Book 1 — NOTES TO BOOK I.

In the baths there were five apartments—One, called Tepidarium, was a room close all round, and rendered tepid by dry vapours from a fire. Persons staid here so long as to rarify their humours, that they might not go unprepared into the hotter rooms. The Calidarium, or Laconicum, was in all things similar to the foregoing, only the heat was greater. Some affirm, that in both these apartments there were vessels of water, of the same temperature with their air. Next followed the Solium, where was the hot bath. People sat here, sometimes, without going into the bath, and had water poured over them, as Celsus in several places prescribes. The Baptisterium, or Piscina, was the receptacle for cold water, for bathing and swimming in. There was also an apartment called Frigidarium, concerning which there is a dispute, whether it contained water or not; Mercurialis says, ‘Some have imagined there was water here for those who were fond of swimming; but there is no mention of water in authors.’—He adds, ‘that it was contrived for those that came immediately from the Tepidarium and Calidarium, and wanted to enjoy a cool air.’ Pliny[ IH ] the younger mentions a Frigidarium in a bath at his villa, where there was water for swimming in; but this may have been a new mode, and not known in Celsus’s time. Whether this apartment contained water or not, I shall not determine; but it would appear from authors, that either the air or water here was of a mild temperature, not quite cold, nor yet so warm as the Tepidarium. To[ II ] these several parts were subservient; the Aquarium, in which a large reservoir was built for holding water brought from the aqueducts and elsewhere.—The Vasarium, where the necessary vessels were placed, and where the water was heated; this stood above the Hypocaustum, or stove.

Seneca[ IJ ] has shown us of how great importance the Romans esteemed the baths in the time of the republic, when he observes, ‘What pleasure there would be in going into the baths, which a person knew to be tempered by the hand of Cato in his edileship, or Fabius Maximus, or one of the Cornelii—for, says he, this function the most noble ediles performed, of inspecting those places frequented by the people, and requiring cleanliness and a convenient and salutary temperature; not such as has been lately brought into use, in which the heat is so violent, that one would imagine a slave convicted of some crime were condemned to that punishment.’

These several parts of the baths were variously used, according to the case of the person, and the intention pursued. Where no epithet is added to the bath in the text, it will appear from the connection, generally, that the hot bath is to be understood. For any further particulars relating to the baths, see Mercurial. de Art. Gymnast. lib. i. c. 10.

Pliny tells us, That the properties of this wine were first accidentally discovered by a servant stealing some wine, and filling up the vessel with sea-water[ IO ].