Ancient Bath

In cities of Greece, Rome, and other civilized countries

, thousands of years ago, there were usually public baths to which anyone could go. The Romans built the biggest and most magnificent baths. The Roman baths were gigantic buildings of marble, beautifully decorated and very comfortable. These buildings were called thermae and had swimming pools, steam rooms and hot-air rooms for sweating, hot baths, rooms for dressing and undressing, and rooms for massages where the body was rubbed with perfumed oils. Some of the Roman public baths even had gymnasiums, theaters, and libraries. If you were a Roman citizen two thousand years ago and went to the public bath, you would first enter a room called the spoliatorium where you would undress and hand your clothing to an attendant. Then you might go to the frigidarium, or cold room, where you could dive into a swimming pool filled with cold water. After this you would go to the tepidarium, a warm room where you could sit on a bench and get used to the heat. The walls and floor of the tepidarium were hollow and heated by hot air from a furnace under this room. While in the tepidarium you might get a massage and have your body rubbed with oils and ointments, or you might go to a special room for this purpose called the alipterium. From here you could go to the calidarium, or hot room, where there were tanks of hot water in which you could bathe. After your hot bath you could go to a separate chamber called the laconicum, heated by hot, dry air, where you could sit and bake yourself while discussing politics with your friends. Then came a plunge in the cold pool, after which you could dress and leave. The cost of this was only a few pennies and sometimes you could get in for nothing. The baths of the emperor Caracalla were in a building so huge that each of its four sides was onequarter of a mile long.

Ancient Bath

By: David Bunch

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