A Guide to the Exhibition Illustrating Greek and Roman Life

by British Museum. Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities

Fig. 126.—Bronze Strigils and Oil-Flask (No. 337). Ca. 2:7.

The Bath.—Certain implements shown in Case 37 illustrate the routine of the bath, which occupied a large place in the life both of the Greeks and Romans. Celsus, who wrote on the art of medicine probably early in the first century after Christ, recommended the bather first to go into the moderately heated room (tepidarium), and perspire slightly, then to anoint himself and to pass into the hot air room. After perspiring there he was to pour hot, warm, and cold water alternately over his head, then to scrape himself with the strigil, and finally to anoint himself—the last probably a precaution against taking cold. This description will enable us to understand the use of the implements carried by bathers. Of these the strigil is most important. It was a curved piece of metal, usually bronze, but sometimes iron, employed by athletes for removing dust and oil after exercise, and by bathers for scraping away sweat and dirt. The accompanying figure (fig. 125), drawn from a Greek vase of the fifth century B.C., shows an athlete resting after exercise, and about to use the strigil. Some times a strigil, oil-flask, and sponge are seen on vases, suspended from the wall of the palaestra where youths are exercising. In Case 37 a small lekythos (No. 336) shows an athlete with a strigil, and an impression from a gem illustrates the method of using that implement. The strigils here seen range in date from about the sixth century B.C. to the third century A.D. Many of them are inscribed with the name of their owners, and some have small figures, e.g., a man dancing or a horse galloping, stamped upon them. Two strigils which deserve special mention are the silver one found in the sarcophagus of the Etruscan lady, Seianti Hanunia (second century B.C.), and exhibited with that sarcophagus in the Terracotta Room, and the beautiful bronze ornamental strigil in the Bronze Room (Pedestal 3), with the handle in the form of a girl herself using the strigil. A complete bather's outfit of Roman date (No. 337), found near Düsseldorf, includes two bronze strigils and an oil-flask attached by rings to a handle (fig. 126), and several glass vases for use in the toilet.

Fig. 127.—Section of Roman Bronze Pump from Bolsena (No. 338). 1:5.

Water Supply.—A few objects in Cases 38-39 illustrate the methods of water-supply among the Romans, which are characterised by their completeness and excellence. The remains of two Roman double-action pumps in bronze from Bolsena in Etruria (Nos. 338, 339; figs. 127, 128) are of special interest. These are constructed on a principle invented by Ktesibios of Alexandria, who probably lived in the third century B.C. They were worked by alternating plungers, raised and lowered by a rocking-beam. The first illustration (fig. 127) shows the less advanced but more complete pump in section, and explains the method, of working. The bottoms of the cylinders (A) were connected by pipes with the reservoir, and are furnished with flap-valves (B), opening upwards. When the plunger (C) was raised, a vacuum was created, and the water lifted the valve and rushed in. When the plunger was raised to its highest point the valve fell again and retained the water; when the plunger descended it forced the water from the cylinder into the central discharge pipe through another flap-valve (D) at the end of the horizontal pipe. BD in the figure shows the structure of the flap-valves, which the Greeks called ἀσσάρια ("pennies") from their likeness to coins. F is a complete plunger of the same type as those used in the pump illustrated, but not belonging to it. Only two-thirds of the second pump (No. 339) survive, but the missing part (marked off in the diagram by a dotted line) is supplied in the section (fig. 128). In this example the more advanced spindle valve takes the place of the flap valves, and the two valves side by side open into a central domed chamber, in place of the simple central cylinder of No. 338.

Fig. 128.—Section of second Roman Bronze Pump, from Bolsena (No. 339).

There are here several jets and spouts for the emission of water, one (No. 339) in the form of a pine-cone, pierced with small holes for sending out a spray, others in the form of dolphins (No. 340) and the fore-part of a horse (No. 341). The bronze stop-cocks seen in Case 39 were used for controlling the flow of water from the cisterns to the various parts of the house. They were inserted in the lead water-pipes, portions of which still adhere to them. Their arrangement is excellently illustrated by those discovered at the Roman villa at Boscoreale, near Pompeii (see Mon. Ant. vii., p. 454, fig. 45a). See also a gargoyle in the form of a lion for rain water (No. 342), and a bronze grating from the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos (No. 343) for draining it away. Various lead supply pipes and clay drain pipes are shown in case 39.

Heating.—In early times houses were heated by means of a large open hearth placed in the middle of the principal room, whence the smoke escaped as it might, through the door, or between the roof beams. Next followed the use of portable braziers in bronze, such as have been found in Etruscan tombs from the seventh century B.C. (cf. Italic Room, Cases B, C). The small braziers used for cooking, etc., in the Hellenistic period have been mentioned above, p. [118]. A system of heating by hot air was introduced by the Romans, but was used chiefly for the warming of baths. For the general heating of houses such an arrangement was, until about the third century A.D. exceptional, and Seneca, writing in the first century A.D. regards it as an enervating luxury. Several examples of Roman terracotta flue-tiles (No. 344) for the transmission of hot air are seen in the bottom of Cases 39, 40.

Shapes of Vases.—Case 40 contains a small type-series of the leading shapes of Greek vases, intended to teach the names current in archaeology (No. 345).