Ancient Roman Baths: An Archeological Explanation

Although rural villas and large townhouses had private baths, bathing in the Roman world was a social activity. Even emperors, despite having their own lavish baths, might also visit public ones. Beyond mere relaxation and cleanliness, baths were a place to be seen, to conduct business, and to meet—the Roman poet Martial describes how a certain Menogenes would lurk in the baths, excessively and falsely complimenting people until he met someone who finally invited him to dinner.

The neighborhoods of Roman towns were served by bathing complexes known as balneae. These were either privately run or supported by the local authorities. The number of such establishments in each town varied, as did their size and quality. Pompeii in Southern Italy supported three main baths built between the second century BC and first century AD. While the colony of Timgad in North Africa had only half the population of Pompeii, it boasted eight balneae. The city of Rome reportedly had over 800.

Bathing involved more than wallowing in a pool. Many complexes were designed to allow the visitor to progress through the stages of a cleansing ritual based on medical knowledge of the time. This included people moving through rooms and pools that progressed from cold to warm to hot, and to then finish with outdoor exercise.

Major ancient Roman cities also had larger baths known as thermae and the most magnificent of these were in Rome. Today, substantial remains of three enormous thermae constructed during the reigns of the emperors Trajan (AD 98-117), Caracalla (AD 198-217), and Diocletian (AD 284-305) can still be visited.

The baths of Diocletian stand in front of Rome’s main railway station and are now used to house the city’s museum of ancient inscriptions. In the sixteenth century, part of the central complex was converted by Michelangelo into the church of Santa Maria of the Angels and of the Martyrs. While it has been substantially altered, the expansive vaulted ceiling and granite columns, nearly fifty feet in height, are part of the original structure and allow for an appreciation of the remarkable interior spaces of such complexes (this building was a model for the old, now demolished Pennsylvania Station in New York).

The best-preserved baths in Rome are those of the emperor Caracalla. They once occupied an area of over 100,000 square meters and could potentially accommodate up to 10,000 bathers a day. Operating such a complex was a feat in itself and required enormous quantities of wood for the furnaces to heat the pools and a continuous supply of water, which necessitated the construction of a new aqueduct.

While the ruins mean it is possible to understand the vast scale of the baths, the concrete and bare brick remains do not reflect the richness of the original decoration. The floors and walls would have been covered with colored marble slabs and mosaic images, while the halls were lined with statues and over 250 marble and granite columns brought from quarries in Greece, Turkey, and Africa.

Communal bathing was a hallmark of Roman culture and a feature of daily living. The construction and resourcing of the vast bath complexes in the imperial capital represented the stability, economic power, technical knowhow, and logistical cohesion of the empire.

* The suggestion of the loss of hot and cold running water as a marker of decline in the Roman world is made in an interview with Professor Charlotte Roueché in an episode of the radio show ‘In Our Time’