Pompeii, Its Life and Art

by August Mau

The caldarium is well preserved; only a part of the vaulted ceiling has been destroyed. The hollow space for hot air in the floor and walls is indicated in our section ([Fig. 93]). Here we see at the right, the bath basin, lined with white marble, with its sloping back affording a comfortable support for the bathers; at the other end is the apsidal niche (schola) with the labrum. The direction of Vitruvius, that the labrum should be placed under a window in such a way that the shadows of those standing around should not fall on it, is here literally observed. There were three other small windows at the same end of the room, and a niche for a lamp.

We learn from an inscription on the labrum, in bronze letters, that it was made under the direction of Gnaeus Melissaeus Aper and Marcus Staius Rufus, who were duumvirs in 3-4 A.D., at a cost of 5250 sesterces, not far from $270. This room seems to have received its final form before the new method of heating the water in the alveus came into vogue; there is no trace of a bronze heater, such as that found in connection with the bath basin of the women's caldarium at the Stabian Baths. The simple decoration is in marked contrast with the usual ornamentation of the later styles. Above a low marble base are yellow walls divided by dark red pilasters, shown in [Fig. 93]. These support a projecting flat cornice of dark red, whose surface is richly ornamented with stucco reliefs. The ceiling is moulded in flutings running up to the crown of the vault; only in the ceiling of the schola do we find raised figures.

The rooms of the women's baths are small, their arrangement being determined in part by the irregular shape of the corner of the building in which they are placed; but the system of heating is more complete than in the men's baths, for both the tepidarium (3) and the caldarium (4) were provided with hollow floors and hot air spaces in the walls extending to the lunettes and the ceiling. The vaulted ceilings of both of these rooms, as well as of the apodyterium, are preserved; but the caldarium has lost its hollow floor and walls, together with the bath basin, which was placed in a large niche at the right as one entered; only the base of the labrum remains. The condition of this room may be due to the earthquake of the year 63, the necessary repairs not having been made before the eruption. There was no connection between the women's baths and the court at the rear (D), which had a separate entrance from the street. At the women's entrance there was a narrow waiting room for attendants, separated from the street by a thin wall and protected by a roof.

The furnace room could be entered at one end from the street. The three cylindrical tanks for hot, lukewarm, and cold water were arranged as in the Stabian Baths. Beyond the tanks is a cistern (g), which was supplied in part by rain water from the roof, in part by a feed pipe connected with the water system of the city. The raised walk (h) on the right side of the furnace room is continued to the small court (D) in the corner of which is a stairway leading to the flat roof of the men's caldarium. From this point of vantage, the view over the landscape and the sea must have been beautiful in antiquity, as it is to-day.

A sundial doubtless stood on the larger of the two pillars in the court (d), which is about seventeen feet high and nearly five feet thick at the base; on the smaller pillar was perhaps a statue or other ornamental object of the sort frequently seen in wall paintings.

CHAPTER XXIX
THE CENTRAL BATHS

Seneca in an entertaining letter (Ep. 86) gives an account of a visit about 60 A.D. to the villa at Liternum in which the Elder Scipio had lived in the years immediately preceding his death, in 183 B.C. The philosopher was particularly struck with the bath, the simplicity of which he contrasts forcibly with the luxurious appointments of his own time. We cannot follow him through the extended disquisition—he speaks of various refinements of luxury of which we find no traces at Pompeii; but he mentions as the most striking difference the lack of light in the old bath, with its small apertures more like chinks than windows, while in his day the baths were provided with large windows protected by glass, and people 'wanted to be parboiled in full daylight,' besides having the enjoyment meanwhile of a beautiful view. Some such feeling as this we have in turning from the two older baths at Pompeii—one of pre-Roman origin, the other dating from the time of Sulla—to the Central Baths, which were in process of construction at the time of the eruption, and had been designed in accordance with the prevailing mode of life.

This extensive establishment, at the corner of Stabian and Nola streets, occupied the whole of a block; but a large part of the frontage on the two streets mentioned was utilized for shops. Notwithstanding the size of the building, it had only a single series of apartments, which were laid out on a correspondingly large scale. It was doubtless built for men, although the use of it at certain hours by women may possibly have been contemplated, in case the women's baths at the two other establishments should be overcrowded.

Entrances from three streets lead to the ample palaestra, from which the remains of the houses demolished to make room for it had not yet been entirely removed. On the northeast side is the excavation for a large swimming tank (h), and for a water channel leading to the closet (e). In order to have water at hand for building purposes, the masons had built a low wall around an old impluvium on the south side (shown on the plan, [Fig. 94]) into which a feed pipe ran. For a short distance on the north side the stylobate had been made ready for the building of the colonnade; elsewhere only the preliminary work had been done. The rooms at the southeast corner (f, g) were no doubt intended for dressing rooms for the palaestra and the plunge bath.