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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 del Foro or the changing room of the men’s section. The tepidarium was not heated using modern means, but by a large bronze brazier donated by M. Nigidio Vaccula. Telamons separate the niches to hold unguents and bath items; stuccoes in relief (from the later restoration in 62 AD) decorated the vault with geometric partitions and mythological figures. Public baths were inexpensive and heavily used: bath time was apparently in the early afternoon.