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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWho used the Roman baths and why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
While wealthy individuals might commission the construction of a small bathhouse for their circle of influence, known as a balneum, everyone used the stae-funded baths the Romans called thermae. One of the main reasons why the baths were used is that cleanliness was understood to be a universal necessity. Even though the thermae were public works funded by the state, they still incurred an entrance fee; thankfully the cost was relatively cheap, often no more than a single day’s wage for a free Roman male. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the Romans could<\/em> get running water at home, the lead pipes used in Roman homes were individually taxed and this taxation lead most families to get their cleaning done at the baths, leaving the water at home for use in less involved needs like cooking or washing clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the baths were designed to accept all comers, thus allowing for intermingling between social classes, genders rarely overlapped. The general arrangement was that women were allowed to go into the thermae while the men would be doing their jobs and men would enter the thermae once their work day was over. This generally resulted in women and children being the most common patrons from sunrise to 2-3 p.m., when the men would then head out to shed the stress of a hard day’s work in the early afternoon all the way into the evening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Women who frequented the baths at the same time as men were often demonized as those hours were when sex workers would ply their trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Early versions of the baths were heated with either water springs connected to geothermal vents or braziers. The first innovation in heating mechanics came in the 1st Century BCE and took the form of sub-floor heating chambers that were fueled by wood-burning furnances, known as hypocausts and prafurniae, respectively. While the Greeks had made this discovery before, the Romans did what they usually did and incorporated and improved upon existing ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The massive fires generated by these prafurniae would channel warm air beneath the raised floor, known as a suspensurae, that was supported by either narrow stone pillars, hollow cylinders or bricks shaped like circles or polygons. Said floors were paved with more than tiles that measured 60 square centimeters and these tiles, known as bipedales, would subsequently be covered with a decorative layer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The walls of the baths could also generate heat by incorporating “tubuli,” hollow tubes that were shaped into rectangles and served as channels for the hot air generates by the prafurniae. Tegulae mammatae were special bricks that contained bosses along one side, allowing for greater insulation of a room by trapping the hot air. Glass windows, which start showing up in the 1st Century CE also allowed for better temperature regulation while adding the option of sunlight as a heating mechanism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n The vast amount of water needed for the larger baths was supplied by purpose-built aqueducts leading from natural springs and regulated by huge reservoirs in the baths complex. The reservoir of the Baths of Diocletian in Rome, for example, could hold 20,000 cubic meters of water. This water would be heated in large lead boilers that fit directly above the prafurniae. Once heated, the water could then be channeled into the baths’ heated pools through lead plumbing and a bronze joint known as a testudo. Convection would then take care of circulating the hot water throughout the complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This famous fixture was built in the English province of Somerset and was known to the Romans as Aquae Sulis, meaning “the Waters of Sulis.” Despite the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th Century CE, and the subsequent Roman retreat from Britain, these baths were rebuilt and redesigned several times beyond then. The first notable improvement to the structure occurred in the 12th Century, when a curative spring was overlaid upon the King’s Spring. The 16th Century saw the addition of the Queen’s Spring in the southern portion of the complex. The next innovation to the complex occurred in the 17th Century and many of the structures within this area now bear a Victorian facade.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n It is worth reiterating that despite the improvements, much of the original design and mosaics remain, though the British weather does require some protective measures to be taken in order to preserve certain external features: 19th Century carvings of various Roman politicians needed protection from acid rain and a new ventilation system was installed in 2006 to avoid corroding the stonework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This thermae is preserved through a quartet of features.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow were the Roman baths heated?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nFeatures of Roman Baths<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It was not uncommon for an apodyterium to be staffed with attendants. These attendants would then take the visitor’s clothes and keep them somewhere safe while the visitor enjoyed the baths. Multiple floor plans indicate the presence of niches and lockers where clothes might be stored or exchanged. Other visitors might have been accompanied by one or more slaves and these slaves would have handled the undressing and redressing of their master and storage of his belongings.
It is also known that some apodyteria served more than one function. For example, the women’s apodyterium within the Stabian Baths of Pompeii served double duty as a frigidarium.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
When a man was done exercising and ready to wash off the sweat, grime and oil of a hearthy workout, he would enter a portico leading to the various temperature-controlled rooms to begin his bathing routine.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nA walk-through of an average trip to the bath houses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Roman Baths In The City Of Bath, England<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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