View Page: Baths & Bathing as an Ancient Roman

	Baths & Bathing as an Ancient Roman
	written by kjw2 / 09.13.2004

Section Four

4 of 7

Patron

http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/baths.html

Portico at the Stabian Baths

This portico wrapped around two thirds of the palaestra at the Stabian baths, and it was a shady place where people could walk and talk while watching people exercise in the palaestra. This picture, gives one the impression that the baths were once an elegant and pleasant place to spend the afternoon.

Government officials and prominent wealthy people in society made maintaining and building baths one of their top priorities, striving to make them as attractive and accessible as possible. The patron of the Stabian baths would have gained popularity through their construction. In attempts to please the people and gain popularity, a wealthy or influential person might fund the waiving of the entrance fee at certain baths for a period of time. When the people did have to pay the nominal entrance fee, the baths were still cheap; women usually paid twice as much as men. Therefore, all classes of Roman society took daily hot baths, but not necessarily in the same place. The wealthy had their own extensive private baths, but still would frequent the public baths since bathing was considered a social activity. There were small private baths with restricted clientele, larger public baths, balnea meritoria, privately owned, built and run for profit. Slaves would bath in bathing facilities in the house where they worked or use designated facilities at public baths.
The most public baths, thermae, were gifts to the people by rich citizens or emperors and they were run by a conductor. There is some dispute over the terminology regarding the difference between a thermae and a balnea. Thermae were larger and generally more luxurious than balnea. Thermae were decorated in marble and had more ornate refinements, while balnea were decorated with stucco and were more poorly lit, though both terms seem to be applied liberally to many different types of baths. Perhaps like the difference today between a country club and a public pool, however the both terms are used to refer to both public and private baths.

Different levels of luxury were associated with different types of baths and some baths were more fashionable than others. Just like bars or restaurants today, baths could be trendy or passé and certain baths could pass in and out of style. It was common in polite society to inquire of a stranger which baths he used. The Stabian baths were much simpler and darker than their elaborate successors because they were older and located in a city outside of Rome; they appealed to those with a stoic sense of simplicity.

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