Buburban Baths This privately owned facility (1st cent. BC – 1st cent. AD) is built on an artificial terrace facing the sea, just outside the walls: eminent due to its scenic position, it was repeatedly pillaged over the centuries. On the ground floor are the sumptuously decorated bathing rooms, including the warm indoor pool, and...Read More

Central Baths (IX,4,5-18) The economic-social axis of Pompeii moves towards Via di Stabia: thus it is in this area that a new bath complex was designed, which replaced an entire block of the 9th region and which, begun after 62 AD, was never completed. Note that no separate sections are provided for men and women....Read More

Forum Baths (VII,5,24) These were built after 80 BC, following the same layout as the larger Stabian Baths: on either side of the furnaces are the men’s and women’s sections, according to the sequence apodyterium (dressing room), frigidarium (cold bathing room), tepidarium (warm room), caldarium (hot room). The porticoed palaestra could be entered from Via...Read More

Stabian Baths (VII,2) This is the city’s most ancient bath building (2nd cent. BC), built over a previous facility (4th-3rd century BC) and later restored. East of the porticoed central palaestra are the bathing rooms, divided into women’s and men’s sections: frigidarium (with pool for cold bath), apodyterium (dressing room), tepidarium (warm room), caldarium (hot...Read More

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...Read More