Hot or Not? Bathing Culture in Ancient Rome
Welcome back to our series diving into the history of bathhouses. Today, we take a look at Roman baths. A daily ritual for both cleanliness and socializing, Romans of all classes and social spheres gathered at the bathhouse. They were fun places to hang out.
These large bath complexes, referred to as thermae, included outdoor exercise areas, food stands, services, and baths of varying temperatures.
Bathhouses were known to be very crowded and loud as they were often bustling social space. Seneca, a philosopher who lived in an apartment above a public bath, described Bathhouses as an “assortment of sounds which are enough to make me hate my very powers of hearing.”
Similar to bars or restaurants today, baths could be trendy or lame. Certain baths would go in or out of style, and it was common smalltalk to ask a stranger which baths they used.
If we were to make up a circuit for a Roman bath, it would go something like this:
Get out of street clothes in a room called the apodyterium (a modern-day locker room).
Visit the palaestra (an open gym).
Head to the frigidarium (a bath chamber containing a cold pool) for a cold plunge.
Warm your body temperature back up slowly in the tepidarium, or a warm room.
End with the caldarium, a hot and steamy room that also contained a hot pool.
Not much has changed in the way we use a bathhouse. In fact, we think social-self care may be as important today as it ever was.