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The baths
Not all Pompeians had running water in their homes. Thus using the thermal baths was a necessity as well as a custom that manifested a particular conception of free time. People went to the baths not only to take a bath, but also to meet friends, converse, and to seek political favor.
The bathing establishments offered hot baths, swimming pools, saunas, sports arenas and open spaces with porches around them, along with rooms for massages and personal care.
A modest entrance fee was charged. Children came in free, and there were various prices for the various services: custody of clothes and personal property, massages, the supply of perfumed oils.
Men and women usually had separate sections.
The baths opened at 1:30 p.m., even if women came there for the most part in the morning. They stayed open until late afternoon, and here in Pompeii a large number of lanterns has been found, for illuminating the baths at night.
After leaving their clothes in the apodytèrium, or dressing room, the Pompeians went into the swimming pool or the sports arena to work out.
At the end of their exercise session, they went back into the pool or to the hot bath chamber, called the calidarium, which was often next to the lacònicum, or Turkish bath. These rooms were heated by a current of hot air produced by furnaces and circulated under the raised floor and in the hollow spaces between the walls.
Next came a pause in the tepidàrium, a moderately heated room used as transition between the hot and cold baths, and then finally a dip in the cold water of the frigidàrium.
Bathers used towels made of linen or wool, and soda as soap. A strigile, or curved metal spatula, was used to scrape the perfumed oils and sand off their bodies, with which they were rubbed down after exercising.
The staff saw to the sanitary conditions of the bath, the proper respect of the opening and closing times, and the maintenance of the complex.
The bathing establishments offered hot baths, swimming pools, saunas, sports arenas and open spaces with porches around them, along with rooms for massages and personal care.
A modest entrance fee was charged. Children came in free, and there were various prices for the various services: custody of clothes and personal property, massages, the supply of perfumed oils.
Men and women usually had separate sections.
The baths opened at 1:30 p.m., even if women came there for the most part in the morning. They stayed open until late afternoon, and here in Pompeii a large number of lanterns has been found, for illuminating the baths at night.
After leaving their clothes in the apodytèrium, or dressing room, the Pompeians went into the swimming pool or the sports arena to work out.
At the end of their exercise session, they went back into the pool or to the hot bath chamber, called the calidarium, which was often next to the lacònicum, or Turkish bath. These rooms were heated by a current of hot air produced by furnaces and circulated under the raised floor and in the hollow spaces between the walls.
Next came a pause in the tepidàrium, a moderately heated room used as transition between the hot and cold baths, and then finally a dip in the cold water of the frigidàrium.
Bathers used towels made of linen or wool, and soda as soap. A strigile, or curved metal spatula, was used to scrape the perfumed oils and sand off their bodies, with which they were rubbed down after exercising.
The staff saw to the sanitary conditions of the bath, the proper respect of the opening and closing times, and the maintenance of the complex.
