1001 



BATH. 



BATS. 



1002 



The seat was below the surface of the water, and upon it they scraped 

 themselves, or were scraped, with instruments called strigiles, which 

 were usually made of bronze, "but sometimes of iron or brass. (Martial, 

 lib. xiv. ' Epig.' 51.) This operation was usually performed by an 

 attendant slave. The use of the strigil is represented on a vase, found 

 on the estate of Lucien Bonaparte at Canino. The vase is large and 

 shallow, and painted within and without. (Vol. i. p. 183, ' Pompeii.') 

 From the drawings on it we learn that the bathers sometimes used the 

 strigils themselves, after which they rubbed themselves with their 

 hands, and then were washed from head to foot, by pails or vases of 

 water being poured over them. They were then carefully dried with 

 cotton and linen cloths, and covered with a light shaggy mantle, called 

 gausape. Effeminate persons had the hairs of their bodies pulled out 

 with tweezers. When they were thoroughly dried, and their nails 

 cut, slaves came out of the elseothesium, carrying with them little 

 vases of alabaster, bronze, and terracotta, full of perfumed oils, with 

 which they had their bodies anointed, by causing the oil to be slightly 

 rubbed over every part, even to the soles of their feet. After this 

 they resumed their clothes. On quitting the warm-bath, they went 

 into the tepidarium, and either passed very slowly through or stayed 

 sometime in it, that they might not too suddenly expose their bodies 

 to the atmosphere in the frigidarium ; for these last rooms appear to 

 have been used chiefly to soften the transition from the intense heat of 

 the caldarium to the open air. 



" It is probable that the Eomans resorted to the baths, at the same 

 time of the day that others were accustomed to make use of their 

 private baths. This was generally from two o'clock in the afternoon 

 till the dusk of the evening, at which time the baths were shut till 

 two the next day. This practice however varied at different times. 

 Notice was given when the baths were ready, by the ringing of a bell ; 

 the people then left the spheeristerium, and hastened to the caldarium, 

 lest the water should cool. (Martial, lib. xiv. ' Epig.' 163.) But when 

 bathing became more universal among the Romans, this part of the 

 day was insufficient, and they gradually exceeded the hours that had 

 been allotted for that purpose. Between two and three in the after- 

 noon was, however, the most eligible time for the exercises of the 

 palaestra. Hadrian forbade any but those who were sick to enter the 

 public baths before two o'clock. The thermae were by few emperors 

 allowed to be continued open so late as five in the evening. Martial 

 says, that after four o'clock they demanded a hundred quadrantes of 

 those who bathed. This, though a hundred times the usual price, only 

 amounted to nineteen-penee. We learn from the same author, that 

 the baths were opened sometimes earlier than two o'clock. He says 

 that Nero's baths were exceeding hot at twelve o'clock, and the steam 

 of the water immoderate. (Mart. lib. x. ' Epig.' 48.) Alexander Severus, 

 to gratify the people in their passion for bathing, not only suffered the 

 thermae to be opened before break of day, which had never been per- 



mitted before, but also furnished the lamps with oil, for the convenienee 

 of the people." (Cameron ' On Roman Baths,' p. 40.) 



Coin representing the Baths of Alexander Severus. 



The thermae were constructed at a vast expense, and principally for 

 the use of the poorer classes, though all ranks frequented them for the 

 sake of the various conveniences which they contained. 



" Nothing relating to the thermee has more exercised the attention 

 of the learned than the manner of supplying the great number of 

 bathing vessels made use of in them with warm water. For, supposing 

 each cell of Diocletian's baths large enough to contain six people, yet, 

 even at that moderate computation, 18,000 persons might be bathing 

 at the same time; and as no vestiges remain of any vessels in the 

 thermae, to give the least foundation for conjecturing in what manner 

 this was performed, it has been generally referred to the same process 

 described by Vitruvius on a similar subject. 



" Baccius has more professedly treated this subject than any modern 

 author. He imagined that the water might be derived from the 

 castella, which he observed to be situated without the thermse ; but as 

 these castella were upon a level with the thermae themselves, he thinks 

 for that reason they were obliged to make use of machines to raise the 

 water to such a height, as he observed it to have been by the ruins of 

 Diocletian's baths. What led Baccius into this way of thinking was 

 the number of pipes which he saw dug up under the open area, where 

 there had never been any buildings, all of them surrounded with flues 

 from the hypocaustum. He therefore imagined that the water was 

 heated on the outside of the thermae ; bnt this supposition appeared so 

 full of difficulties, as, upon reflection, to discourage him from inquiring 

 any further into the subject." (Cameron.) By the assistance of two 

 sections of the castella of Antoninus, drawn by Piranesi, Cameron 

 endeavours to show the method adopted by the Romans to heat the 

 large bodies of water which their extensive thermse must have 

 required. 



" To have a clear conception of the manner in which this was exe- 

 cuted, it will be necessary to refer to a plate of these two sections. 



Longtudinal 

 Section of the 



Castellum, 

 placed at T. T, 



on the Plan, 

 cols. 993, 994. 



Transverse 

 IB ditto. 



Flues in the floors and "walls. Specimen of Hollow Pavc- 

 From Cameron. incnt. From Cameron. 



o n 



Section of tlie Castellum of Antoninus Caracalla. From Cameron. 



" The castellum of the thermos of Antoninus Caracalla was supplied 

 with water by the aqueduct of Antoninus. Two of the arches of this 

 aqueduct are represented at A ; B is a cistern which received the water 

 from the aqueduct ; c is an aperture for permitting the descent of the 

 water from the receptacle to the chamber below ; D is a receptacle with 

 a mosaic pavement, wherein the water was exposed to the heat of the 

 gun ; E is another aperture through which the water passed into the 

 lowest chambers placed immediately over the hypocaustum; v, the 

 hypocaustum ; o o, doors for introducing the fuel. A transverse section 

 through the middle of the same castellum is given at H. 



" By the plan of this castellum, it appears that there were twenty- 

 eight of these vaulted rooms placed over the hypocaustum ; they were 



placed in two rows, fourteen on a side, and had all a communication 

 with each other. The sections show, that over these were twenty- 

 eight other rooms, having likewise a communication with each other, 

 although only one of them had any communication with the chambers 

 below, through the aperture at E. Upon the top of all was a spacious 

 receptacle, not very deep, but extending the whole length of the 

 castellum, in which the water was considerably heated by the influence 

 of the sun, before it passed into the several chambers. This receptacle 

 received its water from the cistern B, and not immediately from the 

 aqueduct. The use of this cistern appears ,to have consisted in pro- 

 moting a more gentle flow of the water into the receptacle, that its 

 surface might not be ruffled by the least agitation, as that would very 



