Ancient Roman bathing
[1] In some ways, these resembled modern-day destination spas as there were facilities for a variety of activities from exercising to sunbathing to swimming and massage.
[4] Although the wealthiest Romans might set up a bath in their townhouses or their country villas, heating a series of rooms or even a separate building especially for this purpose, and soldiers might have a bathhouse provided at their fort (as at Cilurnum on Hadrian's Wall, or at Bearsden fort), they still often frequented the numerous public bathhouses in the cities and towns throughout the empire.
Small bathhouses, called balneum (plural balnea), might be privately owned, while they were public in the sense that they were open to the populace for a fee.
The earliest such findings are the baths in the palace complex at Knossos, Crete, and the luxurious alabaster bathtubs excavated in Akrotiri, Santorini; both date from the mid-2nd millennium BC.
One of the bathing chambers had a decorative mosaic floor depicting a driver and chariot pulled by four horses, a woman followed by two dogs, and a dolphin below.
With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the idea of the public bath spread to all parts of the Mediterranean and into regions of Europe and North Africa.
Today, the extent of the Roman bath is revealed at ruins and in archaeological excavations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
After taking this series of sweat and/or immersion baths, the bather returned to the cooler tepidarium for a massage with oils and final scraping with metal implements called strigils.
The symmetry preference in Roman architecture usually meant a symmetrical facade, even though the women's area was usually smaller than the men's because of fewer patrons.
To many Roman moralists, baths illustrated how far the Rome of their own day had fallen into decline and so became a negative image; Cato the Elder publicly attacked Scipio Africanus for his use of the bathhouses.
In addition, the Romans used the hot thermal waters to relieve their suffering from rheumatism, arthritis, and overindulgence in food and drink.
Formal garden spaces and opulent architectural arrangement equal to those of the Romans reappeared in Europe by the end of the eighteenth century.
In Roman baths, there was often a palaestra, an outdoor courtyard surrounded by columns, which bathers would use like a modern day gym.
[10] Some activities that would occur in the palaestra included boxing, discus throwing, weight lifting, and wrestling–activities which are all depicted in mosaics from baths in Ostia.
They believed that the oil would absorb the dirt on a person's body and encourage sweating that would lead to unclogged pores and better general health.
Because both wealthy and poor Romans went to the baths, there was great opportunity for a client to talk to a patron or try to get an invitation to dinner.
[11] The emperor Marcus Aurelius complained about the dirtiness: Celsus,[13] while commending its therapeutic virtues, warns not to go with a fresh wound because of the risk of gangrene.
In fact, several tombstones from across the empire claim: The philosopher Seneca instead objected to noise that interrupted his work when he resided above a bath.
