DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0232
THE STABIAN BATHS 181
a bath basin of masonry, alveus; at the other was ordinarily
a semicircular niche, schola, in which stood the labrum, a large,
shallow, circular vessel resting upon a support of masonry, and
supplied with lukewarm water by a pipe leading from a tank
back of the furnace. The more extensive establishments, as
the Central Baths at Pompeii, contained also a round room,
called Laconicum from its Spartan origin, for sweating baths
in dry air. In describing baths it is more convenient to use the
ancient names.
In earlier times the rooms were heated by means of braziers,
and in one of the Pompeian baths the tepidarium was warmed
in this way to the last. A more satisfactory method was
devised near the beginning of the first century b.c. by Sergius
Grata, a famous epicure, whose surname is said to have been
given to him because of his fondness for golden trout {auratae').
He was the first to plant artificial oyster beds in the Lucrine
Lake, and the experiment was so successful that he derived a
large income from them ; we may assume that he turned an
honest penny also by his invention of the ‘ hanging baths,’
balneae pensiles, with which his name has ever since been asso-
ciated. These were built with a hollow space under the floor,
the space being secured by making the floor of tiles, two feet
square, supported at the corners by small brick pillars (Fig. 83);
into this space hot air was introduced from the furnace, and as
the floor became warm, the temperature of the room above was
evenly modified.
This improved method of heating was not long restricted to
the floors. As early as the Republican period, the hollow space
was extended to the walls by means of small quadrangular
flues and by the use of nipple tiles, tegulae mammatae, large
rectangular tiles with conical projections, about two inches
high, at each corner ; these were laid on their edges, with the
projections pressed against the wall, thus leaving an air space
on the inside.
In bathing establishments designed for both men and women,
the two caldariums were placed near together. There was
a single furnace, hypocausis, where the water for the baths was
warmed; from this also hot air was conveyed through broad
a bath basin of masonry, alveus; at the other was ordinarily
a semicircular niche, schola, in which stood the labrum, a large,
shallow, circular vessel resting upon a support of masonry, and
supplied with lukewarm water by a pipe leading from a tank
back of the furnace. The more extensive establishments, as
the Central Baths at Pompeii, contained also a round room,
called Laconicum from its Spartan origin, for sweating baths
in dry air. In describing baths it is more convenient to use the
ancient names.
In earlier times the rooms were heated by means of braziers,
and in one of the Pompeian baths the tepidarium was warmed
in this way to the last. A more satisfactory method was
devised near the beginning of the first century b.c. by Sergius
Grata, a famous epicure, whose surname is said to have been
given to him because of his fondness for golden trout {auratae').
He was the first to plant artificial oyster beds in the Lucrine
Lake, and the experiment was so successful that he derived a
large income from them ; we may assume that he turned an
honest penny also by his invention of the ‘ hanging baths,’
balneae pensiles, with which his name has ever since been asso-
ciated. These were built with a hollow space under the floor,
the space being secured by making the floor of tiles, two feet
square, supported at the corners by small brick pillars (Fig. 83);
into this space hot air was introduced from the furnace, and as
the floor became warm, the temperature of the room above was
evenly modified.
This improved method of heating was not long restricted to
the floors. As early as the Republican period, the hollow space
was extended to the walls by means of small quadrangular
flues and by the use of nipple tiles, tegulae mammatae, large
rectangular tiles with conical projections, about two inches
high, at each corner ; these were laid on their edges, with the
projections pressed against the wall, thus leaving an air space
on the inside.
In bathing establishments designed for both men and women,
the two caldariums were placed near together. There was
a single furnace, hypocausis, where the water for the baths was
warmed; from this also hot air was conveyed through broad