Talk:Thermae

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[edit] references!!!

the information from this page is copied verbatim from http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/baths.html. This should either be changed or cited!

Luke 07:11, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Incorrect word

My Latin textbook (Oxford Latin Course, Part II; ISBN 0-19-531205-3) says the word for Roman bathes is "balnea, balneorum, n. pl." (Nominative, genitive, gender, number). Thermae is not mentioned at all. I suggest we change this page's title to Roman Baths (or some variation of that), and mention that in Latin they are known as balnea or thermae. Micaelus 02:55, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Incorporation?

Is it necessary to have brief, separate articles for all the rooms of the baths? I think they're short enough to be included in the main article.

==The folowing text, some of it good, was at Roman Baths (Wetman 16:16, 2 April 2007 (UTC)):

Roman Bath Houses were anything from a simple room to bathe in all the way up to a huge somewhat gymnasium looking building with large pools for bathing and leisure purposes. These were the places to be seen in Roman Society. At the beginning of the Roman Empire, bathing was a once a week exercise. However, bathing was considered unhealthy up to the late 19th century when twice a year was considered just fine. Why then was the Roman landscape covered with bath houses both private and public. The first bath houses were created in the empire around the second century and only males could be patrons. There was a small fee for entry however the services far outweighed the cost.

These bath houses are like our modern day country clubs, however they offered so much more depending on the area. The bathing process was highly detailed and was no simple idea. Almost all bathing facilities had at least a frigidarium which was a cool bath that was followed by the tepidarium which was a warm bath and then last but not least the caldarium which is similar to our modern day hot tubs. The facilities also included areas for exercise and then a typical swimming pool among other amenities such as a olive oil bath and a sauna. In the larger bath houses it was not uncommon to find in addition to the normal amenities that there would libraries, eating establishments that ranged from sit down restaurants to stores to grab a snack. A few even had their own museum and theatre.

These complexes were built with marble and were very plush with no comparison to the YMCA or the local yacht and country club. Men and women would never bathe together however with more and more bath houses being built women were allowed inside and they were taken care of just as much as the men. In some insistences the men would bathe in wine and the women would bathe in milk. The pools were heated by use of a Hypocaust which was a network of furnaces, lead water pipes and air ducts that would heat the water if a hot water spring was not near by. Slaves would watch over the furnaces and would put logs in to heat the pools up more if necessary.

Sources-

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/roman_baths.htm http://www.iol.ie/~coolmine/typ/romans/romans1.html http://latter-rain.com/background/bath.htm http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/baths.html http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/baths/history/page02.htm http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/baths/history/hypocaust.htm