two basins large enough to admit of swimming'; and was also furnished with a schola, not exclusively destined for the use of spectators, but was also occupied by the bathers, either for the purpose of wiping after the tepid bath, or to enjoy the temperate atmosphere after quitting the hot stove which adjoined it. The Caldarium or Sudatorium was circular, and surrounded by three steps entirely filled Pliny's Letters, lib. ii. epist. 17. 2 See Sir William Gell's Pompeiana, second series. with narrow niches, each containing a seat. The roof was made in form of an elongated cone, having an opening at the top, through which the steam arising from the hot water used in the Sudatorium escaped'. The Laconicum, or circular stove for heating this room, and the Sudatorium, are sometimes confounded together, but are easily to be distinguished by attending to the passage in Vitruvius, at the end of the chapter here quoted. The Laconicum merely regulated the heat of the Sudatorium3, a destination further proved 1 Vitruvius, lib. vi. cap. 10, says, "The air is admitted through an aperture in the centre of the roof, whence a brazen shield is suspended by chains. The temperature of the sudatory is regulated by elevating or lowering the shield." There is a circular sudatorium at Pompeii,-see Mazois' Ruines de Pompeii, tom. ii.; and a painting found in the baths of Titus exhibits the circular form of the sudatory. 2 "Here should be placed the vaulted sudatorium twice the length of its width, which should have at each extremity, on one end the laconicum, on the other end the hot bath." 3 The use of the dry bath is said to have been prevalent amongst the Lacedæmonians, and the term is derived from Laconia, the country inhabited by that people.-Wilkins. by paintings found in the Thermæ of Titus, on which the denomination of each object is inscribed. Perfumes used after the bath, were deposited in the Elæotherium or Unctorium, and were contained in small alabaster vases, filled with scented oils, which in fact formed the basis of all perfume'. The finest and most fragrant ointment was brought from Syria, and was called Nardum. It was not only used after bathing, but sometimes at public entertainments, a practice to which Horace alludes The oils of which the Romans made use after bathing, were more pure and valuable than those used before exercise; and the people were so extremely fond of these ointments, that the most popular gift any man could bestow, was a present of oil to the public baths. Stobæus, an ancient Greek author, relates that the servants of Archimedes were obliged, at bathing time, to take him by force from his library table, where he studied mathematical figures with such fixed attention, that he continued drawing diagrams with his fingers on his anointed body, while his servants were pouring ointments upon him, and preparing him for the bath.-Lord Orrery's Essay on the Life of Pliny. in the ode to Quintius, 11th of his second book: While Assyrian essence sheds Liquid fragrance on our heads, While we lie with roses crown'd, Let the cheerful bowl go round.-Francis. 1 The furnaces for heating the baths stood in the Hypocaustum, a place of some extent; and being surmounted by several large vessels of I With this particular sort of ointment,-called also unguentum spicatum, from the pointed leaves of the aromatic plant of which it was made,-Jesus Christ was anointed, in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat. St. Mark, chap. xiv. verse 5. It had been kept in a box of alabaster; which accords with Horace's invitation to Virgil ; Virgil, 'tis thine with noble youths to feast, Yet since the thirsty season calls for wine, Big with large hopes shall flow th' inspiring juice, I bronze, by that means served to impart the requisite degree of heat to the water. The first vessel most distant from the furnace received the water from a general reservoir, and conveyed it either to the hot or cold baths, to modify the degree of temperature the bathers might require. The second, which only received a part of the heat of the furnace, supplied the Tepidarium. The third vessel stood immediately over the fire, and emptied itself into the adjoining Caldarium. Heated steam was circulated, by means of tubes concealed under the pavement and all round the room in the thickness of the wall, till it found a vent in the Laconicum'. The Romans had also their separate winter baths, divided, like the others, into hot and tepid, cold ones not being at that season required. All the adjoining corridors and dependent rooms were then properly warmed See the baths in the suburban villa of Pompeii, of which views will be found in Mazois' Ruines de Pompeii, vol. ii. |