Bathing In Ancient Rome
Hey, can you imagine a time when taking a bath was a socialevent like going to the movies is for us today? Or how about taking a bath witha group of your friends? Sounds pretty strange, doesn't it? Well if you livedin Ancient Roman times, this type of bathing would be a reality for you!
In order to really understand what theAncient Roman baths were like, let's compare them with some of the bathinghabits we perform today.
| The Ancient Romans | Contemporary America |
| Took baths in a building outside their home, specificallyset up for the purpose of bathing (and some other activities). | Take baths in our shower or tub, located inside our own homes |
| The bathing ritual could go on for hours and would bedone at approximately the same time each day. | Take our baths whenever we have a chance (or for some of you,whenever your mother says so) and they only last about 15 minutes each. |
| Went through an elaborate process before getting into thebath (changed in a dressing room and then preceded to go through a series ofother rooms) | Just hop in the shower whenever we're ready to go! |
In the Roman bath houses, menand women did not bath together. It was considered to be in poor taste so, eachhad their own designated time at the bath house. For instance, woman may havebeen allowed in the bath houses in the morning while men came in in theafternoon. The later part of the afternoon was considered the best time forbathing so women got the short end of the stick on that deal. However, eventhough the men had the better time, the bath house fee for the women was twicewhat the men had to pay!
Once inside the bath house, the Romans would first go to a dressing roomwhere they would change out of their everyday clothing. Although it is notknown for sure what the Romans wore while bathing, it is believed that theyprobably wore a light covering called a subligaculum along with specialsandals that had very thick soles.
Next, the Romans would apply an oil to their body (or if you were rich, aslave would apply it for you) and begin their daily exercise. The exercisewould take place in the large courtyard in the center of the bath house calledthe palaestra. Exercises would include weight lifting, running, swimmingand ballplaying.
Once exercise wasfinished, the oil that had been put on the body would be scraped off with ametal instrument called a strigil. At this time, bathing wouldbegin. Throughout this process, they would walk through a series of rooms whichvaried drastically in temperature. These rooms included a tempidariumwhich was the warm room with heated floors and walls but without any water, thecaldarium which was the room for the hot bath and the frigidariumwhich was the cold bath room.
You may think that, after the baths, the Romans would head home. Actually,once they finished bathing, they would read in the library, buy food from avendor, walk through the gardens or watch a performance by an acrobat or ajuggler.
In order to heat these bath houses, theRomans used a hypocaust. This system lifted the floor of the groundusing pillars and leaving spaces in between the walls. This allowed the hot airto flow better through the rooms. The rooms that needed a lot of heat wereplaced close to the furnace.
The Roman baths were as much of a social event as thetheatre or the chariotraces and they thought nothing of this. It's funny to think that we'restudying bathing under the entertainment section of our class. What theRomans saw as entertainment, we see merely as an essential hygienic ritual.Maybe some day, hundreds of years from now, the things in which we do forentertainment will be done on a daily basis. Just think of those sixth graders,maybe for them, watching television will be necessary for their health andhygiene!
