The baths were considered a necessary part of Roman life. Each city or town had at least one public bath house. Pompeii had three and by the 4th century, Rome had close to 1,000 baths! It was almost like a health club where people could relax and enjoy a massage or perhaps to lift weights. Other people came to actually clean themselves using the three stages. In the first stage, you left your clothes in a locker or on a shelf, just like today. Then you entered the frigidarium, an unheated room and most likely took a dip in the cold pool. In the second stage, the Romans were slowly getting used to the heat by entering the tepidarium, this room was warmly heated. Last, they would enter the caldarium, a steam room, where there was a hot pool to bathe in and open your pores. To clean yourself, you or your slave or the baths slave attendant would rub olive oil over your body then scrape of the dirt with a curved tool called a strigilis. After this process, you could go backwards through the stages to close your pores in the first room or socialize with friends as well as get a snack or play a dice game. Some wealthy Romans could afford to install their own bath, especially at their expensive villas in the country.To get into the bath house, adults paid a cheap price, while children were free. Nowadays, children aren't really present in health clubs and we don't take public baths. The picture above is of the Great Roman Bath.
Works Cited:
Information was found in the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome.
Corbishley, Mike. "Baths." The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2004. 22-23. Print.
Roman Baths Picture:
Digital Image. Bath 360. Web. 21 Oct. 2009. http://www.bath360.co.uk/history-of-bath.html
Beverley
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