FIG. 60.—THERMÆ OF CARACALLA. PLAN OF CENTRAL BLOCK.

A, Caldarium, or Hot Bath; B, Intermediate Chamber; C, Tepidarium, or Warm Bath; D, Frigidarium, or Cold Bath; E, Peristyles; a, Gymnastic Rooms; b, Dressing Rooms; c, Cooling Rooms; d, Small Courts; e, Entrances; v, Vestibules.

[ Larger View]

THERMÆ. The leisure of the Roman people was largely spent in the great baths, or thermæ, which took the place substantially of the modern club. The establishments erected by the emperors for this purpose were vast and complex congeries of large and small halls, courts, and chambers, combined with a masterly comprehension of artistic propriety and effect in the sequence of oblong, square, oval, and circular apartments, and in the relation of the greater to the lesser masses. They were a combination of the Greek palæstra with the Roman balnea, and united in one harmonious design great public swimming-baths, private baths for individuals and families, places for gymnastic exercises and games, courts, peristyles, gardens, halls for literary entertainments, lounging-rooms, and all the complex accommodation required for the service of the whole establishment. They were built with apparent disregard of cost, and adorned with splendid extravagance. The earliest were the Baths of Agrippa (27 B.C.) behind the Pantheon; next may be mentioned those of Titus, built on the substructions of Nero’s Golden House. The remains of the Thermæ of Caracalla (211 A.D.) form the most extensive mass of ruins in Rome, and clearly display the admirable planning of this and similar establishments. A gigantic block of buildings containing the three great halls for cold, warm, and hot baths, stood in the centre of a vast enclosure surrounded by private baths, exedræ, and halls for lecture-audiences and other gatherings. The enclosure was adorned with statues, flower-gardens, and places for out-door games. The Baths of Diocletian (302 A.D.) embodied this arrangement on a still more extensive scale; they could accommodate 3,500 bathers at once, and their ruins cover a broad territory near the railway terminus of the modern city. The church of S. Maria degli Angeli was formed by Michael Angelo out of the tepidarium of these baths—a colossal hall 340 × 87 feet, and 90 feet high. The original vaulting and columns are still intact, and the whole interior most imposing, in spite of later stucco disfigurements. The circular laconicum (sweat-room) serves as the porch to the present church. It was in the building of these great halls that Roman architecture reached its most original and characteristic expression. Wholly unrelated to any foreign model, they represent distinctively Roman ideals, both as to plan and construction.

FIG. 61.—ROMAN THEATRE.

(HERCULANUM.)
(From model.)