DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24719#0227
BYZANTINE AND TURKISH BATHS.
HE use of vapour-baths does not appear to have been earlier than the time of
the Romans. All documents, as well as all paintings on vases, show that the
Greeks made use of either plunge-baths or running streams only. Still the
use of natural hot baths was popular from times of the greatest antiquity;
hut it was the Romans only who constructed those splendid edifices known
to us under the name of Thermae, in which steam was employed together
with warm water for the purpose of ablution.
It was not the passion for bathing alone, though so powerful amongst the Romans, that
induced them to frequent the Thermce every day. The baths were the rendezvous of the idle
as well as of the industrious. Philosophers and literary men assembled to talk over the
questions of the day in a hall called schola; the young men took exercise in the xystus and
palaestra, necessary adjuncts to these baths. The women, on their part, assembled on certain
days and devoted long hours to their toilette.
All classes had access to the baths at certain fixed times, and the custom of taking the
bath contributed not a little to the public health.
In independent Greece, the usage, not originally popular, spread under the influence of
Roman manners. Athens, although she possessed so many noble edifices, never boasted any
magnificent baths. But during the reign of the first emperors, the use of baths extended
rapidly through the principal towns. The great number of hot mineral springs on the coast of
Asia and on the continent of Greece, gave rise to the erection of edifices, to which the
municipal magistrates contributed, and which were placed under the protection of the reigning
emperor, as inscriptions attest.
The use of vapour-baths, so beneficial to the health, remained popular under the
Byzantine emperors, who raised the repute of these establishments in no slight degree. The
baths of Constantinople, as numerous as they were magnificent, were reckoned amongst the
wonders of that capital. Amongst them were renowned above all the baths of Apollo, the tamer
of horses, and of Xeuxippe, which were frequently burnt down and rebuilt.
On the Asiatic coast almost all the hot springs were surrounded by apartments for
vapour-baths. Alexandria Troas still possesses, by the side of the gymnasium, the ruins of hot
baths. Near Lehedus we found the ruins of extensive baths in the Roman style adjoining hot
springs. We should have to enumerate most of the cities of Asia, if we were to mention all
those in which buildings of this kind were erected for the use of the people.
It is astonishing that amongst all the public works undertaken for towns possessing
mineral waters, nothing should have been done for Broussa until Constantine founded his new
capital. At least no ancient author mentions the erection of baths there, and we see, by a
letter from Pliny to Trajan,1 that the Prusians had only an old bath in bad condition, and
that the governor asked permission to rebuild it on the site of a house which had been left to
the Emperor Claudius, intending to build a temple surrounded by colonnades in honour of
that prince. 1
1 Boole x. ]>. 75.
HE use of vapour-baths does not appear to have been earlier than the time of
the Romans. All documents, as well as all paintings on vases, show that the
Greeks made use of either plunge-baths or running streams only. Still the
use of natural hot baths was popular from times of the greatest antiquity;
hut it was the Romans only who constructed those splendid edifices known
to us under the name of Thermae, in which steam was employed together
with warm water for the purpose of ablution.
It was not the passion for bathing alone, though so powerful amongst the Romans, that
induced them to frequent the Thermce every day. The baths were the rendezvous of the idle
as well as of the industrious. Philosophers and literary men assembled to talk over the
questions of the day in a hall called schola; the young men took exercise in the xystus and
palaestra, necessary adjuncts to these baths. The women, on their part, assembled on certain
days and devoted long hours to their toilette.
All classes had access to the baths at certain fixed times, and the custom of taking the
bath contributed not a little to the public health.
In independent Greece, the usage, not originally popular, spread under the influence of
Roman manners. Athens, although she possessed so many noble edifices, never boasted any
magnificent baths. But during the reign of the first emperors, the use of baths extended
rapidly through the principal towns. The great number of hot mineral springs on the coast of
Asia and on the continent of Greece, gave rise to the erection of edifices, to which the
municipal magistrates contributed, and which were placed under the protection of the reigning
emperor, as inscriptions attest.
The use of vapour-baths, so beneficial to the health, remained popular under the
Byzantine emperors, who raised the repute of these establishments in no slight degree. The
baths of Constantinople, as numerous as they were magnificent, were reckoned amongst the
wonders of that capital. Amongst them were renowned above all the baths of Apollo, the tamer
of horses, and of Xeuxippe, which were frequently burnt down and rebuilt.
On the Asiatic coast almost all the hot springs were surrounded by apartments for
vapour-baths. Alexandria Troas still possesses, by the side of the gymnasium, the ruins of hot
baths. Near Lehedus we found the ruins of extensive baths in the Roman style adjoining hot
springs. We should have to enumerate most of the cities of Asia, if we were to mention all
those in which buildings of this kind were erected for the use of the people.
It is astonishing that amongst all the public works undertaken for towns possessing
mineral waters, nothing should have been done for Broussa until Constantine founded his new
capital. At least no ancient author mentions the erection of baths there, and we see, by a
letter from Pliny to Trajan,1 that the Prusians had only an old bath in bad condition, and
that the governor asked permission to rebuild it on the site of a house which had been left to
the Emperor Claudius, intending to build a temple surrounded by colonnades in honour of
that prince. 1
1 Boole x. ]>. 75.