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BALNEAE.

are the best preserved amongst those remaining, and which were perhaps more splendid than all the rest. Those apartments, of which the use is ascertained with the appearance of probability, are alone marked and explained. The dark parts represent the remains still visible, the open lines are restorations.

A, Portico fronting the street made by Caracalla when he constructed his thermae. — B, Separate bathing-rooms, either for the use of the common people, or perhaps for any persons who did not wish to bathe in public. — C, Apodyteria attached to them.—D, D, and E, E, the porticoes. (Vitruv. v. 11.)-—F, F, Exedrae, in which there were seats for the philosophers to hold their conversations. (Vitruv. I. c. ; Cic. De Orat. ii. 5.)— G, Hypae-thrae, passages open to the air — Hypaethrae am-bulationes quas Graeci irepiSpo/juSas, nostri xystos appellant. (Vitruv. /. c.) — H, H, Stadia in the palaestra — quadrata sive oUonga. (Vitruv. I. c.} •— I, I, Possibly schools or academies where public lectures were delivered. —J, J, and K, K, Rooms appropriated to the servants of the baths (balnea-tores). In the latter are staircases for ascending to the principal reservoir. — L, Space occupied by walks and shrubberies — ambulationes inter pla-tanones. (Vitruv. 1. c.)—M, The arena or stadium in which the youth performed their exercises, with seats for the spectators (Vitruv. L c.), called the theatridium.—N, N, Reservoirs, with upper stories, sectional elevations of which are given in the two subsequent woodcuts. — 0, Aqueduct which sup­plied the baths. — P, The cistern or piscina. This external range of buildings occupies one mile in circuit.

We now come to the arrangement of the interior, for which it is very difficult to assign satisfactory destinations. — Q, represents the principal entrances, of which there were eight. — R, the natatio, piscina^ or cold-water bath, to which the direct entrance from the portico is by a vestibule on either side marked S, and which is surrounded by a set of chambers which served most probably as rooms for undressing (apodyieria}, anointing (unctuaria), and stations for the capsarii. Those nearest to the peristyle were perhaps the conisteria, where the powder was kept which the wrestlers used in order to obtain a firmer grasp upon their adversaries: —

" Ille cavis hausto spargit me pulvere palmis, Inque vieem fulvae tactu flavescit arenae."

(Ovid, Met. ix. 35.)

(See also Salmas. Ad Tertull. Pall. p. 23 7, and Mercurialis, De Art. Gymn. i. 8.) The inferior quality of the ornaments which these apartments have had, and the staircases in two of them, afford evidence that they were occupied by menials^ T, is considered to be the tepidarium, with four warm baths (u, u, u, u) taken out of its four angles, and two labra on its two flanks* There are steps for descending into the baths, in one of which traces of the conduit aie still manifest. Thus it would appear that the centre part of this apartment served as a tepidarium, having a balneum or calda lavatio in four of its corners. The centre part, like that also of the preceding apartment, is supported "by eight immense columns.

The apartments beyond this, which are too much dilapidated to be restored with any degree of cer­tainty, contained of course the laconicum and sudatories, for which the round chamber W, and

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BALNEAE.

its appurtenances seem to be adapted, and which are also contiguous to the reservoirs, Z, Z. (Vitruv. v. 11.)

e, e, probably comprised the epMria, or places where the youth were taught their exercises, with the appurtenances belonging to them, such as the sphaeristerium and corycaeum. The first of these takes its name from the game at ball, so much in favour with the Romans, at which Martial’s friend was playing when the bell sounded to announce that the water was ready. (Mart. xiv. 163.) The latter is derived from KtibpvKos, a sack (Hesych. s. v, which was filled with bran and olive husks for the young, and sand for the more robust, and then suspended at a certain height, and swung backwards and forwards by the players. (Aulis, De Gymn. Const, p. 9; Antill. ap. Oribas. Coil. Mcd. 6.)

The chambers, also on the other side, which are not marked, probably served for the exercises of the palaestra in bad weather. (Vitruv. v. 11.)

These baths contained an upper story, of which nothing remains beyond what is just sufficient to indicate the fact. They have been mentioned and eulogized by several of the Latin authors. (Spar-tian. Caracall. c. 9 ; Lamprid. Heliogab. c. 17, Alex. Sever, c. 25 ; Eutropius, viii. ] 1 ; Olymp. apud Phot. p. 114, ed. Aug. Vindel. 1601.)

It will be observed that there is no part of the bathing department separated from the rest, which could be assigned for the use of the women ex­clusively. From this it must be inferred either that both sexes always bathed together promiscu­ously in the thermae, or that the women were excluded altogether from these establishments, and only admitted to the balneae.

It remains to explain the manner in which the immense body of water required for the supply of a set of baths in the thermae was heated, which has been performed very satisfactorily by Piranesi and Cameron, as may be seen by a reference to the two subjoined sections of the castellum aquaeduclus aim piscina belonging to the Thermae of Caracalla.

A, Arches of the aquaeduct which conveyed the water into the piscina B, from whence it flowed into the upper range of cells through the aperture at C, and thence again descended into

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