Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Laconicum

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

LACO'NICUM (πυριατήριον). The semicircular end of the thermal chamber (caldarium) in a set of baths, so termed because it originated with the Lacedaemonians. (Mart. vi. 43. 16.) One end of the caldarium contained a bath of warm water (alveus), and the other the Laconicum, consisting of a semicircular alcove, heated by a furnace and flues (hypocausis) under its floor and percolating its walls, which were made hollow for the purpose. In the centre was placed a flat vase (labrum), containing water for the bather to sprinkle over himself as he scraped off the perspiration engendered by the high temperature at which the place was kept; and immediately over it was a circular opening (lumen), which could be closed or opened by means of a metal disk (clipeus), accordingly as it was required to raise or lower the degree of heat. (Vitruv. vii. 10. v. 10.) The illustration (Laconicum/1.1) represents the Laconicum in the baths at Pompeii, with its labrum in the centre, and the circular aperture over it, which was closed by a metal disk, suspended by chains, for which the fastenings were discovered affixed to the walls. The three square windows above were made air-tight by being closed with glass or lapis specularis. The manner in which the apparatus of the clipeus acted is explained at p. 179; and a different explanation, which some scholars wish to attach to the word Laconicum, will be found at p. 180. The relative situation which the Laconicum, as here interpreted, occupied with respect to the other apartments, and its own position in the thermal chamber, may be seen on the ground-plan, p. 74. letters D. i.

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  Laconicum/1.1