Transcript The Roman Baths

The Roman Baths
The Roman Bathing Process
• bathers would have the dirt and oil scraped from their
bodies with a Strigil.Then the bathing began.
• Accompanied by a slave carrying their towels, oil flasks and
strigils, bathers would progress at a leisurely pace through
rooms of various temperature.
• warm room (tepidarium)
• hot bath (caldarium)
• spend some time in the tepidarium again
• finishing in the cold room (frigidarium).
• Other rooms provided moist steam or dry heat like a sauna
(laconicum), and a massage with perfumed oils.
The Roman Baths – Bath, England
• A reconstructed
image of the baths
and surrounding
area from about
200 CE (AD)
• Spring used by
Romans as early
as about 5 CE
• Center of Temple
Sulis Minerva (deity
with healing
powers)
• About 1 million litres
a day rises from the
spring, at 46
degrees Celsius
• Offerings thrown
into the spring
• Enclosed with barrel
vaulted ceiling in
about 200 CE (AD)
The Sacred Spring
The
Roman
Temple
• Corinthian columns
sit before the cella
(main temple
chamber) where a
statue of Sulis
Minerva was located
• Point of worship until
about 391 CE
• Emperor Theodosius
closed pagan
temples throughout
the empire
• This was a place
of worship and
sacrifice
• ceremonies took
place around the
great altar
• In one corner the
Sacred Spring
poured out a
supply of hot water
that was more than
enough to serve
the huge baths
complex to the
south.
The Temple Courtyard
The Bathing Complex
Iaconicum -
- West Baths
- Circular Bath
Great Bath -
- Sacred Spring
• Completely out of proportion to size of town
• Meant to service needs of locals, and travelers/pilgrims
• 1.6 meters deep
• Lined with 45 lead
sheets
• Heated water
pumped directly
from the Sacred
Spring
• Luxurious warm
swim enjoyed by
many locals on a
regular basis
• Ceiling changed
around 200 CE
The
Great
Bath
The
East
Baths
• East baths were
more tepid (pipes ran
from Great Bath)
• Series of heated
rooms developed =
Roman invention
called the Hypocaust
• Hot steam pumped
through crawlspaces
beneath supported
floors (seen here)
• Decorated walls
added as modern
part of the museum
• Contain well
preserved Pilae –
piles of tiles that
supported floor
• Heated rooms and
plunge pools
• East and West Bath
similarities could
allow simultaneous
(but separate) use
of the baths by both
men and women
The West Baths
The Iaconicum
• Small room of extreme dry heat
• Could be like a sauna with addition of a splash of water
• Prepare you for oil and strigil treatment
The Circular Bath
• Cold plunge pool used to invigorate you after treatments in
warm and hot rooms. Probably wouldn’t linger here.
• 1.6 meters deep
The Spring Overflow
• System
engineered almost
2000 years ago is
still in use today
• Allows spring
water that is not
used in the baths
complex to flow
into Roman drain
and out into
nearby River Avon
The Baths Today
Above: The Victorian Terrace
Right: The Sacred Spring &
The King’s Bath