thermae, complex of rooms designed for public bathing, relaxation, and social activity that was developed to a high degree of sophistication by the ancient Romans. Although public baths are known to have existed in early Egyptian palaces, remains are too fragmentary to permit complete analysis of Egyptian types. Bathing occupied an important place in the life of the Greeks, as indicated by the remains of bathing rooms in the palace of Knossos (begun c. 1700 bc). The standardized architectural type of the thermae, however, was not developed until the Romans designed the great imperial thermae—Baths of Titus (ad 81), Baths of Domitian (95), Trajan’s Baths (c. 100), Baths of Caracalla (217), and the Thermae of Diocletian (c. 302).
The general scheme consisted of a large open garden surrounded by subsidiary club rooms and a block of bath chambers either in the centre of the garden, as in the Baths of Caracalla, or at its rear, as in the Baths of Titus. The main block contained three large bath chambers—the frigidarium, calidarium (caldarium), and tepidarium—smaller bathrooms, and courts. Service was furnished by means of underground passageways, through which slaves could move swiftly without being seen. For lighting and for the roofing of the enormous rooms, the Romans developed an ingenious system of clerestory windows (windows in or near the roof or vault).
Modern discoveries of ancient sculpture in the Roman baths, such as the Laocoon group from the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, indicate the richness of the furnishings. Floors were marble or mosaic; walls were apparently sheathed with marble to a considerable height and decorated above with stucco reliefs and mosaic. Gilt bronze was used freely for doors, capitals (the crowning member of a classical column), and window screens. This type of imperial bathing establishment was repeated in its essential form, but on a smaller scale, throughout the Roman Empire.
Although there is disagreement among scholars about the exact order of bathing activities, the Roman technique of bathing is thought to have followed a somewhat standardized pattern. The bather probably first entered the apodyterium, where he undressed. He was then anointed with oil in the elaeothesium, or unctuarium, before entering a room or court, where he indulged in rigourous exercise. After this activity, he proceeded to the calidarium (hot room) and to the sudatorium, or laconicum (steam room), where his body was probably scraped of its accumulation of oil and perspiration with a curved metal implement called a strigil. The bather then moved to the tepidarium (warm room) and afterward to the frigidarium (cold room), where there was frequently a swimming pool. The bathing process was completed after the body was once more anointed with oil.
Roman baths varied in size from those in the larger, private houses to the great public thermae. The essential features present in all types of thermae were an adequate system of furnishing hot, tepid, and cold water; the heating of the hot portions of the bath, and sometimes also the tepidarium, by the circulation of smoke and heated air from a fire under the floor through the hollow walls (see also hypocaust); and adequate basins for warm and cold water in the hot bath.
As a rule, men and women bathed separately. Mixed bathing is first recorded in the 1st century ad, by the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder. The practice, which seems to have been largely restricted to courtesans, was condemned by respectable citizens and prohibited by the emperors Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius.