Roman Thermal baths

The thermal baths (in Latin thermae , of the Greek thermos flask , heat) were public establishments of Bain S heats of the Rome Antique.

History of the thermal baths and the Hydrotherapy

The thermal baths are in the beginning a Greek idea, but the Romans improved it considerably. According to the archaeological discoveries, the first installations of baths go back to 2.000 years front J. - C., but the practice of the bath is attested at the end of Ve front century J. - C. in Greece.

The first thermal baths are private. The public thermal baths appear only with the I {{er}} century before J. - C.. Private individuals proposed baths cold and hot and sometimes of the Massage S. It was necessary to wait in 25 av. J. - C. to see appearing truths thermal baths, on the order of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a friend of the emperor Auguste who was his son-in-law. This one have just been cured by immersions in cold baths recommended by the Marseilles doctor Antonus Musa, the baths cold are added to the rooms tepid and hot and the thermal baths are spread in all the Empire. Even the modest cities had some. The construction of the thermal baths returned to the emperor or its representatives, the operating costs of the thermal baths were thus ensured by public finances. The évergètes were financial rich person. In Rome, it is the emperor who finances the majority of these monuments.

The Romans went to the thermal baths for the body Hygiène and the complete care of the body, but this place had also an important social function. The thermal baths formed integral part of the Roman urban life; one washed oneself there, but also, one met there his friends, one made there sport, one played dice, one cultivated oneself in the libraries, one could also treat businesses or be restored with it.

For the Romans, the bath represented at the same time a luxury and a need. All went to the baths, without reference to social class. They were opened to the men and to the women but in parts or at different hours.

Only the villas of the easy classes had of private baths and toilets. The public baths (thermal baths) thus played a big role for general hygiene. They belonged to the State or individuals. The entrance fee was moderate. Often, to put forward itself, the middle-class rich person built luxurious thermal baths which they placed free at the disposal of the public (practical of the evergetism). The import duty was normally free, but one knows cases where the entry was payante.les slaves of the Romans remained in front of the racks to prevent that their Master is made fly of the valuable articles. It awaited bath all the time.

Architectural principle of the thermal baths

The basic principle of the private thermal baths, which was then adapted to the gauge necessary to the opening for many people, includes/understands four principal rooms:

the sudatorium (room of perspiration);
the Caldarium (hot baths);
the Tepidarium (tepid bath);
the Frigidarium (cold bath).

The ground was covered with mosaics and was heated, just like the walls, by a system of boilers and tanks: the praefernium ( hypocaustum ). The provisioning of Eau was carried out thanks to the Aqueduc S. For the urgent needs, one could go to the Latrine S.

The thermal baths often supplemented this equipment with Palestre for the physical exercise and swimming pool ( natatio ). The large thermal baths of the imperial time constituted vast complexes of leisures, with gardens, theaters, libraries.

The thermal baths were not mixed, apart from very rare exceptions. Certain installations were doubled, with a separate part reserved to the women. Others practiced schedules alternated for each sex.

Use of the thermal baths

After their morning of work, the Romans usually went to the thermal baths to slacken and followed a “course” of progressive heating then of cooling. First of all, they were going to deposit their clothing in the cloakrooms (apodyterium or spoliatorium), kept by slaves, then they warmed up by making sport with the gymnasium to perspire (sets of balls, race on foot, haltérophilie), and those which did not like the physical effort went in the tepid Tepidarium room then in a more heated room the destrictarium to perspire.

They passed then to the hot baths, scraped the skin using a ustensil called the strigile, kind of bent iron scraper then penetrated in the drying oven. The bath of cleanliness was then finished.

In the Caldarium they rested then passed to the tepid baths, the cold baths, and finally, they were going to be made mass, to depilate or to scent… Generally, they coated the body of Huile (the Romans did not know the Savon, discovered by the Gaulois) Oils and perfumes were preserved in a unctuarium.

Libraries, room of rest or conversation, gardens, gymnasium and places of walks belonged to the " complexe" thermal baths and made it possible to prolong this moment of pleasant relaxation for the body and the spirit. It is undoubtedly from there that the expression " comes; a healthy spirit in a body sain" (in Latin: " lie sanatorium in corpore sano" ), formula presents in the work of Juvénal.

Route

Oldest is retrograde: the bather passes by again by the same parts with the outward journey and the return.

He was then sought a means of not making pass by again by the same rooms and to do that the bathers do not secroisent this with circular routes for the large thermal baths have and semicircular for smaller buildings.

Under Néron they are symmetrical thermal baths with two circular and symmetrical routes which are built. .

Thermal baths of the Roman world

See also: List of the Roman thermal baths

External bond

thermal baths and the baths
Roman thermal baths

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