History of Sanitation

by J. J. Cosgrove

Outer Row of Baths, Caracalla, Rome

"In the earlier ages of Roman history a much greater delicacy was observed with respect to promiscuous bathing, even among the men, than was usual among the Greeks; for according to Valerius Maximus, it was deemed indecent for a father to bathe in company with his own son after he had attained the age of puberty, or son-in-law with his father-in-law, the same respectful reserve being shown to blood and affinity as was paid to the temples of the gods, toward whom it was considered an act of irreligion even to appear naked in any of the places consecrated to their worship. But virtue passed away as wealth increased, and when the thermæ came into use, not only did the men bathe together in numbers, but even men and women stripped and bathed promiscuously in the same bath. It is true, however, that the public establishment often contained separate baths for both sexes adjoining each other, as will be seen to have been also the case at the baths of Pompeii. Aulus Gellius relates a story of a consul's wife who took a whim to bathe at Teano, a small provincial town of Campania, in the men's baths, probably because in a small town the female department, like that at Pompeii, was more confined and less convenient than that assigned to the men, and an order was consequently given to the quaestor to turn the men out. But whether the men and women were allowed to use each other's chambers indiscriminately, or that some of the public baths had only one common set of baths for both, the custom prevailed under the empire of men and women bathing indiscriminately together. This custom was forbidden by Hadrian, and Alexander Severus prohibited any baths common to both sexes from being opened in Rome.

When the public baths were first instituted they were only for the lower orders, who alone bathed in public, the people of wealth, as well as those who formed the Equestrian and Senatorian orders, using private baths in their own houses. But this monopoly was not long enjoyed, for as early even as the time of Julius Cæsar, we find no less a personage than the mother of Augustus making use of the public establishments, which were probably at that time separated from the men's, and, in process of time, even the emperors themselves bathed in public with the meanest of the people. Thus Hadrian often bathed in public among the herd, and even the virtuous Alexander Severus took his bath among the populace in the thermæ he had himself erected, as well as in those of his predecessors, and returned to the palace in his bathing dress; and the abandoned Gallienus amused himself by bathing in the midst of the young and old of both sexes, men, women and children.

The baths were opened at sunrise and closed at sunset, but in the time of Alexander Severus, it would appear that they were kept open nearly all night, for he is stated to have furnished oil for his own thermæ, which previously were not opened before daybreak and were shut before sunset; and Juvenal includes in his catalogue of female immoralities that of taking the bath at night, which may, however, refer to private baths.

The price of a bath was a quadrant, the smallest piece of coined money from the age of Cicero downward, which was paid to the keeper of the bath. Children below a certain age were admitted free, and strangers, also foreigners, were admitted to some of the baths, if not to all, without payment.

The baths were closed when any misfortune happened to the republic, and Sentonius says that the Emperor Caligula made it a capital offence to indulge in the luxury of bathing upon any religious holiday. The baths were originally placed under the superintendence of the ædiles, whose business it was also to keep them in repair, and to see that they were kept clean and of a proper temperature.

The time usually assigned by the Romans for taking the bath was the eighth hour or shortly afterward. Before that time none but invalids were allowed to bathe in public. Vilruvins reckoned the best hours adapted for bathing to be from midday until about sunset. Pliny took his bath at the ninth hour in summer and the eighth in winter; and Martial speaks of taking a bath when fatigued and weary at the tenth hour and even later.

When the water was ready and the baths prepared, notice was given by the sound of a bell. One of these bells with the inscription Firmi Balneatoris was found in the thermæ Diocletiane, in the year 1548.