Restoration of Thermæ of Titus. (Restored by Leclerc)
Plan of the Thermæ of Titus, Rome. (Restored by Leclerc)
The apartments beyond this, which are too much dilapidated to be restored with any degree of certainty, contained, of course, the laconium and sudatories, for which the round chamber, W, and its appurtenances seem to be adapted, and which are also contiguous to the reservoirs, Z, Z. The apartments e, e' are probably places where youths were taught their exercises, with the appurtenances belonging to them. The chambers on the other side, which are not marked, probably served for the exercises in bad weather. These baths contained an upper story, of which nothing remains beyond what is just sufficient to indicate the fact. It will be observed that there is no part of the bathing department separate from the rest which could be assigned to the use of women exclusively. From this it must be inferred either that both sexes always bathed together promiscuously in the thermæ, or that the women were excluded altogether from these establishments.
Sectional Elevation, Thermæ of Titus, Rome. (Restored by Leclerc)
It remains to explain the manner in which the immense body of water required for the supply of a set of baths in the thermæ was heated. This has been done very satisfactorily by Piranesi and Cameron, as may be seen by a reference to the two sectional elevations showing the reservoir and aqueducts belonging to the Thermæ of Caracalla. A are arches of the aqueduct which conveyed the water into the reservoir, B, whence it flowed into the upper range of cells through the aperture at C, and thence again descended into the lower ones by the aperture, D, which were placed immediately over the hypocaust, E, the furnace of which can be seen in the transverse section at F. There were thirty-two of these cells arranged in two rows over the hypocaust, sixteen on each side, and all communicating with one another, and over these a similar number similarly arranged, which communicated with those below by the aperture at D. The parting walls between these cells were likewise perforated with flues which served to disseminate the heat all around the whole body of water. When the water was sufficiently warm it was turned on to the baths through pipes conducted likewise through flues in order to prevent the loss of temperature during passage, and the lower reservoir was supplied as fast as water was drawn off from the reservoir next above, which in turn was supplied with water from the topmost tier and the aqueduct.