History of Sanitation

by J. J. Cosgrove

The comparative smallness and inferiority of the fittings up in this suit of baths has induced some Italian antiquaries to throw a doubt upon the fact of their being assigned to women, and ingeniously suggest that they were a set of old baths, to which the larger ones were subsequently added when they became too small for the increasing wealth and population of the city. But the story already quoted of the consul's wife who turned the men out of their bath at Teanum for her convenience, seems sufficiently to negative such a supposition and to prove that the inhabitants of ancient Italy, if not more selfish, were certainly less gallant than their successors. In addition to this, Vitruvius expressly enjoins that the baths of the men and women, though separate, should be contiguous to each other, in order that they might be supplied from the same boilers and hypocaust; directions that are here fulfilled to the letter, as a glance at the plans will demonstrate.

Notwithstanding the ample account which has been given of the plans and usages respecting baths in general, something yet remains to be said about that particular class denominated thermæ, of which establishment the baths, in fact, constituted the smallest part. The thermæ, properly speaking, were a Roman adaptation of the Greek gymnasium. The thermæ contained a system of baths in conjunction with conveniences for athletic games and youthful sports, places in which rhetoricians declaimed, poets recited and philosophers lectured, as well as porticos and vestibules for the idle, and libraries for the studious. They were decorated with the finest objects of art, both in painting and sculpture, covered with precious marbles and adorned with fountains and shaded walks. It may be said that they began and ended with the Empire, for it was not until the time of Augustus that these magnificent structures were commenced. M. Agrippa was the first who afforded these luxuries to his countrymen by bequeathing to them the thermæ and gardens which he had erected in the Campus Martius. The Pantheon, now existing at Rome, served originally as a vestibule to these baths; and, as it was considered too magnificent for the purpose, it is supposed that Agrippa added the portico and consecrated it as a temple, for which use it still serves.

The example set by Agrippa was followed by Nero and afterward by Titus, the ruins of whose thermæ are still visible, covering a vast extent, partly under ground and partly above the Esquiline Hill.

Previous to the erection of these establishments for the use of the population, it was customary, for those who sought the favor of the people, to give them a day's bathing free of expense.

Ground Plan of Thermæ of Caracalla. From an old woodcut

Thus, according to Divi Cassius, Faustus, the son of Sulla, furnished warm baths and oil gratis to the people for one day; and Augustus, on one occasion, furnished warm baths and barbers to the people for the same period free of expense, and at another time for a whole year to the women as well as the men. From thence it is fair to infer that the quadrant paid for admission to the balnea was not exacted at the thermæ, which as being the works of the emperors, would naturally be opened with imperial generosity to all, and without any charge, otherwise the whole city would have thronged to the establishment bequeathed to them by Agrippa; and in confirmation of this opinion it might be remarked that the old establishments, which were probably erected by private enterprises, were termed Meritorial.

Most, if not all, of the other regulations previously detailed as relating to the economy of the baths, apply equally to the thermæ; but it is in these establishments especially that the dissolute conduct of the emperors and other luxurious indulgence of the people in general, as detailed in the compositions of the satirists and later writers, must be considered to refer.

Although considerable remains of the Roman thermæ are still visible, yet, from the very ruinous state in which they are found, we are far from being able to arrive at the same accurate knowledge of their component parts and the usages to which they were applied, as has been done with respect to the balnea; or, indeed, to discover a satisfactory mode of reconciling their constructive details with the description left us by Vitruvious and Lucian. All, indeed, is doubt and guesswork. Each of the learned men who have pretended to give an account of their contents differing in all the essential particulars from one another; and yet the general similarity of the ground plan of the three which still remain cannot fail to strike even a superficial observer; so great indeed that it is impossible not to perceive at once that they were all constructed upon a similar plan. Not, however, to discuss the subject without enabling the reader to form something like a general idea of these enormous edifices, which from their extent and magnificence have been likened to provinces, a ground plan of the thermæ of Caracalla is annexed, which are the best preserved among those remaining, and which were perhaps more splendid than all the rest. Those apartments of which the use is ascertained with the appearances of probability, will be alone marked and explained. The dark parts represent the remains still visible; the open lines are restorations.