Roman Baths and Bathing

Bathing features quite a bit in the Falco novels, most notably The Body in the Bath
House (2001). But what exactly were Roman baths like, and how did the Romans use
them? Most importantly, did they have a soap-on-a-rope and a rubber ducky?
The Bathing Routine
Most thermae (Roman bath houses) have a similar layout (see Fig. 1) and the process
of bathing follows a set routine. The Romans did not use soap to get clean (it was the
Germanic tribes who used soap!), but oils which they rubbed on and then scraped off,
taking the layers of dirt and sweat with them. Yuk!
Key to Bath House Plan:
1. Frigidarium (cold room).
2. Tepidarium (warm room).
3. Caldarium (hot room).
4. Praefurnium (Furnace room).

a. Cold plunge bath.

[Fig. 1] This bath house is based on one found at
b. Hot steam bath.
Welwyn (Hertfordshire, UK) built in the third
century AD and occupied for 150 years.
c. Hot water tank.

[Fig. 2] A strigil (scraper) used to scrape off sweat and oil.

Frigidarium (Cold Room)
The first room entered is the frigidarium, or cold room, referring
to the cold plunge bath housed here. We are not going to use the
cold bath yet, in this room you are just going to put on your
wooden sandals. Wooden sandals? Yes, you have to wear
wooden sandals on your feet for reasons that will soon become
apparent.

Tepidarium (Warm Room)

The tepidarium (warm room) is pleasant dry heat. There are no
baths here, so you can undress and store your clothes without fear of them getting
damp. In this room you might sit and start to sweat, maybe do some exercises to help
it along, then you would cover your body with oil, ready for the next room..
Caldarium (Hot Room)
The caldarium (hot room) can get to temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (100 degrees
Fahrenheit) and is very humid thanks to a tank over the furnace as well as the hot
plunge bath. The walls and floor are hot too, which is why you need the wooden
sandals on your feet! There is a labrum (fountain of cold water) to refresh yourself
with. In this room you really work up a sweat and then get scraped clean with a strigil
(scraper, see Fig. 2) before washing off in the hot bath.
Frigidarium Revisited
Back to the frigidarium now to take a cool refreshing plunge in the cold bath to get rid
of the hot sweaty oils. You can then get dressed again and leave your wooden sandals
for the next bather!
Larger Bath Houses
In larger bath houses there would be additional rooms to the three basic ones. There
might be an apodyterium (changing room, with niches for your clothing), a palestra
(large central courtyard used as an exercise yard) or even a laconicum (dry heat room,
like a sauna)
At public baths you might find all manor of diversions from street entertainers, food
stalls, gardens and fabulous decor! For example, at the Baths of Caracalla, built in AD
217 (see Fig. 3), up to sixteen hundred (1600) people could use the facilities at one
time. These facilities included, enormous caldarium, tepidarium, frigidarium and
natatio (outdoor pool), changing rooms, gymnasia with mosaic floors throughout,
Greek and Latin libraries, a stadium and gardens. There were even conference and
meeting rooms available for businessmen! Bathing was not just a function of
cleanliness to the Romans, it was a social entertainment and a way to "network" with
business associates - much like a modern leisure center.

[Fig. 3] Simplified floor plan of the Baths of Caracalla (completed in AD 217), in

Rome. This bath house was in use for 300 years until the invading Goths destroyed
the plumbing.
If you think the Baths of Caracalla are big, that's nothing compared to the Baths of
Diocletian (also in Rome), which could accommodate twice the number of people at
one time!
Key to Baths of Caracalla:
1. Original front entrance
2. Changing rooms
3. Gymnasia
4. Natatio (outdoor pool)
5. Frigidarium (cold room)
6. Tepidarium (warm room)
7. Caldarium (hot room)
8. Conference rooms
9. Greek and Latin libraries
10. Stadium

Further Reading
DK Eyewitness Travel Guides: Rome Dorling Kindersley Ltd. London (2002)
Gabucci, Ada. [Trans. Sadleir, Richard] Guide to Ancient Rome Electra (2000)
 McManus, Barbara F. Roman Baths and Bathing The Virtual Roma Project (1999)
http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/baths.html (retrieved: 2nd Feb 2002)
Rook, Tony Welwyn Roman Baths: A Guide Tony Rook Publication (1996)
Copyright Notice And Disclaimer:
All contents Copyright © 1999-2004 by Louise Dade (Email), except where otherwise stated.
 

ROMAN BATHS AND BATHING

Of all the leisure activities, bathing was surely the most important for the greatest
number of Romans, since it was part of the daily regimen for men of all classes, and
many women as well. We think of bathing as a very private activity conducted in the
home, but bathing in Rome was a communal activity, conducted for the most part in
public facilities that in some ways resembled modern spas or health clubs (although
they were far less expensive). A modern scholar, Fikret Yegül, sums up the
significance of Roman baths in the following way (Baths and Bathing in Classical
Antiquity. Cambridge: MIT, 1992):

The universal acceptance of bathing as a central event in daily life

belongs to the Roman world and it is hardly an exaggeration to say that
at the height of the empire, the baths embodied the ideal Roman way of
urban life. Apart from their normal hygienic functions, they provided
facilities for sports and recreation. Their public nature created the
proper environment—much like a city club or community center—for
social intercourse varying from neighborhood gossip to business
discussions. There was even a cultural and intellectual side to the baths
since the truly grand establishments, the thermae, incorporated
libraries, lecture halls, colonnades, and promenades and assumed a
character like the Greek gymnasium. (30)

Although wealthy Romans might set up a bath in their town houses or especially in
their country villas, heating a series of rooms or even a separate building especially
for this purpose, even they often frequented the numerous public bathhouses in the
cities and towns throughout the empire. Small bathhouses, called balneae, might be
privately owned, but they were public in the sense that they were open to the populace
for a fee, which was usually quite reasonable. The large baths, called thermae, were
owned by the state and often covered several city blocks. Fees for both types of baths
were quite reasonable, within the budget of most free Roman males. Since the Roman
workday began at sunrise, work was usually over at little after noon. About 2:00-3:00
pm, men would go to the baths and plan to stay for several hours of sport, bathing,
and conversation, after which they would be ready for a relaxing dinner. Republican
bathhouses often had separate bathing facilities for women and men, but by the
empire the custom was to open the bathhouses to women during the early part of the
day and reserve it for men from 2:00 pm until closing time (usually sundown, though
we occasionally hear of a bath being used at night). For example, one contract for the
management of a provincial bath specified that the facility would be open to women
from daybreak until about noon, and to men from about 2:00 pm until sunset;
although the women got the less desirable hours, their fee was twice as high as the
men's, 1 as (a copper coin) for a woman and ½ as for a man. Mixed bathing was
generally frowned upon, although the fact that various emperors repeatedly forbade it
seems to indicate that the prohibitions did not always work. Certainly women who
were concerned about their respectability did not frequent the baths when the men
were there, but of course the baths were an excellent place for prostitutes to ply their
trade.
Exercise:
Bathing had a fairly regular ritual, and bathhouses were built to accommodate this.
Upon entering the baths, individuals went first to the dressing room (apodyterium—
this reconstruction drawing shows the men's dressing room in the Forum Baths in
Pompeii), where there were niches and cabinets to store their street clothes and shoes
(in the model above, the dressing room is on the left, farthest from the furnace; click
here for a closer look). Many bathers were accompanied by one or more slaves to
carry their gear and guard their clothes in the dressing rooms, but the bathhouses
provided attendants who would watch over the belongings of the poorest for a fee.
Sometimes the dressing room did double duty; for example, in the Stabian Baths in
Pompeii the women's dressing room also served as a frigidarium, containing a small
cold-water pool. Although the evidence is not clear about exactly what Romans wore
when bathing, it seems probable that they did not exercise in the nude (as Greek males
did) and may also have worn some light covering in the baths—perhaps the
subligaculum. Within the baths special sandals with thick
soles were needed to protect the feet from the heated floors.
This plan of the Stabian Baths shows the efficient design of a
relatively small Republican bathhouse with separate facilities
for men and women. The large central courtyard was the
exercise ground (palaestra); it was surrounded by a shady
portico which led into the bathing rooms. They might also
take a swim in the large outdoor pool (natatio) such as this
one in the Stabian Baths. After changing clothes and oiling
their bodies, male bathers typically began their regimen with
exercise, ranging from mild weight-lifting (as shown in the
image at left), wrestling, various types of ball playing,
running, and swimming (click here to find out more about
Roman ball games). Although women athletes (like the one at left) are shown in the
famous fourth-century CE mosaics from Piazza Armerina in Sicily, these apparently
depict some sort of contest or competition rather than ordinary practice. Most of those
exercising in the palaestrae were likely to be men.
Bathing:
After exercise, bathers would have the dirt and oil scraped from their bodies with a
curved metal implement called a strigil. Then the bathing proper began. Accompanied
by a slave carrying their towels, oil flasks and strigils, bathers would progress at a
leisurely pace through rooms of various temperature. They might start in the warm
room (tepidarium), which had heated walls and floors but sometimes had no pool, and
then proceed to the hot bath (caldarium), which was closest to the furnace. This room
had a large tub or small pool with very hot water and a waist-high fountain (labrum)
with cool water to splash on the face and neck. After this the bather might spend some
time in the tepidarium again before finishing in the cold room (frigidarium) with a
refreshing dip in the cold pool. Other rooms provided moist steam, dry heat like a
sauna (laconicum), and massage with perfumed oils.
After their baths, patrons could stroll in the gardens, visit the library, watch
performances of jugglers or acrobats, listen to a literary recital, or buy a snack from
the many food vendors. Doubtless the baths were noisy, as the philosopher Seneca
complained when he lived near a bathhouse in Rome, but the baths were probably
very attractive places. Although most of the fine decor has not survived, many writers
comment on the beauty and luxury of the bathhouses, with their well-lighted, airy
rooms with high vaulted ceilings, lovely mosaics, paintings and colored marble
panels, and silver faucets and fittings. This computer-generated reconstruction of the
frigidarium of the baths of Hadrian at Lepcis Magna in Libya gives some idea of the
splendor of the Roman thermae. The model at right depicts the baths of Trajan,
located near the Colosseum. Enjoy a virtual bath by visiting these baths in Region III
of VRoma, either via the web gateway or the anonymous browser.)
Heating System:
Roman engineers devised an ingenious system of heating the baths—the hypocaust.
The floor was raised
off the ground by
pillars and spaces
were left inside the
walls so that hot air
from the furnace
(praefurnium) could
circulate through
these open areas.
Rooms requiring the
most heat were
placed closest to the
furnace, whose heat
could be increased by
adding more wood.
Click here to see the
skeleton of a dog found in the hypocaust of a bath in Germany; it had apparently
crawled beneath the floor seeking warmth and been asphyxiated by the fumes. 
Latrines:
Bathhouses also had large public latrines, often with marble seats over channels
whose continuous flow of water constituted the first “flush toilets.” A shallow water
channel in front of the seats was furnished with sponges attached to sticks for patrons
to wipe themselves.
Sources
Barbara F. McManus, The College of New Rochelle
bmcmanus@cnr.edu
revised July, 2003