a superior class were unprovided with bathing rooms situated in a remote part of the house, as found in the suburban villa discovered at Pompeii'.

Across the peristyle, a moderate-sized court had in its centre a Baptisterium, or basin for taking the cold bath; this was surrounded by a colonnade, the outer walls of which were embellished with paintings of fruit-trees and fishponds, and the floor was paved with mosaic.

Adjoining this court was the Apodyterium, or Spoliatorium, a room to contain the clothes; and near it also was the Frigidarium, a spacious hall containing a labrum for the advantage of cold bathing under cover when preferred. The Cella Frigidaria was so disposed that one part remained open, while the other contained a bath of semicircular form, termed

See Mazois' Ruines de Pompeii, tom. ii.

2 Pliny mentions that persons in general entered into the Apodyterium and consigned their garments to Caprarii, which were probably pegs so called from their likeness to goats' horns.

a Hemicycle, in the middle of which was placed the actual receptacle of the water, within a narrow enclosure protected by a low wall, or Pluteum.

The Hemicycle was ornamented with pilasters and niches containing statues: the surbase, of two steps, ran round this portion of the Cella, and was called the Schola, whence persons seated, without partaking of the bath, held philosophical discussions, or poets read their works aloud,-a circumstance mentioned by Horace':

Full many bards the public Forum choose Where to recite the labours of their muse; Or vaulted baths, that best preserve the sound, While sweetly floats the voice in echoes round. Between the Schola and the enclosure of the bath was an open space, termed Alveus, which afforded access to the bathing-place. From the description given by Vitruvius, this passage could scarcely be more than four feet wide, which in fact would give it the appearance

Lib. i. sat. 4.-Francis.

of a canal, whence it took its denomination Alveus; a disposition also indicated in paintings taken from the celebrated baths of Titus. To the bath, light was always admitted from above, so that the bathers cast no shadows'. It may also be mentioned, that ancient custom permitted the two sexes to bathe at the same time, until by an order of the Emperor Hadrian the practice was abolished'.

The Tepidarium, or warm bath, contained 1 Vitruvius, lib. vi. cap. 10.

2 Antonius Musa, physician to the Emperor Augustus, prescribed the use of the cold bath to his imperial master, and by that means effected the cure of disorders with which Augustus had been previously afflicted, which made Musa a great favourite both with the emperor and with the people. The exercise of cold bathing then became so prevailing a fashion, that men of consular dignity strove to outvie one another in shivering and trembling in the coldest water and in the coldest weather. Seneca valued himself upon the title of Psychroluta, and boasted that he was able to dance in cold water on the first day of January. It is clear he thought this regimen the best method to harden his constitution and to prolong his life. When he was to die, he chose the warm bath with bleeding as most proper to procure an easy dissolution and a happy euthanasia.

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.