BAT 



29 



BAT 



could by these windows have the advantage of the rays and 

 the heat of the declining sun. Accordingly the baths just 

 described have the greater part of their windows turned 

 to the south, and are constructed in a low part of the city, 

 where the adjoining buildings served as a protection from 

 the north-west winds. 



The baths at Rome were on a much larger scale. The 

 public baths of Caracalla were 1500 feet in length, and 

 1250 in breadth- 'at each end were two temples, one to 

 Apollo, and another to Esculapius, as the tutelary deities 

 of the place (genii tutelares), sacred to the improvement of 

 the mind, and the care of the body ; the two other temples 

 were dedicated to the two protecting divinities of the Anto- 

 nine family, Hercules and Bacchus. In the principal build- 

 ing were, in the first place, a grand circular vestibule, with 

 four halls on each side, for cold, tepid, warm, and steam 

 baths ; in the centre was an immense square for exercise, 

 when the weather was unfavourable to it in the open air ; 

 beyond it a great hall, where 1600 marble seats were placed 

 for the convenience of the bathers ; at each end of this hall 

 were libraries. This building terminated on both sides in a 

 court surrounded with porticos, with an odeum for music, 

 and in the middle a spacious basin for swimming. Round 

 this edifice were walks shaded by rows of trees, particularly 

 the plane ; and in its front extended a gymnasium for run- 

 ning, wrestling, &c. in fine weather. The whole was 

 bounded by a vast portico, opening into exhedrao or spacious 

 halls, where the poets declaimed, and philosophers gave 

 lectures to their auditors. This immense fabric was adorned, 

 within and without, with pillars, stucco-work, paintings, and 

 statues. The stucco and paintings arc yet in many places 

 perceptible. Pillars have been dug up, and some still re- 

 main amidst the ruin ; while the Farnesian bull and the fa- 

 mous Hercules, found in one of these halls, announce the 

 multiplicity and beauty of the statues which once adorned 

 the Thermse of Caracalla,' (Eustace's Classical Tour, vol. 

 i. p. 226.) For an account of the baths of Titus and Dio- 

 cletian, see the same author. 



On entering these baths the bathers first proceeded to 

 undress. They next went to the elseothesium (the oil-cham- 

 ber), as it was called in Greek, or unctuariuni, where they 

 anointed themselves all over with a coarse cheap oil before 

 they began their exercise. (Plin. xv. c. 4 & 7.) Here the 

 liner odoriferous ointments which were used on coming out 

 of the bath were also kept (Plin. 1. ii. Epist. 41.) and the 

 r" mi was so situated as to receive a considerable degree of 

 heat. This chamber of perfumes was full of pots, like an apo- 

 thecary's shop ; and those who wished to anoint and perfume 

 the body received perfumes and unguents. In the repre- 

 sentation of a Roman bath, copied from a painting on a 

 wall fprming part of the baths of Titus, the unctuarium, 

 called also elax>thesium, appears filled with a vast number of 

 vases. The vases contained a great variety of perfumes and 

 balsams. When anointed, the bathers passed into the 

 sphccristerium, a very light and extensive apartment, in 

 which were performed the various kinds of exercises to 

 which this part of the baths was appropriated. (Plin. lib. 

 i. Epist. 101.) When its situation permitted, this apartment 

 was exposed to the afternoon sun, otherwise it was supplied 

 with heat from the furnace. (Plin. 1. 11. Epist. 41.) After 

 the exercise, they wont to the adjoining warm-bath, wherein 

 they sat and washed themselves. The seat was below the 

 surface of the water, and upon it they scraped themselves 

 with instruments 'called strigiles, which were usually made 

 of bronze, but sometimes of iron or brass. (Martial, lib. xiv. 

 Epig. 51.) This operation was performed by an attendant 

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

 found lately on the estate of Lucien Buonaparte 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 

 h*ands, 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. Effe- 

 minate 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 elsoothesium, carrying 

 with them little vase* of alabaster, bronze, and terracotta, 

 full of perfumed oils, with which they had their bodies 

 anointed, by causing the oil U> 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 some time in it, that they might not too 

 suddenly expose their bodies to the atmosphere in the frigi- 

 darium ; 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 Romans 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 sphseristerium, 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 afternoon was, how- 

 ever, the most eligible time for the exercises of the pa- 

 laestra. Hadrian forbade any but those who were sick to 

 enter the public baths before two o'clock. The thermos 

 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-pence. 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 

 permitted before, but also furnished the lamps wilh oil, for 

 the convenience of the people.' (See Cameron On Roman 

 Baths, p. 40.) 



[Coin representing the Baths of Alexander Severn*.] 



The thermae were constructed at a vast expense, and prin- 

 cipally 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 thermal 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 mode- 

 rate computation, 18,000 persons might be bathing at the 

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

 thermst, to give the least foundation for conjecturing in 

 what manner this was performed, it has been generally re- 

 ferred to the same, process described b* 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 castellu, which he observed to be situated 

 without the thermae ; but as these castella were upon a level 

 with the thermal 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 build- 

 ings, all of them surrounded with Hues from the hypo- 

 caustum. He therefore imagined that the water was heated 

 on the outside of the therma); but 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, 



