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BATHS

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 515 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BATHS . In the See also:

ordinary acceptation of the word a See also:bath is the See also:immersion of the See also:body in a, See also:medium different from the ordinary one of atmospheric See also:air, which medium is usually See also:common See also:water in some See also:form. In another sense it includes the different See also:media that may be used, and the various arrangements by which they are applied. See also:Ancient Baths.—Bathing, as serving both for cleanliness and for See also:pleasure, has been almost instinctively practised by nearly every See also:people. The most ancient records mention bathing in the See also:rivers See also:Nile and See also:Ganges. From an See also:early See also:period the See also:Jews bathed in See also:running water, used both hot and See also:cold baths, and employed See also:oils and ointments. So also did the Greeks; their earliest and commonest form of bathing was See also:swimming in rivers, and bathing in them was practised by both sexes. Warm baths were, according'to See also:Homer, used after fatigue or exercise. The Athenians appear for a See also:long See also:time to have had only private baths, but after-wards they had public ones: the latter seem to have originated among the Lacedaemonians, who invented the hot-air bath, at least the form of it called after them the See also:laconicum. Although the baths of the Greeks were not so luxurious as those of some other nations, yet effeminate people were accused among them of using warm baths in excess; and the bath servants appear to have been rogues and thieves, as in later and larger establishments. The Persians must have had handsomely equipped baths, for See also:Alexander the See also:Great admired the luxury of the bath of See also:Darius. But the baths of the Greeks, and probably of all Eastern nations, were on a small See also:scale as compared with those which eventually sprang up among the See also:Romans.

In early times the Romans used after exercise to throw themselves into the See also:

Tiber. Next, When ample supplies of water were brought into the See also:city, large piscinae, or cold swimming baths, were constructed, theearliest of which appear to have been the See also:piscina publics 6'2 B.C.), near the See also:Circus See also:Maximus, supplied by the See also:Appian See also:aqueduct, the lavacrum of See also:Agrippina, and a bath at the end of the Clivus Capitolinus. Next, small public as well as private baths were built; and with the See also:empire more luxurious forms of bathing were introduced, and warm became far more popular than cold baths. Public baths (balneae) were first built in See also:Rome after See also:Clodius brought in the See also:supply of water from See also:Praeneste. After that date baths began to be common both in Rome and in other See also:Italian cities; and private baths, which gradually came into use, were attached to the villas of the wealthy citizens. See also:Maecenas was one of the first who built public baths at his own expense. After his time each See also:emperor, as he wished to ingratiate himself with the people, lavished the revenues of the See also:state in the construction of enormous buildings, which not only contained suites of bathing apartments, but included gymnasia, and sometimes even theatres and See also:libraries: Such enormous establishments went by the name of thermae. The See also:principal thermae were those of See also:Agrippa 21 B.C., of See also:Nero 65 A.D., of See also:Titus 8x, of See also:Domitian 95, of See also:Commodus 185, of See also:Caracalla 217, and still later those of See also:Diocletian. 302, and of See also:Constantine. The technical skill displayed by the Romans in rendering their walls and the sides of reservoirs impervious to moisture, in conveying and See also:heating water, and in constructing flues for the See also:conveyance of hot air through the walls, was of the highest See also:order. The See also:Roman baths contained swimming baths, warm baths, baths of hot air, and vapour baths. The See also:chief rooms (which in the largest baths appear to have been mostly distinct, whereas in smaller baths one chamber was made to do See also:duty for more than a single purpose) were the following:—(1) The apodyterium or spoliatorium, where the bathers undressed; (2) the alipterium or unctuarium, where oils and ointments were kept (although the bathers often brought their own pomades), and where the aliptae anointed the bathers; (3) the See also:frigidarium, or cool See also:room', See also:cella frigida, in which usually was the cold bath, the piscine o; baptisterium; (4) the See also:tepidarium, a room moderately heated, in which the bathers rested for a time, but which was not meant for bathing; (5) the calidarium or heating room, over the hypocaustum or See also:furnace; this in its commonest arrangement had at one end a warm bath, the alveus or calida lavatio; at the other end in a sort of See also:alcove was (6) the See also:sudatorium or laconicum, which usually had a See also:labrum or large See also:vessel containing water, with which bathers sprinkled themselves to help in rubbing off the See also:perspiration.

In the largest baths the laconicum was probably a See also:

separate chamber, a circular domical room with recesses in the sides, and a large openirtrg in the See also:top; but there is no well-preserved specimen, unless that at See also:Pisa may be so regarded. In the See also:drawing of baths from the thermae of Titus (fig. 1), the laconicum is represented as a small See also:cupola rising in a corner of the calidarium. It is known that the temperature of the laconicum was regulated by drawing up- or down a metallic See also:plate or clypeus. Some think that this clypeus was directly over the flames of the hypocaustum, and that when it was withdrawn; the flames must have sprung into the laconicum. Others, and apparently they have See also:Vitruvius on their See also:side, think that the clypeus was See also:drawn up or down only from the See also:aperture in the roof, and that it regulated the temperature simply by giving more or less See also:free exit to the hot air. 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 See also:rest of it; on the other See also:hand, to have had flames actually issuing from the laconicum must have caused See also:smoke and See also: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 See also:absolute uniformity of practice then, any more than in See also:modern See also:Egyptian and See also:Turkish baths. See also: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 See also: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 (See also:suspensura) ; while from the hypocaustum tubes of See also:brass, or See also: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.

Phoenix-squares

See also:

Close to the furnace, about 4 in. off, was placed the calidarium, the See also:copper (ahenum) for boiling water, near which, with the same See also:interval between them, was the copper for warm water, the tepidarium, and at the distance of 2 ft. from this was the receptacle for cold water; or the frigidarium, often a plastered See also:reservoir. A See also: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 See also:boiler. The tepidarium, again, wag supplied from the frigidariurn, and that from an aqueduct.; In this way the See also: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 See also:case of the large thermae the water of an aqueduct was brought to the castellum or top of the See also:building and was allowed to descend into See also: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 See also:general See also:plan of such buildings may be more clearly understood by the accompanying illustrations. In the well-known drawing (fig. I) found in the baths of Titus, the name of each See also:part of the building is inscribed on it. The small See also: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, tepidarium and calidarium. The baths of See also:Pompeii (as shown in fig. 2)were a See also:double set, and were surrounded with tabernae or shops, which are marked by a lighter shade.

There were streets on four sides; and the reservoir supplying water was across the See also:

street in the building on the See also:left hand of the cut. There were three public entrances—2 la, 2Ib, aIC—to the men's baths and one to the See also:women's. The furnaces (q) 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 2IC there was a latrina on the left hand (22). From this entrance it was usual to proceed to a See also:court (20) surrounded by pillars, where servants were in attendance. There is some doubt as to the purpose to which the room (ig) was devoted. Leaving the See also:hall a passage conducted to the apodyterium or dressing-room (I7), 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 See also:anointing-room. From it bathers passed into the hot room or calidarium (12), which had at one end the alveus or calida iavatio (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 calidarium (5) had the labrum (q) at one end, and the alveus (6) was in one side of the room.

The general arrangements of a the fornax; and the passages in the roof and walls for the See also:

escape of heated air will be observed. A clear See also:idea of the relative position of the different rooms, and some slight indication of their ornamentation, will be obtained from fig. 4. The flues under the calidarium and the labrum (I) may be observed, as also the opening in the roof above. (2), (3) and (4) See also:mark the vessels for water which are placed between the men's baths on the left and the women's on the right. The arrangements of the thermae were mainly those 'of the balneae on a larger scale.

End of Article: BATHS

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