Chapters
Baths (thermae or balnea) were composed of a complex of facilities located on a vast area, accessible to everyone, both free people and slaves, for the rich and the poor at specific times. The fee for using the thermal baths was very low. Periodically, it was abolished by the emperor by way of grace in order to win over the Roman people. Baths were available to everyone, although there was most often a division that strictly defined the hours of bathing for the sick, women and men.
Baths were a permanent element of social life in Roman cities. They were built mainly with state money, but their construction was often commissioned by private persons. Baths were found both at aristocratic villas and in Roman camps (castra). Thus, public and private baths stood out.
At the entrance to the thermal baths, in the vestibule, a certain casparius collected money and valuables from the entrants.
The rooms included:
- cloakrooms (apodyterium)
- cold water pools (frigidarium)
- a small heated room to prepare the body to face higher temperatures (tepidarium)
- hot water pools (calidarium)
- baths: dry (laconicum) or steam (sudationes)
- massage rooms (oleoterion) where the bodies were anointed with oils
- relaxation room (tepidarium)
In addition to these rooms, the thermal baths also included sports fields, gymnasiums (gymnasiums), stadiums, massage rooms, oil and perfume rooms, exheders and porticos for discussing, talking or listening to the recitations of poets and speakers. There were also libraries, music rooms, buffets and dice game rooms in the thermal baths. The objects were placed among the greenery. The rooms themselves had rich decorations. The walls were tiled with marble, decorated with paintings, and the floors were covered with mosaics. The rooms were decorated with sculptures, greenery and all elements of decor.
Roman Baths were certainly one of the favourite places where the Roman could relax his body. Tepidarium was probably the first place visited by bathers and it was a kind of introduction to further hot (caldarium) or cold (frigidarium) baths. Tepidarium was distinguished by the richest decorations among other baths and was the central hall in Roman baths and was surrounded by other rooms. The room was heated by the floor and had hot water. Then they usually went to the warmest room – caldarium (the temperature could be in the range of 50-55 degrees Celsius), heated with an under-floor heating system called hypocaustum. Earlier, the patient had to sweat a lot in order not to switch too quickly to the hot caldarium. In caldarium there was sometimes a separate room with a dry hot room – laconicum, which allowed the body to sweat “poisons” well. The pores of the skin opened in both of these places, which then closed in the cold waters of the frigidarium. In this way, it was possible to clean the skin in inaccessible places. It happened that the water in the frigidarium was cooled with snow.
Central heating system
In the construction of the Roman baths, a central heating system, called by the Romans hypocaustum, was used. It was used from the first century BCE in ancient Rome. The hypocaustum system was used to heat houses, public and private thermal baths with hot air. The word literally means “fire”, from the Greek words hypo – “below” or “below”, and kaiein – “burn” or “light a fire”. In the central room, under the floor, there was a stove that heated the air. The floor was placed on a row of supports (pilae) about 80 cm high. The ceilings were tiled with a layer of tiles, then a layer of concrete, and then a layer of tiles on top. The spaces left in the walls served to allow hot air and furnace smoke to pass through them and be discharged to the outside through duct openings in the roof. As a result, hot air and smoke did not get inside the rooms. Ceramic tiles were placed to heat the wall. The rooms that required the most heat were placed closest to the stove, the heat of which could be increased by adding more wood to the fire. Launching the hypocaust was a laborious activity requiring constant supervision of the firepower. The system was expensive to use, so it was mainly equipped with villas and public baths.
It is usually believed that hypocaustum was invented by Sergius Orata, although this is not fully confirmed. Vitruvius describes its construction and operation according to the work of Sergius Orat around 25 BCE, adding detailed information on the fuel. It also describes the heat regulation device – a bronze fan in the dome of the ceiling.
Many hypocaust remains