor aperture in the floor, although the flue in the hypocaustum 

 runs beneath it. The brazen shield also is'applied to regulate the 

 escape of heat through the roof, not to admit or exclude the smoke 

 and flame coming direct from the furnace, as appears to have been the 

 case in the Baths of Titus. The latter was a clumsy and dirty way of 

 heating a room, and strangely at variance, if it were really practised, 

 with the finished elegance and luxury prevailing in every part of the 

 Roman baths. The cupola in the Baths of Titus might, however, have 

 been a contrivance similar to our modern stoves for heating with hot 

 air. Where this cupola did not exist, the room probably was heated, 

 as at Pompeii, by a large brazier. The proper meaning of the word 

 laconicum, whether it should be applied to the cupola and clypeus, or 

 to the room in which they were placed, has been much disputed. It 

 seems pretty certain that the name laconicum. which meant in the 



