Roman Art & Architecture
Baths or Thermae
Baths
• The baths, or Thermae, their Greek name,
brought the exercise of the body together
with its cleansing.
• In building huge bath complexes the
emperors put personal hygiene and health
on the daily agenda.
• The Bath buildings also gave the Roman’s
the opportunity to experiment beyond the
utilitarian with their building techniques.
Baths
• It is the most common source of the
Roman Cross or Groin vault.
• Up to now we have heard of domes and
barrel vaults. However because of their
continual outward thrust they created dark
sombre interiors.
• The cross vault allows the thrust to be
concentrated in four corners, and for two
high clerestory windows to be inserted
Baths
• Importantly it was another social activity
available to all, even the very poor.
• It was only in the second century B.C that
the prudish Roman finally allowed bathing
to move from small family bath houses at
home to more public arrangements.
• According to Pliny there were 170 baths in
Rome by 33B.C
Baths
• This number had breached 1000 by the
early second century AD.
• The baths were a huge part of Roman
daily life. Business meetings took place
here. People socialised with friends. We
have already mentioned exercise and
hygiene. Shopping and reading took place
in the later arcades and libraries. Lectures
were also performed.
Baths
• On top of all this the baths were used for wild
parties at night. Over eating, drinking and
bacchanalian orgies gave these magnificent
buildings a questionable name.
• It was probably a mixture of the prudish citizen
and these wild stories that saw Hadrian pass a
decree sometime during his reign to separate
the sexes during bathing.
Bathing Process
 Near the entrance, would be the changing rooms known
as the apodyteria. Here bathers and those exercising
would deposit their clothing in small cubicles along the
walls. The richer patron would have a slave to guard
their belongings; the rest would have to take a chance.
•
Bathing Process
• The route taken by bathers around the baths was quite
formal.
• After changing most went to the gymnasia or the
palaestra to exercise and build up a sweat. This was
important in the cleaning process. Before exercising
olive oil would be rubbed on to the skin.
• Many of these exercises involved ball games. One called
trigon is described by Petronius in his Satyricon. One of
the characters Trimalchio plays this game with some
“long haired boys”. It involved three people in a triangle
throwing balls at each other, the object being not to drop
them.
Bathing Process
• Other games involved running, a type of tennis, and
wrestling. Everything except wrestling was done wearing
a tunic.
• Those who were unable to exercise went to take a
Turkish bath or sauna instead, laconia. Those who had
exercised may also come in here to encourage the
sweating process further.
• From here the bather entered the caldarium. This was
the hottest room beside the laconia. The bather scraped
off all the dirt and sweat, which had been captured
between the skin and the olive oil. This scraping was
done using an instrument known as a strigil.
• Cleansed and dried
the bather would then
enter the tepidarium.
Here they would
gradually cool off
perhaps playing some
board games or
having some wine.
Bathing Process
Bathing Process
• Finally the bather would take a plunge into the
frigidarium. Freezing cold water was excellent for
closing up the skins pores at the end of the process.
The Baths
• The baths were heated using the hypocaust system. A
furnace was used to heat a boiler to provide hot water.
All the extra heat from the furnace was fed down a
system of tunnels under the floors of the baths. The heat
also went up flues in the walls. In the hotter rooms every
surface would be hot so much so wooden sandals were
used to walk in the caldarium.
• These buildings became so popular that they were built
by the most important people of the community. They
became places to display wealth, power and culture.
Their sheer size, their mosaics, murals, and sculptures
make them an ideal place to study our topic.
Stabian Baths-Pompeii__A-entrances, b-small private
baths, c-latrine, d-men’s and women’s changing rooms, etepidarium, f-caldarium, g-furnace, h-frigidarium, jpalaestra, k-swimming pool.
Baths
• The Stabian baths at Pompeii were built in the
second century B.C to an untidy and immature
plan.
• Note especially the site of the frigidarium so
close to the heating system.
• It was difficult to graft the formal style of bathing
into the architectural spaces.
• It is thought that it was first century AD before
the symmetrical solution was discovered.
Hadrian’s Baths-Lepcis Magna___A-swimming pool, bfrigidarium, c-plunge baths, d-tepidarium, e-central and
smaller baths, f-caldarium, g-laconia, h-furnaces, j-latrines
Baths
• These baths were built in AD126-127.
• The many different types of Roman interior
had finally found a way of existing in
harmony.
• We have groin vaults, tunnel vaults,
porticoes, and open air rooms.
• Also we can clearly see how the hot rooms
are grouped around the furnace and the
cold rooms are kept far away.
Stabian Baths Pompeii
Hadrian’s baths at Lepcis
Magna
Compare
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Open area
Frigidarium
Tepidarium
Caldarium
Furnaces near edge
Hypocaust system
Contrast
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Latrines
Entrances/Corridors
Frigidarium position
Vaulting systems
Wall thickness
This is an established institution in the
Roman World learning from its 300 years
of mistakes