Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/451

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BATHS
435

drawn up or down only from the aperture in the roof, and that it regulated the temperature simply by giving more or less free exit to the hot air. The question must for the present remain unsettled ; if the laconicum was only one end of the calidarium, it is difficult to see how that end of the room was kept so much hotter than the rest of it ; on the other hand to have had flames actually issuing from the laconicum, must have caused smoke and soot, and have been very unpleasant. The most usual order in which the rooms were employed seems to have been the following, but there does not appear to have been any absolute uniformity of practice then, any more than in modern Egyptian and Turkish baths. Celsus recommends the bather first to sweat a little in the tepidarium with his clothes on, to be anointed there, and then to pass into the calidarium : after he has sweated freely there he is not to descend into the solium or cold bath, but to have plenty of water poured over him from his head, first warm, then tepid, and then cold water, the water being poured longer over his head than on the rest of the body; next to be scraped

with the strigil, and lastly to be rubbed and anointed.

The warmest of the heated rooms, i.e., the calidarium and laconicum, were heated directly from the hypocaustum, over which they were built or suspended (suspensura) ; while from the hypocaustum tubes of brass, or lead, or pottery carried the hot air or vapour to the walls of the other rooms. The walls were usually hollow, so that the hot air could readily circulate.

The water was heated ingeniously. Close to the furnace, about 4 inches off, was placed the calidarium, the copper (ahenum) for boiling water, near which, with the same interval between them, was the copper for warm water, the tepidarium, and at the distance of 2 feet from this was the receptacle for cold water, or the frigidarium, often a plastered reservoir. A constant communication was kept up between these vessels, so that as fast as hot water was drawn off from the calidarium a supply was obtained from the tepidarium, which, being already heated, but slightly reduced the temperature of the hotter boiler. The tepidarium, again, was supplied from the frigidarium, and that from an aqueduct. In this way the heat which was not taken up by the first boiler passed on to the second, and instead of being wasted, helped to heat the second a principle which has only lately been introduced into modern furnaces. In the case of the large thermae the water of an aqueduct was brought to the castdlum, or top of the build ing, and was allowed to descend into chambers over the hypocaustum, where it was heated and transmitted in pipes to the central buildings. Remains of this arrangement are to be seen in the baths of Caracalla. The general plan of such buildings will be more clearly understood after an examination of the accompanying illustrations. In the well-known drawing (fig. 1) found in the baths of Titus, the name of each part of the building is inscribed on it. The small dome inscribed laconicum directly over the furnace, and having the clypeus over it, will be observed in the corner of the chamber named concamerata sudatio. The vessels for water are inscribed, according to their temperature, with the same names as some of the chambers, frigidarium, tepi darium, and calidarium.


Fig. 1.—Roman Baths.

Fig. 2.—Ground-Plan of the Baths of Pompeii.

FIG. 3.-Section of Bath discovered at Tusculum. showing the calidamuu.
The baths of Pompeii (as shown in fig. 2) were a double

set, and were surrounded with tabernse or shops, which are marked by a lighter shade. There were streets on four sides ; and the reservoir supplying water was across the street in the building on the left hand of the cut. There were three public entrances 21a, 216, 21c to the men s baths and one to the women s. The furnaces (9) heated water, which was conveyed on one side to the larger baths of the men, on the other to the women s. Entering from the street at 21c there was a latrina on the left, hand (22). From this it was usual to proceed to a court (20) surrounded by pillars, where servants were in attendance. There is some doubt as to the purpose to which the room (19) was devoted. Leaving the hall a passage conducted to the apodyterium or dressing-room (17), at one end of it is the frigidarium, baptisterium, or cold plunge bath (18). Entering out of the apodyterium is the tepidarium, or warming-room (15), which most probably was also used as the alipterium or anointing-room. From it bathers passed into the hot room or calidarium (12), which had at one end the alveus or calida lavatio (13), at the other end the labrum (14). This end of the calidarium served as the laconicum. The arrange ments of the women s baths were similar, but on a smaller scale. The ealidarium (5) had the labrum (7) at one end, and the alveus (6) was in one side of the room. The general arrange ments of a calidarium are well illustrated by the accompanymg section (fig. gJJ^S 3) of a bath discovered. at Tusculum. The disposition of the parts is the same as at Pompeii. We here have the calidarium supported on the

pillars of the fornax, the suspensura. The alveus (3) is