Bathing in Greek and Roman times
Some of the earliest descriptions of bathing practices come from Greece. The Greeks began to bathe, which served as the basis for modern SPA treatments.
The Greeks used small bathtubs, washbasins and foot baths for personal hygiene. The earliest such finds are baths in the palace complex at Knossos on Crete and luxurious alabaster baths excavated at Akrotiri on Santorini; both date from the mid-2nd millennium BC.
In Greek mythology, it was stated that certain natural springs were blessed by the gods to cure illnesses. Around these sacred pools the Greeks installed baths for those wishing to be healed. The wards left offerings for healing to the gods in these places and bathed in the hope of healing. The Spartans developed a primitive steam bath.
In the early Greek bathhouse at Serangeum, the baths were carved into the hillside from which the hot springs emerged. Niches were carved into the rock above the chambers, in which bathers' clothing was stored. Thus, the early Greeks took advantage of natural features but expanded on them and added their own amenities, such as decorations and shelves. During late Greek civilization, baths were often built along with sports fields.
The Romans imitated many Greek baths , but they were superior to the Greeks in the size of their baths. As the Roman Empire expanded, the idea of a public bath spread to all parts of the Mediterranean and regions of Europe and North Africa. With the construction of aqueducts, the Romans had sufficient water not only for domestic, agricultural and industrial use, but also for their bathing. Taps provided water, which was later heated for use in baths.
These Roman baths ranged from simple to extremely complex structures and varied in size, layout and decoration. Taking Roman baths involved sweating, gradually exposing oneself to increasing temperatures. To carry out this ritual, all Roman baths contained a series of rooms that became increasingly hotter.
What item related to hygiene was mandatory in palace interiors in the 19th century in Russia?
The history of spittoons begins in the 15-16th century. First they ask not to spit at the table, then to spit into a handkerchief. I don’t know what they ate, what they had to spit all the time, or whether smoking tobacco had such an effect on salivation, but spittoons appeared in the richest houses and were objects of art.
In the United States, spittoons were widespread at the end of the 19th century. They were installed in bars, brothels, saloons, hotels, stores, banks, railway stations and other places where men gathered. At that time, in the USA it was also customary to spit on the floor, on the street, in a number of places laws were even passed prohibiting spitting in a public place other than into spittoons. The distribution of spittoons was widely supported by the Anti-Tuberculosis League. At the beginning of the 20th century, portable spittoons came into use: small in size and with a lid. There were also “railway spittoons” that you could take with you on your trip.
Answer: Spittoon
- A spittoon is a vessel designed for spitting. Widely used in the past, primarily by people who used chewing or lip tobacco. Currently used mainly in dentistry (or in general medicine for collecting sputum), as well as by wine and coffee tasters.
After the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918-1919, spittoons began to disappear en masse from public places, as it was considered unhygienic. Chewing tobacco began to disappear from sale, replaced by regular cigarettes and chewing gum. Currently, several dozen spittoons are installed in the US Senate: they are not used, as a tribute to tradition
Construction of Roman baths
Most of the baths contained an apodytheria, a room just inside the entrance where the bathhouse kept its clothes. Next, the bath moved into the frigidarium (cold room) with its own tank of cold water, the tepidarium (warm room) and, finally, the caldarium (hot room).
The caldarium, heated by a barbecue under the hollow floor, contained reservoirs of cold water that the bathhouse could use for cooling. After this series of sweat and/or immersion baths, the bath returned to the cool tepidarium for massage with oils and a final scraping with metal instruments. Some baths also contained a laconium (a dry resting room) in which the bather completed the process by resting and sweating.
The layout of the Roman baths also contained other architectural features. Because wealthy Romans brought slaves to bathe, the bathhouse usually had three entrances: one for men, one for women, and one for slaves .
The preference for symmetry in Roman architecture usually meant a symmetrical façade, even though the women's area was usually smaller than the men's area due to fewer visitors. Typically, massive walls or placement on opposite sides of the building separated the male and female sections.
Roman baths often had a courtyard, or palaestra. It was an open-air garden used for physical exercise. In some cases, the builders made the palaestra a courtyard, and in others they placed it in front of the bathhouse itself. Sometimes there was a swimming pool in the palaestra.
Republican baths often had separate baths for women and men, but by the 1st century AD. mixed bathing was common. However, gender divisions were restored by Emperor Hadrian.
Roman baths offered amenities in addition to the ritual of bathing. In the back rooms of the bathhouse itself there were shops with food and perfumes, libraries and reading rooms. The stages hosted theatrical and musical performances. Adjacent stadiums served as spaces for exercise and athletic competitions.
Inside the baths themselves, the elegant floors are lined with marble mosaics . The plastered walls were often decorated with frescoes of trees, birds and other pastoral images. Sky blue paint, gold stars and celestial images decorated the interior domes. Sculptures and fountains decorated the interior and exterior.
The Romans also developed baths in their colonies, using natural hot springs found in Europe: France, England, Germany, Austria, Hungary and among other places.
These baths became centers of recreation and social activity in Roman communities. Libraries, lecture halls, gymnasiums and formal gardens became part of some bath complexes. In addition, the Romans used hot thermal waters to relieve pain from rheumatism, arthritis, and excessive eating and drinking.
Thus, the Romans turned bathing into an art, and their baths reflected this achievement. The Roman bath, for example, involved a much more complex ritual than the simple procedure of immersion or sweating.
The various parts of the bathing ritual (undressing, bathing, sweating, receiving massage, and resting) required separate rooms, which the Romans built to perform these functions. Separation by gender and the addition of entertainment not directly related to bathing also had a direct impact on the shape of the baths.
The complex Roman bathing ritual and its architecture set the stage for later European baths. By the end of the eighteenth century, baths with luxurious architectural design, not inferior to Roman ones, appeared again in Europe.
Roman bathing culture
In the very center of Paris there is a museum that many tourists from Russia simply do not notice. Well... he’s not so visible anymore. The Louvre is a different matter. There's a queue again. Well, how can you not poke around in it?! But anyone who is interested in the history of the Middle Ages and... the history of Ancient Rome should definitely visit it. This is the National Museum of the Middle Ages: “The Baths and Hotel of Cluny” or simply the Cluny Museum - a Parisian museum in the 5th arrondissement, in the center of the Latin Quarter. It is located in the “Hotel Cluny” - the building of a medieval monastery of the 15th century and houses one of the world's largest collections of art and everyday life from the Middle Ages. But - and this is perhaps as interesting as its artifacts - it also contains a well-preserved Roman baths building! In this photo from the museum's brochure it can be seen to the left of the entrance
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, He rewarded me according to the purity of my hands.
Second Book of Samuel 22:21 Ancient civilization.
This material is the 1500th among my materials published in VO. A kind of “round number”. Did you think about what to write about this? And... I remembered a visit to one rather little-known museum in our country: the Cluny Museum in Paris. Moreover, although this is a museum of medieval culture, a very important part of it is occupied by... an ancient Roman bath! And today we will show you this very Roman bathhouse in the capital of France. Well, the story itself will be more traditional - about the baths of Great Rome!
To begin with, we note that we owe to the ancient culture of Ancient Rome both the first “world language” - Latin, and the Christian faith, which became one of the most important world religions, and also... we owe it, although somewhat forgotten, due to the uneconomical nature of modern culture... everyday concern for the cleanliness of the body. We care about her too, no one argues. But we are far from the same Romans. The fact is that they attached extremely great importance to health care and personal hygiene. They understood well that the prevention of diseases is more important than their treatment, and that to a large extent, immunity acquired as a result of hardening the body and appropriate observance of the rules of personal hygiene, physical exercise protects against diseases, and that it is more important than drugs. Surprisingly, twenty centuries ago, concern for the health of citizens of the Roman state was at an unusually high level.
The Romans simply loved to swim: so in Ancient Rome, for each inhabitant there was simply a huge amount of water, which flowed into the cities through aqueducts. And the vast majority of it was spent on bathing. There were bathing facilities in almost every Roman house, and in addition, there were a huge number of public baths and baths.
In the courtyard of the Cluny Museum
So, in the third century BC there were about a thousand bathing establishments (called balnea or thermae) in Rome, and in the chronicle of the city from the era of Emperor Constantine the Great (IV century AD) another 856 public baths are mentioned! Each ancient Roman city sought to build its own public baths, and this was considered a matter of honor. For example, in Pompeii, a city of only about 30 thousand inhabitants, which was located at the foot of Vesuvius and was wiped off the face of the Earth along with the cities of Herculaneum and Stabia during its eruption in 79 AD, three such public buildings were dug out from the ashes baths, but there were also many private baths and private baths. The people in Pompeii were not poor.
Wherever the Romans came, baths were immediately built. So in Lutetia (Paris) they covered the area between the boulevards Saint-Michel and Saint-Germain, and the streets of Cluny and Rue de Ecole. Their total area was about 6000 m2. For a relatively small city, these were the largest public institutions, together with administrative, religious and civil buildings, descending in tiers from Mount Sainte-Geneviève and all the way to the Seine. And today we have the opportunity to look into these baths, or rather into their ruins. This is what they look like from the inside. And what’s very good: it’s cool there in the heat! Photo by the author
Moreover, it is interesting that ancient Roman baths were built in a variety of sizes. Among them there are real giants that belong to the most grandiose and most beautiful buildings of Rome: these are, for example, the Baths of Titus, the Baths of Trajan, the Baths of Diocletian, the Baths of Caracalla and the Baths of Constantine. All of them, built by order of the emperors and bearing their names, were built at the expense of the state, and the citizens of Rome used them practically free of charge. These were magnificent buildings with rich decoration and equipment, because each new ruler, who built “his” baths, sought to surpass his predecessor in this regard. That is why the baths surprised contemporaries (and then subsequent generations with their ruins and preserved descriptions) with their uniqueness and complex technical equipment.
Take, for example, the baths of Emperor Caracalla, built in Rome on his orders in 216 AD and then expanded to their final size by Heliogabalus and Alexander Severus. Occupying an area of 124–140 square meters (almost twelve and a half hectares!), they were second in size only to the Baths of Diocletian, and in beauty and splendor not a single bathing establishment in the world could compare with them - neither in ancient centuries nor in more recent times. late time. These thermal baths could be used by 2,300 people at the same time.
During the excavation of the baths, three operating levels were found, although only partially preserved: a buried network of sewer pipes and hypocaust pillars, underground utility rooms and, finally, the first floor, including the frigidarium, caldarium and palaestra
Entrance to the dungeon. Photo by the author
The baths consisted of two main parts. The first is a grandiose building that housed numerous rooms for public baths. The dimensions of this building were 220x44 meters. The second part was formed by a quadrangle of buildings surrounding the first structure along with training sports grounds and parks. These buildings contained a large number of single bathing cabins, as well as - as they might be called today - club and utility rooms and warehouses. There was also a large reservoir of water here, which was supplied through a special water pipeline. At the wall of this reservoir there was a grandstand built in the form of an amphitheater, from where one could watch the sports competitions that took place in the adjacent square. The dimensions of this quadrangle were 337x328 meters.
The main building of the baths consisted of rooms for various purposes; the main ones were: frigidarium, tepidarium, and caldarium.
The chronology of the construction of the baths still remains uncertain, however, judging by the characteristic masonry technology, we can assume that they were built at the turn of the 1st or 2nd centuries AD, but they operated for no more than two centuries. All that remains of them today is the frigidarium, a monumental room that gives us an idea of the technical achievements of Roman construction. Its vaults rise to a height of more than 14 meters. This is one of the best preserved monuments of ancient Roman architecture in northern France.
The frigidarium was a large room open at the top (without a roof) with a pool measuring 56x23 meters with cold water. The tepidarium, that is, a room with heated air, was a large hall, the vault of which rested on eight massive granite columns with a cross-section of 1.5 meters. Finally, in the third room - the caldarium, the ancient Romans took a bath in warm water that filled a pool about 50 meters in diameter.
In addition to the three main large rooms listed above, the Baths of Caracalla had a number of others for various purposes: a wardrobe, smaller bathing rooms with pools and baths, steam rooms, rooms for massage, relaxation, patios where one could retire for a conversation, numerous passages connecting separate parts of the thermal baths, etc. All this was well planned and beautifully finished. The floors, walls and vaults were covered with slabs of multi-colored marble with decorations made of bronze, gold and mosaics. Numerous statues decorated rooms, playgrounds and parks. This beautiful and luxurious architectural design made the Baths of Caracalla a truly fabulous palace.
Heat for heating the premises was supplied using central heating. Hot air heated the floors, walls and ceilings of the halls in the thermal baths, and in addition, heated the water in the baths through special bronze boilers, the bottoms of which were in direct contact with the roof of the channel supplying hot air from the central heating basements.
Archaeologists are lucky. They found this carved marble bathtub completely intact! Photo by the author
An original device was used to heat large amounts of water flowing into numerous pools. It was a tower of enormous size, consisting of 56 vaulted water chambers located vertically one above the other. Below there was a firebox in which a fire burned, heating the water in these chambers. Of course, the temperature of the water in them was different: the hottest was near the firebox, but the temperature of the higher chambers gradually decreased.
As needed, water of a certain temperature was released through pipelines from one of these chambers. It should be noted that the chambers were also connected to each other via pipelines, which made it possible to transfer water from one chamber to another. The fact is that when there was not enough water of a certain, certain temperature, then its deficiency in this chamber was replenished not with cold water from the water supply, which would then have to heat up for too long, but with water already heated in one of the higher chambers. That is, this building was serviced by real masters of their craft - bathhouse attendants and stokers, who, without any complex equipment, maintained the required temperature level in all pools and containers. And, of course, all this huge number of baths required a lot of firewood. So the lumberjacks also worked tirelessly, as well as the charcoal burners and coal carriers - in a word, the bathhouse “trust” of the Roman Empire worked with maximum efficiency and... provided income for many thousands of people! By the way, the ash from the stoves did not disappear either. They fertilized grapes with it.
In the frigidarium there is also this statue, previously identified as the image of Julian the Apostate. Marble, copy of ca. 1790 from a Roman original of 120–130. n. e.
Most of the technical equipment of the Baths of Caracalla was located in their vast dungeons. This is where the huge firebox of the aforementioned water tower, warehouses for firewood and various bathing equipment were located. Here, kilometers of corridors, adits and diversion channels diverged in all directions. The length of the main underground corridor was at least a kilometer with an average width of almost nine meters.
The bas-relief with Jupiter is much worse preserved. Photo by the author
The total length of the channels through which used water flowed from the pools and baths of the thermal baths was as much as three kilometers. An excellent sewer network was created for the used water, which was expanded over many centuries. The main canal, which collected wastewater from numerous side canals, was the famous Cloaca Maxima, which in Latin means “great canal”. For its construction, boulders measuring 2.5x0.8 meters were used, the weight of which reached 7.6 tons. Its width is 3.5 meters and its height is more than 4 meters. Moreover, it has survived to this day in working condition and is part of the modern sewer network of Rome. That's how it is...
Time is unkind even to stone... Photo by the author
And what was the fate of the same baths of Caracalla? They worked until 537, that is, over three hundred years. Later, there was a sharp decline in hygiene, concern for personal health care and related technology. The technological wonders of ancient Rome: water supply, sewerage, bathing and heating devices were destroyed. The skills to use these devices were also forgotten, which was facilitated by the Middle Ages, when addiction to body care was considered sinful, vicious and deserving of punishment.
The Roman baths never recovered after the fall of the great Rome and the destruction that progressed over time. These ruins, by the way, were used as... quarries for building materials. The monuments of ancient Rome were destroyed by whoever wanted, and how they wanted.
But this bas-relief is especially interesting.
It surprisingly clearly shows... the shields of warriors of that time, and they are more likely not of the Roman, but of the Gallic model! Photo by the author Currently, only ruins remain of the ancient Roman baths that the Roman emperors built for the people. But even they delight people with their grandeur, testifying to the perfection of Roman construction and sanitary technology.
Baths of Rome
In ancient Rome, baths were places for bathing. The term "therms" usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while the ordinary baths were small structures that existed in large numbers throughout Rome.
Such baths could be privately owned, but they were open to the public for a fee. The baths belonged to the state and often occupied several city blocks. The largest of them, the Baths of Diocletian, accommodated up to 3,000 bathers. The fees for both types of baths were quite reasonable, within the budget of most free Roman men.
After a morning's work, most Romans enjoyed spending the day in a steam room or public bath. They were a meeting place. Men and women liked to go to the baths not only to wash themselves, but also to meet with friends, exercise, or read in the library. The baths had pools with hot and cold water, towels, steam rooms, saunas, gyms and hairdressers. They had reading rooms and libraries, since among the freeborn, who had the right to wash frequently, the majority knew how to read. Children were not allowed.
Most Roman cities had at least baths, which were centers not only for bathing but also for socializing. Roman baths were also provided for private villas, town houses and forts. They were supplied with water from an adjacent river or stream, or usually by an aqueduct. The water could be heated over wood before being sent to the hot baths.
In some ways, the steam rooms were reminiscent of modern resorts. The Romans turned bathing into a high art as they socialized in these public baths. Courting as well as making business deals, they built luxurious baths in natural hot springs. The importance of the bath for the Romans was so great that in the catalog of buildings in Rome from 354 AD. 952 bathhouses of varying sizes are documented in the city.
One of the plans for the construction of thermal baths
Now let’s move on to the baths in Rome, which have survived in some condition to this day. There are mainly 3 such baths left: the baths of Caracalla, Diocletian and Trajan. Let's talk about them.
Functional rooms of the Roman baths
What are the classic Roman baths? These are many functional rooms, each of which has its own temperature and humidity levels.
The process of visiting a bathhouse among the Romans was as follows: entering the dressing room (apodyterium) with cooled air, visitors were prepared to undergo basic procedures.
Then we moved into a room (tepidarium), which was heated to 42 degrees with an air humidity of 35–40%. It served to preheat the body, and only after that the bathhouse attendants entered the two halls one by one.
The first is a wet room (caldarium), with an air heating temperature of up to 55 degrees with a humidity of 95–100%, the second is a dry room (laconium), with a heating temperature of 80 degrees and a relative humidity of 18%.
After the main halls, rest continued in special rooms (lavaria), where massages and other hygienic procedures were carried out. In another room (frigidarium) there were pools with different temperature conditions for heating water.
Ancient Roman baths consisted of the following rooms:
- apodytherium;
- tepidarium;
- caldarium;
- laconium;
- lavarium;
- frigidarium.
Baths of Caracalla
The Baths of Caracalla, the second largest bath complex in ancient Rome, were built between 212 and 219 AD. Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known by his nickname Caracalla.
By the 3rd century AD, the Romans had built many baths in Rome and elsewhere and had acquired great skill in designing functional, fully integrated complexes. For example, Rome's water supply and drainage system was so well thought out and well maintained that it supplied about 15-20,000 cubic meters of water per day to the baths alone.
At the Baths of Caracalla, water flowed into a huge cistern, divided into 18 separate chambers for ease of maintenance and with a total capacity of 10,000 cubic meters. m. From here it flowed by gravity through pipes under the gardens to the main building. Inside the main building, a complex distribution system fed water directly into cold pools or into boilers over wood fires, where it was heated for warm and hot baths.
Branches from each basin and in the floor of each room led to a sewer that ran below the level of the distribution pipes and carried wastewater to the municipal sewer in the valley. Both distribution and drainage pipes were placed in tunnels , allowing easy access for inspection and maintenance. A third network of tunnels was used to store the enormous quantities of wood needed to fuel the stoves (prefurnia): there were at least fifty of them, some for heating water and others for heating rooms using a hot air system under the floor. (hypocaust).
The heated rooms were located on the southwestern side of the building. The hottest room of all, the calidarium, extended beyond the building's line to take full advantage of the sun's rays. Hollow terracotta pipes ran inside the walls to provide insulation and remove hot air. 1600 people could swim here at the same time. There were rooms for cold, hot and warm baths, magnificent ceilings, porticoes, halls with columns, gymnasiums, where people admired the rarest marbles, colossal columns and the most beautiful statues; even the baths were made of basalt, granite, and alabaster.
The Baths of Caracalla were more of a recreation center than just baths. There was also a public library here. The entire northern wall of the complex was dedicated to shops.
Read more about Baths of Caracalla
What were the names of the baths in ancient Rome?
However, it was in large cities that the ancient Roman baths (balnea or baths) acquired monumental proportions with huge colonnades and wide arches and domes.
The baths were built using millions of fireproof terracotta bricks, and the finished buildings were typically luxurious, with fine mosaic floors, marble walls, and decorative statues. Typically opening around lunchtime and staying open until dusk, the baths of ancient Rome were accessible to everyone, rich and poor alike. For example, during the reign of Diocletian, the entrance fee was only two denarii - the smallest denomination of bronze coins. Sometimes, on public holidays, visiting the baths in ancient Rome was free.
Baths of Diocletian
The Baths of Diocletian in Rome were the largest of all surviving baths. The Baths of Diocletian were built in 306 and were the largest and most luxurious of the imperial baths.
The project was originally commissioned by Maximian upon his return to Rome in the autumn of 298 AD. and was continued after the abdication of him and Diocletian from the throne under Constantius, the father of Constantine. Although many of the baths in and around Rome share similar features, Diocletian's Baths are unique in their size.
The Baths occupy a high position on the north-eastern summit of Viminal, the smallest of the seven hills of Rome. In order to properly supply the baths, by order of Diocletian, the water supply to the city was increased.
Regarding the terms in general, they have been described as evoking an imperial style or "classical" image, which is a style of "manipulating space". To manage space in this style, the building forms were kept simple and created the impression of a vast open space.
To create this effect, bath builders used different techniques. The outer walls of the bath were inlaid with stucco, giving the appearance of stonework. The interior of the bath was supported by vaulted ceilings and arches to create curved lines. The roof structure is an excellent example of classic design.
Read more about the Baths of Diocletian
