Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Thermae

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. 

THER'MAE (θέρμαι). Literally, hot springs; thence, a bath of hot water, whether warmed by natural or artificial heat. From this, the name was subsequently transferred to the building which contained a set of baths, including cold as well as hot, and vapour as well as water baths; such, for instance, as those bequeathed by Agrippa to the Roman people, of which the noble edifice, now called the Pantheon, at Rome formed one of the apartments. (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 19. § 6. Id. xxxv. 9. Id. xxxvi. 64.) In this general sense, the name is consequently nothing more than a new term for BALINEAE; under which the ancient method of constructing and arranging a bathing establishment is explained and illustrated.

2. But after the age of Augustus, when the Romans had turned their attention to the arts of peace, and laid out some portion of the tributary wealth collected from their extensive dominions in the embellishment of their capitol, the name THERMAE was appropriated more particularly to those magnificent establishments modelled after the plan of a Greek Gymnasium, but constructed upon a still more sumptuous and extensive scale, which, in addition to conveniences for all kinds of bathing, hot and cold, contained rooms for intellectual conversation, and philosophical discussions, libraries, picture-galleries, apartments for games and exercises, open and shaded walks, covered corridors, and porticos for running, leaping, racing, and other gymnastics, as well as every appurtenance which could conduce to the intellectual or physical enjoyment of a wealthy and luxurious population. Suet. Cal. 37. Nero, 12. Mart. v. 44. vii. 32. iii. 20. 25. vii. 34. ix. 76. xii. 83. Capitol. Gord. 32. Eutrop. vii. 9., in seven of which passages Thermae are opposed to Balnea. Very extensive remains, which formerly belonged to three public buildings of this description, are still to be seen in Rome; the thermae of Titus on the Esquiline (Suet. Tit. 7.), in which the well-known statue of Laocoon was found; the thermae of Caracalla, or Antonianae, on the Aventine (Spart. Caracall. 9. Eutrop. viii. 11.), in which were found the statues of the Farnese Hercules, the Flora Farnese, and the Group of Dirce, tied by Zethus and Amphion to a wild bull, all preserved in the Bourbon Museum at Naples; and the thermae of Diocletian, covering parts of both the Viminal and Quirinal, a single room of which was converted by Michel Angelo into a church, Santa Maria degli Angeli, the largest, after St. Peter's in Rome. The annexed illustration (Thermae/2.1) shows the ground-plan of the thermae of Caracalla, from a survey made by the Italian architect Pardini, with a few slight alterations in the restored portions, adopted in conformity with the gymnasium at Ephesus, of which a plan is inserted p. 324., and which, by comparison with the present one, will testify the general uniformity of principle existing in the distribution and design of these two classes of buildings. The dark parts exhibit the actual remains; the light ones are restorations, but sufficiently authorised by corresponding portions still existing, as will readily appear upon an accurate inspection of the opposite sides. The names and uses assigned to each apartment, or division of the edifice, must be understood as being to a certain extent uncertain and conjectural, excepting where the traces left in the ruins are sufficient to demonstrate of themselves the original intention; but still, by affixing names to them, the object will be served of conveying to the reader, in a concise form, a clear and distinct notion of the magnificence of these edifices, and of the number, variety, and general disposition of the dependencies contained in them; for the thermae of Diocletian, though built upon a still larger scale, are laid out upon a plan exactly similar in all their essential parts.

AA. A colonnade fronting the street, annexed to the original building by Heliogabalus in part, and completed by Alexander Severus. (Lamprid. Heliog. 17. Id. Alex. Sev. 25.) The range of small apartments behind this colonnade are supposed to have been separate bathing-rooms, with an undressing-room (apodyterium) attached to each for the use of persons who did not wish to bathe in public. B. The entrance. CCC. Three single corridors round the central pile of buildings, with a double one DD on the south-west, restored in conformity with the gymnasium at Ephesus: although no traces of these are left, there would clearly be a vacant space on the ground-plan without them, which requires to be filled up. EE. exedrae, for philosophers and literary characters to sit and converse in, constructed with a semicircular absis, remaining on the left side, round which the seats were ranged. FF. Corridors, like the Greek xysti, in front of the exercising-grounds, and having a separate apartment at each end, which probably served for some of the games or exercises adopted from the Greeks. GGGG. Open walks (hypaethrae ambulationes), planted with trees and shrubs, and laid out with vacant spots between, for active exercises. H. The stadium, with seats round, for spectators to view the racing and other exercises performed in it; hence also termed theatridium. The works at the back of this contain the water-tanks, and furnaces below them, which heated the water for the baths to a certain temperature, before it was conveyed by pipes into the coppers immediately adjoining the bath-rooms; with I, the general reservoir (castellum), and J, a portion of the aqueduct which supplied it. For the other apartments at this extremity of the structure, KK, LL, MM, no special use can be authoritatively assigned, beyond the inference drawn from their locality near the exercising-grounds, that they were probably intended for some purpose connected with bodily activity. The central pile of building contained the bathing-apartments, some of which still retain sufficient traces for their uses to be attributed with confidence. N. Natatio, a large swimming-bath, flanked by a suite of rooms on each side, which served as undressing-rooms (apodyteria), and chambers for the slaves (capsarii), who took charge of the clothes while their owners were bathing: the inferiority of fittings and decoration in these rooms indicate that they were intended for menials. O. The caldarium, with four baths (1, 2, 3, 4) for warm water (alvei) in each of its angles, and a labrum (5, 6) on each flank. The steps still remain which conducted into the baths, and part of a pipe through which the water was introduced into one of them; the roof over the central part, as well as that of the preceding one (N), was supported upon eight immense columns. The apartments further on beyond these, which are too much dilapidated to be restored with any degree of certainty, contained the laconicum, or vapour-bath, for which the circular room (P) has every appearance of having served. QQ are ascertained, from remaining vestiges, to have been cisterns for water near the bath-rooms, and filled from the tanks at the further end of the edifice. The two spacious apartments RR, within the lateral corridors on each flank, were covered rooms for exercise in bad weather; and seem well adapted for the game of ball (sphaeristeria), to which the Romans were much addicted. The remaining ones on the further side, under the double portico, SS, were two cold plunging baths (baptisteria), with an oiling-room (elaeothesium, TT), and a cold chamber (frigidarium, UU) on each side. The whole exterior occupies one mile in circuit; and the central pile had an upper story, traces of which remain, where the libraries and picture-galleries were probably situated.

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  Thermae/2.1