Gell, William: Pompeiana: the topography, edifices and ornaments of Pompeii ; the result of excavations since 1819 ; in two volumes (Band 1) (London, 1832)

88 POMPEIANA.

This can be no other than the laconicum
of the ancients, which was, like it, vaulted
and filled with warm air from stoves and hot
water, and was called also caldarium, vapo-
rarium, and sudatorium.

This was anciently, as at present, a
chamber under the pavement of which the
heat of a furnace was introduced, whence it
derived its appellation of hypocaustum.

These are the principal divisions of a
Turkish hamam, derived and continued from
the Greeks and the Romans. The story of
the taking of Alexandria by the Saracens,
and the destruction of the library by the
application of the volumes to the heating of
the baths, is at least a proof that these in-
stitutions did not fall into disuse during the
general change of manners which then took
place.

To reason from analogy, and, at the same
time, to avail ourselves of the numerous
though perplexed accounts left us by the
ancients, seems the most probable method
of getting at the real uses of the Pompeian
thermse.

The grand entrance seems to have been