Roman bath houses

The love of a good bath
The image of well-oiled, naked men, sweating away the dirt and worries of the Roman empire in the caldarium, or hot room, of a bath house, is one of those indelible impressions of Roman life that is communicated in almost every film that has been made about the Roman era. From emperors and generals through to gladiators, soldiers, ordinary citizens and slaves, the Romans' love of a good bath is one of the features that has come to characterise their society.

The Roman bath began as a private affair. It was there to serve a straightforward, hygienic function in the homes of those that could afford it. In time, wealthy citizens added increasingly elaborate bathing facilities, and under the Republic public bath houses, or thermae, began to be built.

Public baths
Open to all for a nominal fee, these public baths took on a communal character. They became places to meet, talk and socialise as well as to wash. Gradually they became bigger and more lavish, with rich patrons supporting public baths both as status symbols and as a means of garnering public support for their political ambitions.

The most spectacular developments in the Roman bath house, however, took place after the first imperial baths were built during the reign of Augustus by his general Marcus Agrippa. Here, free of charge, the citizens of Rome could carry out their ablutions in magnificent splendour, the likes of which had never before been experienced by ordinary people, but which was subsequently surpassed by the efforts of later emperors as they strove to outdo each other with huge, richly endowed bathing complexes.

Baths of Caracalla
The Baths of Caracalla, built in 217 AD, for example, covered 27 acres and could accommodate 1,600 people at a time. As well as the bathing facilities, the complex included meeting rooms, gymnasia, walkways, gardens, at least two libraries and a public stadium.

The non-imperial public baths also became bigger and more lavish over time, with their sponsors and architects competing to produce ever more elaborate buildings, complete with magnificent arches, sculptures, mosaics, marbles and other decorative features. Together with the baths, meanwhile, street sellers, entertainers, food stalls and other facilities would all be found within or adjacent to the bath buildings.

Social nature of bathing
The public baths became central to urban Roman life. They were among the first buildings to be erected in any Roman settlement, and even the smallest of towns would have had at least one. Indeed, the fact that the empire was so well-provided with bath houses, together with the social nature of bathing in Roman society, meant that some wealthy citizens didn't feel the need to build private baths in their own homes at all. Those that did often used them as much for entertaining guests as for simple personal hygiene.

The public baths were used by all sections of society. Those who could not afford to hire an attendant to scrape away the dirt and oil from their bodies with the sickle-shaped strigil did it for each other. (Oil and scraping took the place of soap and washing in Roman baths.) For the urban poor and unemployed who often gathered in the baths in the afternoons, they must have provided a welcome respite from the dirt and discomfort of daily life in the empire.

The baths were also open to both men and women, although respectable Roman women would not have attended the mixed sessions that were popular for a period in Rome. The emperor Hadrian eventually ruled that there should be separate bathing sessions for the two sexes, with women attending in the mornings and men later in the day.

Layout of baths
Both the large public baths and the smaller private ones, such as that excavated by Time Team at Whitestaunton for the 2004 series, shared the same basic layout as bathers followed the same basic routine.

All baths contained:

• the frigidarium, or cold room, containing a cold plunge bath;
• the tepidarium, or warm room, with a dry, warm atmosphere, where bathers could undress, take gentle exercise and oil themselves ready for
• the caldarium, or hot room, heated to temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and containing a hot plunge bath.

Larger baths might contain more than one of these rooms or additional ones too. Separate or private changing rooms, large exercise areas and laconica, or very hot, dry, sauna-like rooms, were all commonplace in the larger public baths. The heating system was almost invariably by way of hypocaust or underfloor heating, fired from the praefurnium, or furnace room.

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