[1] With the completion of the Aqua Virgo in 19 BC, the baths were supplied with water and with the addition of a large lake and canal (Stagnum Agrippae).

[9] Dio tells us that they “gave the name Laconian to the gymnasium because the Lacedaemonians had a greater reputation at that time than any one else for stripping and exercising after anointing themselves with oil”.

[10] In fact, Cassius Dio claims that three structures were completed by Agrippa in this year, the third being the Stoa of Neptune, suggesting that all three were related.

[10] The Baths of Agrippa are the first known to have contained monumental sculpture, including the famous Apoxyomenos of Lysippus, the famed court sculptor of Alexander the Great.

In fact, Pliny the Elder mentions the baths several times, noting that they were "a point of departure in artistic endeavor, implying that the building was perceived as groundbreaking in certain respects".

[10] These building projects were a few of the many which Agrippa undertook within the Roman Campus Martius and across the Empire, constituting aqueducts, fountains, porticoes, baths, roads, a voting precinct, a theatre, a bridge, and a harbour.

[10] Agrippa built up the area around the complex to include gardens with nice walks and colonnades with resting places and shelters from the sun.

Wright claims that "The total effect was somewhat like the Athenian gymnasia, the Lyceum, or the grove of Academus, but on a very much larger and more sumptuous scale.

Agrippa's baths, along with his other work within the Campus Martius, were burned down in the great fire of 80 AD in the reign of Titus.

[10] Knowledge of the structure and location of the Baths of Agrippa is based on a small fragment of the Marble Plan that was discovered in 1900 as well as drawings made in the 16th century of the ruins while they were still standing.

There was a large rotunda (Arco Della Ciambella) on the north side of the building 25 meters in diameter, that is visible in the sketches found in the seventeenth century.

The area west of the rotunda had evidence of a hypocaust system and hollow terra-cotta tiles, indicating several heated rooms.

], no public bathing complexes were built for some time as they were felt to host shady[clarification needed] activities.

[11] Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa innovated here as well, servicing his baths with water fed directly from his freshly built aqueduct, the Aqua Virgo.

[11] In a passage of Cicero, detailing a particularly heated exchange between L. Licinius Crassus and M. Junius Brutus, it is brought to light that it was considered improper at the time for father and son to bathe together.

According to Lucian, commenting on a trip to the Baths of Hippias, they were "brightly lit throughout, adorned with marbles from Phrygia and Numidia, and inscribed with citations from Pindar".

[11] There appears one inscription that mentions a museum which was attached to a bathing complex where art was put on display and where discussions and lectures could be organized.

[clarification needed][18] The Aqua Virgo was completed in 19 BC and was the last of a series of constructions initiated by Agrippa concerning water management within the city of Rome.

[12] However, Strabo's mention of Agrippa setting up a statue (“The Fallen Lion” of Lysippus) in a grove which lay between the Stagnum and the Euripus leads one to believe that the two were actually distinct features of the landscape.

The Stagnum, along with the Euripus were very likely added into the landscape as features to complement the pleasure gardens which Agrippa placed around his baths.