The Roman Spa

______________________________________________________________

In imperial period Rome good hygiene, i.e., bathing and visiting the baths (the
thermae and balnea) was an important ritual across all the social classes. There
was a social aspect to this activity, and the baths were a focal point of urban life. Many of the antique period writers and poets (Plautus, Plutarch, Cicero, Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Juvenal, Martial, and Seneca among others) wrote about the baths, above all, interesting anecdotes about the goings-on in these facilities.  Roman baths were a place for bathing, relaxation, socialising, and much more. They were built in great numbers across the Roman Empire, from Roman Italy to the eastern provinces, from Britain to the north of Africa. Both privately owned and public baths were built, and both could be very luxurious, as we see in the examples of the imperial baths built in Rome under Trajan, Caracalla and Diocletian, and the baths commission by Hadrian in Lepcis Magna (Figs. 1–3).

These edifices largely followed a similar spatial scheme, primarily related to
technical matters concerning the flow of hot air, i.e., the heating system. This had the further effect of facilitating the movement of bathers visiting baths in various cities across the empire. The standard sequence of rooms was from the tepidarium to the caldarium and then the frigidarium, where the caldarium provided the highest air and floor temperatures.

______________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

The historical backdrop

Baths were not a novelty introduced by the Roman Empire. Bathing, and cleansing associated with religious, social, and funerary rituals, and for personal hygiene,had been known of in the Mediterranean since prehistoric times. In ancient Greece we know of public bathing buildings (balaneion) from as far back as the 5th century BCE. Unlike their Roman period counterparts, however, these were intended for practical purposes: personal hygiene associated with physical and spiritual relaxation, while the use of Roman baths had a much broader scope.  The development of baths was stimulated by the significant progress achieved by the Romans in the fields of construction technology (the introduction of opus caementicum, vital to the construction of cement vaulting and monumental rooms), engineering, and heating systems. The invention of the hypocaust, a system of underfloor heating that circulated hot air from a furnace into the space beneath the room to be heated, was a decisive moment. The floor of the heated room was raised on brick piers known as suspensurae (Fig. 4). Besides the floors, the Romans also heated the walls by installing hollow ceramic pipes (tubuli) inside the walls. This greatly enhanced the efficiency of maintaining the necessary temperature in the sweating rooms and hot baths. The earliest known example of a hypocaust is the one discovered at the baths in Fregellae, dated to the early 2nd or possibly the 3rd century BCE, which pushes back the time at which this technical innovation emerged. Previously our understanding of the introduction of this technology drew on antique period sources that attributed it to Gaius Sergius Orata, who lived between the late 2nd and early 1st century BCE.  The proximity of running water was critical when siting and building baths. Running water was provided by the erection of aqueducts and the development of urban water supply and sewerage networks. In the written sources we find two terms associated with baths; balnea (with its derivatives) and thermae. To this day there is no consensus among specialists as to their precise meaning, i.e., what sets them apart. This confusion is also informed by the fact that there is no consistency in the use of these terms among the antique period sources. It can, however, be said that the term balneum was used to denote smaller and more modestly appointed baths, often, but not always, privately owned,
while the term thermae referred to luxuriously appointed facilities. Another point of differentiation is that we see the use of the term thermae emerge only in the 1st century CE, concurrent with the time from which we see the much more frequent erection of monumental and luxurious bathing facilities.  The rising popularity of baths across the Roman Empire came with the terminal phase of the republic, in the 1st century BCE, and only intensified in the centuries that followed. Across the empire the 2nd century CE appears to have been the golden age of baths, seeing intense construction and use of these facilities. Their popularity did not wane in the late antique period, and many baths were in use through to the 6th and 7th centuries CE

_________________________________________________________________

Bathing customs

The customary arrangement of bathing facilities, which became the norm in
the 1st century CE, saw bathers move through a series of rooms with differing
temperatures and fittings. After undressing in the apodyterium, which was fitted with benches and niches into which to place clothing and personal effects, the bather would usually start with an oil rub followed by light exercise in the yard known as the palaestra. Athletic activity was an important component of a visit to the baths. The exercise session was followed by the removal of sweat and dirt using a metal scraper known as a strigil (strigilis) in a room called the destrictarium. The bather would then make their way to the tepidarium (a room with heated air), which served to acclimatise the bather prior to entering the caldarium (the hot room). In the caldarium we might at times find a laconicum (a hot and dry room, similar to a modern sauna), which stimulated intensive sweating, and a sudatorium (a steam bath or sweat room). The air temperature in the room was about 50 °C, while the f loor of the caldarium was heated to about 60 to 65 °C. In this room there were one or more hot-water pools, with bathers spending from 15 to 30 minutes in them. The caldarium was necessarily located in the immediate vicinity of the furnaces which created the hot air that heated the chambers of the underfloor hypocaust. The baths also had a room with a cold-water pool (the frigidarium) and, often, a large open-air pool (the natatio).  Depending on the overall size of the baths they might also include additional content such as a massage room, a barber’s shop, a library, poetry reading rooms, and lavish gardens with fountains.  A visit to the baths was a daily affair. The custom was, once the day’s business was done, to spend the afternoon at the baths, relaxing and socialising ahead of the main meal, dinner. Most people visited the baths between noon and five in the afternoon, but there were also those that remained open into the night. Entry into
the baths was free of charge, or charged a symbolic admission fee (one quadrans) which meant that admission was effectively open to all. The visitors would usually 17 bring their own towels, sponges, bottles/flasks (the aryballos) containing the oils used for the rub-down, perfume bottles, and a scraper (the strigil) with which to remove oil, sweat, and dirt from the body (Fig. 5). Wealthier patrons would visit the bath accompanied by at least one slave, who assisted them and saw to their needs. Some would come with an entire entourage to additionally underline their social status (Fig. 6). As it was common knowledge that thieves also went about their business at the baths, one of the tasks of slaves was to watch over the clothing and valuables of their masters.  As has been noted, a visit to the baths was for the Roman population motivated by much more than simply attending to personal hygiene. The baths were an ideal place for rest and recreation, and to conduct business, meet with clients, to receive and present invitations to dinners, and to engage in political propaganda.  Another thing we learn from the written sources (Martial) is that food and beverages were also consumed at the baths. As a rule, people did not drink to inebriation or feast, but both eating and drinking were known of. As baths were usually visited ahead of dinner the edibles would have comprised various snacks (eggs, salads, nuts, and the like). Part of a text inscribed in the walls of a building next to the vestibule of a bathhouse in Herculaneum has survived and presents a list of products and prices, which suggests the presence of a food stand.  At the older bathhouses, during the republican period, there were dual and separate areas for the men and women or, if the bathhouse was of smaller size, the men and women visited the baths at different times. This changed in the early imperial period, and we have written sources that mentioned the mixed use of the baths. From the time of the emperor Hadrian onwards, however, there was an effort to prohibit this practice by issuing edicts; this trend survived up to the rise of Christianity not with standing these prohibitions

Glass aryballoi, strigils, and the ritual of bathhouse visits

As has been noted, there were personal items essential when visiting the baths.Aryballoi and strigils were an important part of both men’s and women’s toiletries. They were carried together on a bronze chain or a handle suspended from the wrist or belt. Aryballoi were made of metal or glass and used to carry various costly oils,which were applied to the body after undressing in the changing room and before entering the exercise yard. After sweating out in the laconicum or sudatorium, visitors could enter the destrictarium, a room in which the strigil was used to scrape dirt from the body. Repeated applications of the body oil was common. Oil was applied prior to exercising, while in the bathing areas, and near the end, often accompanied by a massage as the final part of the bathhouse ritual. After a massage the body would again be cleaned of dirt with a strigil.

Glass aryballoi 

Glass aryballoi were modelled after the earlier Egyptian polychrome examples made of glass paste, and after the Greek metal and ceramic forms to which they owe their name. The Greek types were also used as receptacles for various body care cosmetic preparations. Their role and function is attested to by the images we find on many ceramic vessels and stone monuments. They have been found in almost all parts of what was once the Roman Empire, which speaks to their widespread use as toiletry accessories, and as grave goods. Many aryballoi have, namely, been recovered in grave contexts, often accompanied by a strigil. Aryballoi were almost always created as free-blown glassware, but there were also various luxury types created by blowing glass into a two-part relief-ornamented mould. The classical aryballos type (Isings form 61) is characterised by a spherical 25 body done in thin-walled transparent blue-green glass, with a short cylindrical neck, a flat to slightly concave base, and two applied handles joined to the vessel at 
the neck and shoulder. The rim was often double folded (collared type) and annular or triangular in section. There are types with thicker walls, ribbed surface, incised horizontal bands, and applied glass trails (strands).  Aryballoi of the classical type, with a double folded rim and handles applied at the neck and shoulder, such as our examples (cat. nos. 1 and 2), appear very early, in the first decades of the 1st century CE, however, most have been dated to the second half of the 1st and the early 2nd century CE. The production sites were in the eastern Mediterranean, along the coast of Asia Minor. Also produced in the eastern Mediterranean workshops were aryballoi with rims annular or triangular in section, with handles set in the same manner as described above. These date to the second half of the 1st and the 2nd century CE. Along with these aryballoi types, we also see those originating from western workshops (in particular in the Rhine area and the Italic regions).  The production of some of the aryballoi types continued into the 4th century CE, including types having body forms other than spherical.

Strigils

The strigil, an essential bathing accessory, was most often made of bronze, less often of iron, with some types made of bone, wood, or glass. It consists of a straight handle (the capulus) and the upper curved and concave element (the ligula) with gently rounded edges to better collect dirt from the body. Its form remained essentially unchanged from its first appearance in the 5th century BCE to the end of the 3rd century CE, when it gradually fell out of use. It originated in ancient Greece where it was used primarily by athletes, who would remove applied oil and accumulated sweat and dirt after athletic activity.  It was used by both men and women and, besides its use in maintaining hygiene, it was also used for medical purposes and to remove depilation wax. It appears frequently as a grave good. We find depictions of the use of the strigil in a number of artistic media (including sculpture, (vase) painting, and mosaic panels). Strigils were initially forged and were shaped as circular plates with a straight handle. When cast, they took on a spoon-like form, with the upper end curving at an almost right angle. The handle was crafted as parallel straps separated by a few millimetres to a centimetre. There are also types with cylindrical handles. Strigils could be unadorned or decorated with engraved motifs; straight, curved, floral, and images of masks, and at times with figural handles. Some strigils had engraved names or marks of the owner or the maker.  The strigils held by the museum are plainly decorated with an engraved motif in the form of the letter “I” on the handle (cat. no. 3), while for the strigil on which the handle has not survived (cat. no. 4) we do not know if it was decorated or not

1. Aryballos, spherical body of thin-walled transparent blue-green glass. Characterised by its short cylindrical neck, double folded collar rim, and a pair of short, thin strap handles applied at the neck and shoulder.
Inv. code: A-4898
Findspot: unknown
Dimensions: H 6.9 cm; W 6.15 cm; rim diameter 2.9 cm
Materials/techniques: glass, free blown
Date: 1stC CE

2. Aryballos, reconstructed, spherical body of transparent blue-green glass. Characterised by its short cylindrical neck, double folded collar rim, and a pair of short, thin strap handles applied at the neck and shoulder. Inv. code: A-30010970 Findspot: Medulin, Burle, necropolis, 1999/2000, Grave 28 Dimensions: H 7.2 cm; W 6.6 cm; rim diameter 3.0 cm Materials/techniques: glass, free blown Date: 1st–early 2ndC CE 3. A set of four bronze scrapers (strigil, strigilis) attached to a bronze ring, rectangular in section. The ring is open-ended. The strigils are of different sizes, with the ends of the spoon-shaped blades (the ligula) broken off. The terminal end of the handle of each strigil is decorated with an engraved letter “I” motif.Inv. code: A-3087Findspot: unknownDimensions: H with ring 25.6 cm; H of the strigils (surviving) 17.5; 11.9; 15.8; 15.8 cm; diameter of the ring 10 cmMaterials/techniques: bronze, castDate: 1stC CE 4. A bronze scraper (strigil, strigilis) with a very curved scraper blade (ligula). Handle missing. Inv. code: A-5366Findspot: Pula, necropolis, Monte GhiroDimensions: H (surviving) 10.3 cm; W 2.45 cm; D of the strigil 0.75 cmMaterials/techniques: bronze, castDate: 1stC CE