THERMAE!

1. THERMAE! Latin 2 Octavia Roe

2. What Are The Thermae? • Thermae- means bath in Latin. • These were almost like community centers or spas of today’s time. The baths offered many activities including exercising, bathing, and socializing. Using these public baths was a custom of the Romans and was not considered a taboo.

3. Who Used The Baths? • Men and Women both used the Baths as a place for leisure activities such as exercising, bathing, socializing, and in some reading. • In most baths during the republic, the facilities were separated and men and women could be at the bath house at the same time. • During the empire the baths were opened to women during the morning at a very high fee and open to men in the afternoon at a much lower fee.

4. Floor Plans Of The Baths • Most of the Roman Baths had many rooms and outdoor grounds (palaestra). They even had outdoor pools (natatio).

5. How Were The Baths Heated? • Roman engineers created a system of heating the baths called Hypocaust. The floors were raised above the ground on pillars and space was provided between the walls for the hot air to follow through from the furnace. This heated the rooms of the baths. Some rooms that needed more heat were placed near the furnace. To create more heat they would add wood to the furnace.

6. Areas Of The Bath • Also in the baths were the first “flush toilets”. These were channels with constant water flow and sometimes marble seats. • Dressing Rooms with attendants were available for storing street clothing and shoes. Each person could have a cabinet (niche) for their clothing. Some of the upper class even had a slave to guard their belongings while the visited the baths.

7. Curse Tablets and Roman Baths! • Curse tablets were made of pieces of lead or pewter rolled or folded. This was thrown into the spring or in some cases, nailed to the wall of the bath house. • On the tablets were messages from the victim asking for the god’s help to punish the criminal or retrieve a lost article. • Some of the curses were written backwards to create mystery. • In Aquea Sulis over one hundred thirty curse tablets have been found.

8. Routine At The Baths • Unctuarium- the place where oil is rubbed into the person’s skin and they prepare to exercise. • Palaestra- the person goes out to the exercising grounds (palaestra) to workout. • Tepidarium- this is the warm room where the people comes to lay around and socialize with friends. • Caldarium- this is the hot, steam bath. It is similar to the Turkish bath. As the person perspired their body was scrapped with a curved metal tool called a strigil. During this time attendants served food and drinks to the people. • Frigidarium- this was the cold bath were all the dirt and oil was washed completely off. • Massage- after the bathing was finished the people would have oil and perfume rubbed into their skin. Strigil!

9. Baths! Now Then

10. Baths In Latin Literature! • Plautus told of the problems with thieves at the roman baths in his literature. • Apuleius thought of bath thievery as “the basic form of larceny”. • Catullus, Seveca, and Petronius have also referred to thieves that come to the baths.

11. Works Cited • Context: • http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/bath.html • http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/staff/darlenebishop/rome/romanbaths.html • http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/rome/a/aa040800a.htm • Pictures: • http://2.about.com/d/ancienthistory/1/0/w/0/Diocletianbaths2.jpg • http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/images/Webimages/bathMap.gif • http://www.tt-group.co.uk/content/Files/images/legacy/R-BATH.jpg • www.globusjourneys.com/Common/Images/Destinatios/ancient-roman-baths.jpg