Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

186 BALNEAE. BALNEAE.
describes the public baths as obscuia et gregali zixta), from being opened in Rome. (Lamprid.
teclorio inducta, and as so simple in their arrange- Alex. Sev. c. 42.)
ments that the aedile judged of the proper tern- When the public baths (balneae) were first inperature by his hands. These were baths of warm stituted, they were only for the lower orders, who
wa.ter; but the practice of heating an apartment alone bathed in public; the people of wealth, as
with warm air by flues placed immediately under well as those who formed the equestrian and senait, so as to produce a vapour bath, is stated by Va- torian orders, used private baths in their own
lerius Maximus (ix. 1. ~ 1) and by Pliny (H. N. ix. houses. But as early even as the time of Julius
54. s. 79) to have been invented by Sergius Orata, Caesar we find no less a personage than the mother
who lived in the age of L. Crassus, the orator, of Augustus making use of the public establishbefore the Marsic war. The expression used by ments (Suet. Aug. 94); and in process of time
Valerius Maximus is balnea pensilia, and by Pliny even the emperors themselves bathed in public
balineas pensiles, which is differently explained by with the meanest of the people. (Spart. IHadr.
different commentators; but a single glance at the c. 17; Trebell. Pollio, De Gallien. duob. c. 17.)
plans inserted below will be sufficient in order to The baths were opened at sunrise, and closed
comprehend the manner in which the flooring of at sunset; but in the time of Alexander Severus,
the chambers was suspended over the hollow cells it would appear that they were kept open nearly
of the hypocaust, called by Vitruvius suspensura all night. (Lamp. Alex. Sev. 1. c.) The allusion
caldarioriem (v. 11), so as to leave no doubt as to in Juvenal (balnea nocte subit, Sat. vi. 419) prothe precise meaning of the invention, which is more bably refers to private baths.
fully exemplified in the following passage of Au- The price of a bath was a quadrans, the smallest
sonius (lIosell. 337):- piece of coined money, from the age of Cicero
downw-ards (Cic. Pro Cael. 26; Hor. Sat. i. 3. 137;
"Quid (memorem) quae sulphurea substructa cre-downwards (Cic.P Ce-. 26; Her.Sat. i. 3. 137;
Quidn (memorem) uae fsuphurea substructa cre- Juv. Sat. vi. 447), which was paid to the keeper
pidine fumant of the bath (bazneator); and hence it is termed by
Balnea, ferventi cum Mulciber haustus operto, Cicero, in the oration just cited, quadrantaria perVolvit anhelatas tectoria, per cava, fiamm~as, mutatio, and by Seneca (Ep. 86) res quadrantaria.
Inclusum g~lomerans aestu exspirante vaporem?" Children below a certain age were admitted free.
By the time of Cicero, the use of baths, both (Juv. Sat. ii. 152.)
public and private, of warm water and hot air, had Strangers, also, and foreigners were admitted to
become general (Epist. ad Q. Frat. iii. 1); and we some of the baths, if not to all, without payment,
learn from one of his orations that there were as we learn from an inscription found at Rome,
already baths (balneas Senias) at Rome, which and quoted by Pitiscus. (Lex Antiq.)
were open to the public upon payment of a small L. OCTAVIO. L. F. CAM.
sum (Pro Cael. 25, 26). RUFO. TRIB. MIL........
In the earlier ages of Roman history a much QUI LAVATIONEM GRATUITAM MUNICIPIBUS,
greater delicacy was observed with respect to bath- INCOLIS
ing, even amongst the men, than was usual among HOSPITIBUS ET ADVENTORIBUS.
the Greeks; for according to Valerius Maximus The baths were closed when any misfortune
(ii. 1. ~ 7) it was deemed indecent for a father to happened to the republic (Fabr. Descr. Urb. Rom.
bathe in company with his own son after he had c. 18); and Suetonius says that the Emperor Caligula
attained the age of puberty, or a son-in-law with made it a capital offence to indulge in the luxury
his father-in-law. (Comp. Cic. De Off. i. 35, De of bathing uponany religious holiday. (lb.) They
Orat. ii. 55.) But virtue passed away as wealth were originally placed under the superintendence
increased; and when the thermae came into use, of the aediles, whose business it was to keep them
not only did the men bathe together in numbers, in repair, and to see that they were kept clean and
but even men and women stripped and bathed of a proper temperature. (lb.; Sen. Ep. 86.) In the
promiscuously in the same bath. It is true, how- provinces the same duty seems to have devolved
ever, that the public establishments often con- upon the quaestor, as may be inferred from the
tained separate baths for both sexes adjoining to passage already quoted from Aulus Gellius (x. 3).
each other (Vitruv. v. 10; Varro, De Ling. Lat. ix. The time usually assigned by the Romans for
68), as will be seen to have been the case at the taking the bath was the eighth hour, or shortly
baths of Pompeii. Aulus Gellius (x. 3) relates a afterwards. (Mart. Ep. x. 48, xi. 52.) Before
story of a consul's wife who took a whim to bathe that time none but invalids were allowed to bathe
at Teanum (Teano), a small provincial town of in public. (Lamprid. Alex. Seo. 24.) Vitruvius
Campania in the men's baths (balneis virilibus); reckons the hours best adapted for bathing to be
probably, because in a small town, the female de- from mid-day until about sunset (v. 10). Pliny
partment, like that at Pompeii, was more confined took his bath at the ninth hour in summer, and at
and less convenient than that assigned to the men; the eighth in winter (Ep. iii. 1, 8); and Martial
and an order was consequently given to the Quaes- speaks of taking a bath when fatigued and weary, at
tor, M. Marius, to turn the men out. But whether thetenth hour, and even later. (Epig. iii. 36, x. 70.)
the men and women were allowed to use each When the water was ready, and the baths preother's chambers indiscriminately, or that some of pared, notice was given by the sound of a bellthe public establishments had only one common aes ternzmarum. (Mart. Ep. xiv. 163.) One of
set of baths for both, the custom prevailed under these bells, with the inscription FIRMI BALNEAthe Empire of men and women bathing indiscrimi- TORIS, was found in the thermae Diocletianne, in
nately together. (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 12. s. 54.) the year 1548, and came into the possession of the
This custom was forbidden by Hadrian (Spart. learned Fulvius Ursinus. (Append. ad Ciaccon.
Hadr. c. 1), and by M. Aurelius Antoninus (Capi- de Trielin.)
tolin. Anton. c. 23); and Alexander Severus pro- Whilst the bath was used for health merely or
hibited any baths, common to both sexes (balnea cleanliness, a single one was considered sufficient