Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Balineae

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

BALIN'EAE or BAL'NEAE. A set of public baths, including conveniences for warm and cold bathing, as well as sudorific or vapour baths, and provided with a double set of apartments for the male and the female sex. Varro, L. L. viii. 48. Id. ix. 64.

The system upon which the bathing establishments of the Romans were arranged, and the ingenious method of their construction, will be best understood by the annexed ground-plan (Balineae/1.1) and description of the double set of baths at Pompeii. Views and elevations of the various apartments in detail are given separately under each of their respective names. They had six distinct entranctes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, from the street; of which the three first were for visitors; 4 and 5 for the slaves and purposes connected with the business of the establishment; and the last gave access to the women's baths, which have no intercommunication with the larger set. To commence the circuit by the first door (1), at the bottom of the plan on the left hand.

a. Latrina, a privy.

b. An open court, surrounded by a colonnade on three of its sides, which formed a sort of Atrium to the rest of the edifice.

c. c. Stone seats along one side of the court for the slaves who were awaiting the return of their masters from the interior, or for the accommodation of the citizens, in like manner expecting the return of their friends.

d. A recessed chamber, either intended as a waiting-room for visitors; or probably appropriated to the use of the superintendant of the baths.

e. Another latrina, near the second principal entrance (2), from which a corridor, turning sharp to the right, leads into

A. The apodyterium, or undressing-room, which has a communication with each of the principal entrances, and with each of the apartments destined for the various purposes of hot and cold bathing.

ff. Seats of masonry on each side of the room, for the bathers to dress and undress upon.

B. The frigidarium, or chamber containing the cold-water bath (baptisterium).

g. A room for the use of the garde-robe, who took charge of the wearing apparel, kept for its owners while bathing.

C. The tepidarium, or tepid chamber; the atmosphere of which was kept at an agreeable warmth by means of a brazier, found in it. It was intended to break the sudden change of temperature from heat to cold, as the bather returned from the thermal chamber to the open air. This apartment served also in the present instance as a place for being scraped with the strigil, and anointed after bathing (see the illustration to ALIPTES); for the convenience of which it was furnished with two bronze seats found in the room, and the walls were likewise divided all round into small recesses, forming so many closets or lockers, which might contain the strigils, oils, unguents, and other necessaries for the use of those who did not bring their own with them. A door from this department conducted the bather into

D. The caldarium, or thermal chamber; which contains (h) a hot water bath (alveus) at one extremity, and the Laconicum, with its basin or labrum (i), at the other. The flooring of the room is hollow underneath, being suspended upon low brick pillars, and the walls are also fitted with flues, so that the whole apartment was surrounded by hot air, supplied from an adjoining furnace. See the illustration to SUSPENSURA and HYPOCAUSTUM.

l. The furnace, which, besides the use above mentioned, also heated the coppers containing the water for the baths; viz.

m. The caldarium, or copper for hot water; and

n. The tepidarium, or copper for tepid water.

o. The cold water cistern.

p. A room for the slaves who had charge of the furnace and its appendages, furnished with a separate entrance from the street (4), and two staircases, one of which led up to the roof, and the other down to the furnace.

q. A small passage, connecting the last-named apartment with

r. The yards, where all the things necessary for the service of this part of the establishment, such as wood, charcoal, &c., were kept. It has also its own separate entrance from the street (5), and the remains of two pillars, which originally supported a roof or a shed, are still visible.

The remaining portion of the plan is occupied by another set of baths, appropriated for females, which are more confined in point of space, but arranged upon a similar principle. They have but one entrance (6), which gives access to a small waiting-room (s), with seats for the same use and purposes as those marked c c in the larger set. E. The apodyterium, with seats on two of its sides (t t), and which, like the one first described, communicates with the frigidarium, or cold water bath (F), and with the tepidarium, or tepid chamber (G), through which the bather passes on, as he did in the preceding case, to the thermal chamber (H), provided in the same manner with its Laconicum and labrum (u) at one end, and its alveus, or hot water bath (w), on the side contiguous to the furnace and boilers, which are thus conveniently situated, so as to supply both sets of baths with hot air and warm water by a single apparatus. In these baths for the women, the tepidarium has a suspended floor and walls fitted with flues, which is not the case in the corresponding apartment of the larger set.

2. Vitruvius (vi. 5. 1.) used the same term to designate a private bath in a man's own house; but this, according to Varro (l. c.), is not a strictly accurate usage. See the following word.

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  Balineae/1.1