Suburban Baths (Pompeii)

By this time, land was more easily available outside the city as the walls had lost their defensive role after the town became a Roman colony.

[5][6][3] The baths also benefitted from the increased supply of running water after the connection of the city to the Aqua Augusta aqueduct in 30–20 BC.

[14] The building is notable for its surviving erotic wall paintings, the only set of such art found in a public Roman bath house.

The building was a two-storey structure: the upper floor, as in the Palaestra/Sarno baths, was divided into three apartments for rent, with views towards the port and the Bay of Naples through the large glass windows.

As the sexual acts portrayed are all considered "debased" according to the customs of ancient Rome, it is possible that the intention behind their reproduction was to provide a source of humour to visitors of the building.

[23]` [22] It is thought that these boxes that were sitting on this wooden shelf under these paintings would have been where people attending the baths would have put their clothes after they had undressed in this room.

[22] It is also speculated that the paintings possibly served as way for the bathers to remember the location of their box (in lieu of numbering).

[15][28] The presence of these paintings in a public bathhouse shared by men and women gives some insight into Roman culture and suggests that people would not have found this offensive, and possibly humorous.