BATHS. Balnea (βαλνεία), large ornamented buildings erected by the ancients for the sake of bathing. Baths formed a part of the ancient gymnasium, though they were frequented more for the sake of pleasure than of health.
The most magnificent baths were those of Agrippa, Nero, Titus, Caracalla, Paulus Æmilius, and Diocletian. The baths of Agrippa, or Therma Agrippina, were built of brick, but painted in enamel. Those of Nero, Therma Neroniana, were not only furnished with fresh water, but had the sea brought into them; those of Caracalla were adorned with 200 marble columns, and furnished with 1600 marble seats; and which, Lipsius assures us, were so large, that 1800 persons might conveniently bathe in them at the same time. But the baths of Diocletian, Therma Diocletiana, surpassed all the rest in magnificence; 140,000 men having been employed many years in building them. A considerable portion of this vast structure, as well as of the baths of Caracalla, still remains; and, from the dimensions of the arches, the beauty of the pillars, the profusion of foreign marble, the curious moulding of the roofs, the multitude of spacious apartments, and a variety of other circumstances, these ruins may be regarded as among the most remarkable relics of ancient luxury and splendour. It is said that at Rome there were 856 public baths. Fabricius justly observes, that the excessive luxury of the Romans appeared in nothing more than in their baths. Seneca complains that the baths of plebeians were filled from silver pumps, and that the freedmen trod on gems; and Valerius Maximus and Pliny make mention of one Sergius Orata, who had baths suspended in the air. This, however, appears to have reference to the invention of the vapour bath, in which the flooring of the chamber was suspended over the hollow cells of the hypocaustum. (See Ausonius, Mosella.)
According to Dion Cassius (iv. 7), Maccenas was the first who erected warm swimming baths at Rome; but there were public baths prior to his time, although they were small, poorly decorated, and of cold water only. Agrippa, while ædile, built 160 places for bathing, where the citizens might be accommodated either with hot or cold water gratis; and, following his example, Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Severus, Caracalla, Gordian, Aurelian, Maximian, Diocletian, and most of the emperors who studied to gain the affections of the people, erected baths inlaid with the richest marble, and wrought according to the rules of the most delicate architecture. The wealthy had baths, frequently of great magnificence, at their own residences, especially after the practice of pillaging the provinces had commenced; but these they only used on extraordinary occasions. The great men, and even the emperors themselves, sometimes bathed in public with the rest of the people. Alexander Severus was the first who allowed the baths to be opened in the night-time during the heats of summer.
The Greek baths were usually annexed to the palæstræ or gymnasia, of which they were considered a part; and consisted of seven different apartments, usually separated
from one another, and intermixed with other buildings belonging to different sorts of exercises. These were, the cold bath, frigida lavatio; the elaothesium, or room where they were anointed with oil; the frigularium, or cooling room; the propinqueum, or entrance of the hypocaustum or stove; the vaulted room for sweating in, or vapour bath, called concamerata sudatio, or tepidarium; the laconicum, or dry stove; and the hot bath, called calida lavatio. With respect to the baths disjoined from the palæstræ, they appear to have been usually double; one for men and another for women, but so near that the same furnace heated both. The middle part was occupied by a large basin, which received water by several pipes, and was surrounded by a balustrade, behind which there was an area for the reception of those who waited to use the bath. These baths were vaulted over, and only received light from the top.
In the Roman baths, the first part which appeared was a large basin, called κολυμβιβήρα in Greek, and natatio or picina in Latin. In the middle was the hypocaustum, which had a row of four apartments on each side, called balnearia; these were the stove, hot bath, cold bath, and tepidarium. The two stoves, called laconicum and tepidarium, were circular, and joined together; and their floor was hollow and suspended, in order to receive the heat of a large furnace, which communicated with the stoves through the vacuities of their floor. This furnace also heated another room called vasarium, in which were three large brazen vessels called milliaria, containing respectively hot, warm, and cold water, and so disposed that, by means of siphons and pipes, the water might be made to pass out of one or other of them into the bath, in order to adjust its temperature. Such is the description given by Vitruvius.
At three in the afternoon, which Pliny calls hora octava et nona, the Romans repaired to the baths, public or private. This was called the hora balnei, or the "bath hour." In summer the earliest hour of admission was eight, and in winter nine; whence the expression of Pliny applied to the hour of general resort. The public baths were opened at the sound of a bell, and always at the same hour. Those who came too late stood a chance of obtaining only cold water. The bathers commenced with hot water; but when the pores had been thus opened, and a profuse perspiration produced, they thought it prudent to close them again, either with the cold bath, or at least with a sprinkling of cold water. During the bath the body was scraped with a kind of blunt knife or strigil, such as may still be found in the cabinets of the curious. Bathing was succeeded by unction and perfuming, after which they went fresh to the oxenaculum.
The Romans, when they found their stomachs overcharged, proceeded to the bath. This we learn from Juvenal, who inveighs against those who, having gorged themselves with eating, were forced to go into the baths to seek relief. They also repaired to a bath to refresh themselves after any considerable fatigue or travel; and hence Plautus says, on one occasion, that all the baths in this world were not sufficient to remove the weariness he felt. After Pompey's time the passion for bathing was carried to such excess that many were ruined, and some had brought themselves to such a state that they could not take food without first bathing. The Emperor Titus is said to have lost his life in consequence of the artificial habit thus induced. Hence Pliny inveighs against those physicians who held that hot baths aided digestion; and the Emperor Hadrian laid a restraint on the immoderate humour of bathing, by a public edict prohibiting all persons from bathing before the eighth hour.