The Baths of the Roman Empire

The baths of the Roman Empire were one of the most common types of building and came to represent luxury, community, recreation, and, in the provinces, an association with Rome. Any city aspiring to greatness would have possessed baths (or thermae). The baths first appeared in the Italian region of Campania, and the best preserved examples of the early types are in POMPEII. There the Stabian Baths of the first century B.C.E. were used, although they tended to be darker, smaller, and more primitive than their later imperial counterparts. Any large bath consisted of a number of rooms: the apodyterium (the changing room), frigidarium (cold room), tepidarium (warm room), caldarium (hot room), laconicum (dry sweating room), and an area for swimming, a natatio. Heat was provided to the caldarium from braziers or with ducts and hypocausts or underfloor heating. The better the bath, the more luxuries and amenities would be provided. The caldarium might be supplied with a schola labri, a basin of cold water, for example. Other additions were libraries, private suites (in public baths), gardens, and especially a gymnasium with an exercise area, the palestra.

It is not surprising, then, that baths were popular centers of local activity. Nowhere was this more true than in Rome itself. Marcus AGRIPPA, around 20 B.C.E., constructed the first major baths in the city, in the area of the Campus Martius. The baths that bore his name stood until 80 C.E. when they were consumed in the fire that destroyed much of the Campus Martius. The GOLDEN HOUSE OF NERO was described by SUETONIUS as having running sea water and sulphur water. Perhaps based on the Golden House, TITUS constructed a large series of rooms that included a bath with all of the essential elements plus two palaestrae, although it lacked a natatio. The much larger Baths of Trajan were begun in 104 C.E. and took five years to complete under the architect APOLLODORUS. He brilliantly placed the frigidarium in an elevated
middle position, allowing everything else to revolve around it, including the extensive natatio. These baths, situated on the Esquiline and utilizing much of the Golden House, were the largest structure yet built and remained so until CARACALLA’s reign.

The vast Baths of Caracalla, completed by his successors, represented the height of bath architecture. There were libraries, gardens, gymnasiums, and cisterns. The natatio was large and positioned to maximize the sky overhead; further, screens and walls semi-enclosed its area. Vaster in size was the frigidarium, which was supported by cross vaults and surrounded by small pools. The caldarium was moved away from the interior of the baths and set in its own position with a magnificent dome, some 35 meters high. Caracalla’s Baths remained in excellent condition for centuries and have preserved even into the 20th century their scale and ambition.

DIOCLETIAN was next to order new baths for Rome, finishing in 306 the work begun by MAXIMIAN in 298. They resembled Caracalla’s baths but were simpler in design, though they were certainly well built, for they stand today. The provinces and cities of the empire adapted these designs. In Africa, in LEPCIS MAGNA and CARTHAGE baths were erected. Lepcis Magna offered both the Baths of Hadrian and the smaller Hunting Baths of the late second century C.E. Carthage boasted the extensive Antonine Baths (mid-second century C.E.) near the ocean, pointing to the economic success of both city and province. Tivoli, the resort of Hadrian, possessed two thermae, a small and a large. The Small Baths were probably the emperor’s personal area and were a twisting amalgam of shapes and sizes. The Large Baths were very conventional, with cross vaults over the frigidarium.