The Baths

Question 1

Why visit the baths?

Answer 1

• To do business.
• To clean yourself.
• To socialise.
• To exercise.

Question 2

Roman Baths rooms

Answer 2

(1) Apodyterium- Changing Rooms
(2) Tepidarium- Warm room with a small bathing pool
(3) Caldarium- Hot room.
(4) Frigidarium- Cold room.
(4.5) Laconicum/ Sudatoria- Sauna
Palaestra- Exercise fields.
Natatio- Swimming Pool

Question 3

Palaestra

Answer 3

Before entering the baths, everyone would do some light, non-competitive exercise in the Palaestra.
This was done to maintain health, and to work up a light sweat which was recommended for before a person took their baths.
Men’s exercise used to consist of running, wrestling, boxing, ball games or fencing.
Women’s exercise was usually different. People considered activities such as swimming or Trochus (a game that consisted of rolling a metal hoop with a hooked stick) to be more suitable for women.

Question 4

Cleaning

Answer 4

Romans cleaned at the baths as well. After visiting the baths, they would be massaged with perfumed or olive oil.
This would then be scraped off, sometimes by a professional masseuse with a Strigil, which was a curved scraping tool.

Question 5

The Hypocaust System

Answer 5

First, a fire was lit in the furnace.
Then, the raised floor suspended by piles of tiles creates a duct like space for heat to travel through.
Heat from the fire in the furnace was then transferred to the floors by outside air entering the furnace and traveling underneath and throughout the building.