BALNĔUM

or BĂLĬNĔUM ( λοετρόν or λουτρόν, βαλανεῖον , also balneae or balineae ), a bath. Balneum or balineum signifies, in its primary sense, a bath or bathing ve el, such as most Romans po e ed in their own houses; and from that it came to mean the chamber which contained the bath. When the baths of private individuals became more sumptuous, and comprised many rooms, the plural balnea or balinea was adopted, which still, in correct language, had reference only to the baths of private persons. Balneae and balineae , which have no singular number, were the public baths. But this accuracy of diction is neglected by many of the later writers. Thermae (from θέρμη , warmth) means properly warm springs, or baths of warm water, but was afterwards applied to the structures in which the baths were placed, and which were both hot and cold. There was, however, a material distinction between the balneae and thermae , inasmuch as the former was the term used under the republic, and referred to the public establishments of that age, which contained no appliances for luxury beyond the mere convenience of hot and cold baths, whereas the latter name was given to those magnificent edifices which grew up under the empire, and which comprised within their range of buildings all the appurtenances belonging to the Greek gymnasia, as well as a regular establishment appropriated for bathing.—Bathing was a practice familiar to the Greeks of both sexes from the earliest times. The artificial warm bath was taken in a ve el called as am in thus ( ἀσάμινθος ) by Homer, and puelus ( πύελος ) by the later Greeks. It did not contain water itself, but was only used for the bather to sit in, while the warm water was poured over him. On Greek vases, however, we never find anything corresponding to a modern bath in which persons can stand or sit; but there is always a round or oval basin ( λουτήρ or λουτήριον ), resting on a stand, by the side of which those who are bathing are standing undre ed and washing themselves. In the Homeric times it was customary to take first a cold and afterwards a warm bath; but in later times it was the usual practice of the Greeks to take first a warm or vapour, and afterwards a cold bath. At Athens the frequent use of the public baths, most of which were warm baths ( βαλανεῖα , called by Homer θερμὰ λοετρά ), was regarded in the time of So crates and Demosthenes as a mark of luxury and effeminacy. Accordingly, Phocion was said to have never bathed in a public bath, and So crates to have used it very seldom. After bathing both sexes anointed themselves, in order that the skin might not be left harsh and rough, especially after warm water. Oil ( ἔλαιον ) is the only ointment mentioned by Homer, but in later times precious unguents ( μῦρα ) were used for this purpose. The bath was usually taken before the principal meal of the day ( δεῖπνον ). The Lace daemon i ans, who considered warm water as enervating, used two kinds of baths; namely, the cold daily bath in the Eurotas, and a dry sudorific bath in a chamber heated with warm air by means of a stove, and from them the chamber used by the Romans for a similar purpose was termed Laconicum . A sudorific or vapour bath ( πυρία or πυριατήριον ) is mentioned as early as the time of Hero dot us. At what period the use of the warm bath was introduced among the Romans is not recorded; but we know that Scipio had a warm bath in his villa at Liternum, and the practice of heating an apartment with warm air by flues placed immediately under it, so as to produce a vapour bath, is stated to have been invented by Sergius Orata, who lived in the age of Cra us, before the Marsic war. By the time of Cicero the use of baths of warm water and hot air had become common, and in his time there were baths at Rome which were open to the public upon payment of a small fee. In the public baths at Rome the men and women used originally to bathe in separate sets of chambers; but under the empire it became the common custom for both sexes to bathe indiscriminately in the same bath. This practice was forbidden by Hadrian and M. Aurelius; and Alexander Severus prohibited any baths, common to both sexes, from being opened in Rome. The price of a bath was a quadrant, the smallest piece of coined money, from the age of Cicero downwards, which was paid to the keeper of the bath ( balneator ). Children below a certain age were admitted free. It was usual with the Romans to take the bath after exercise, and before the principal meal ( coena ) of the day; but the debauchees of the empire bathed also after eating as well as before, in order to promote digestion, and to acquire a new appetite for fresh delicacies. IMG:6459379820872971714_ill055.jpg: Roman Bath. (Fresco from the Thermae of Titus.) Upon quitting the bath the Romans as well as the Greeks were anointed with oil. The Romans did not content themselves with a single bath of hot or cold water; but they went through a course of baths in succe ion, in which the agency of air as well as water was applied. It is difficult to ascertain the precise order in which the course was usually taken; but it appears to have been a general practice to close the pores, and brace the body after the exce ive perspiration of the vapour bath, either by pouring cold water over the head, or by plunging at once into the piscina . To render the subjoined remarks more easily intelligible, the preceding woodcut is inserted, which is taken from a fresco painting upon the walls of the thermae of Titus at Rome. The chief parts of a Roman bath were as follow:—1. Apodyterium. Here the bathers were expected to take off their garments, which were then delivered to a cla of slaves, called capsarii , whose duty it was to take charge of them. These men were notorious for dishonesty, and were leagued with all the thieves of the city, so that they connived at the robberies which they were placed to prevent. There was probably an Elaeothesium or Unctorium , as appears from the preceding cut, in connection with the apodyterium, where the bathers might be anointed with oil.—2. Frigidarium or Cella Frigidaria , where the cold bath was taken. The cold bath itself was called Natatio , Natatorium , Piscina , Baptisterium , or Puteus .—3. Tepidarium would seem from the preceding cut to have been a bathing room, for a person is there apparently represented pouring water over a bather. But there is good reason for thinking that this was not the case. In most cases the tepidarium contained no water at all, but was a room merely heated with warm air of an agreeable temperature, in order to prepare the body for the great heat of the vapour and warm baths, and upon returning from the latter, to obviate the danger of a too sudden transition to the open air.—4. The Caldarium or Con came rata Sudatio contained at one extremity the vapour bath ( Laconicum ), and at the other the warm bath ( balneum or calda lavatio ), while the centre space between the two ends was termed sudatio or sudatorium . In larger establishments the vapour bath and warm bath were in two separate cells, as we see in the preceding cut: in such cases the former part alone was called con came rata sudatio . The whole rested on a suspended pavement ( suspensura ), under which was a fire ( hypocaustum ), so that the flames might heat the whole apartment. (See cut.) The warm water bath ( balneum or calda lavatio ), which is also called piscina or calid a piscina , labrum and solium , appears to have been a capacious marble vase, sometimes standing upon the floor, like that in the preceding cut, and sometimes either partly elevated above the floor, as it was at Pompeii, or entirely sunk into it. After having gone, through the regular course of perspiration, the Romans made use of instruments called strigiles or strigles , to scrape off the perspiration. IMG:6459379820872971714_ill056a.jpg: Strigil. (From a Relief at Athens.) The strigil was also used by the Greeks, who called it stlengis ( στλεγγίς ) or xystra ( ξύστρα ). The figure in the cut on p. 24 is represented with a strigil in his hand. As the strigil was not a blunt instrument, its edge was softened by the application of oil, which was dropped upon it from a small ve el called guttus or ampulla , which had a narrow neck, so as to discharge its contents drop by drop, from whence the name is taken. IMG:6459379820872971714_ill056b.jpg: Strigil and Guttus. (From a Statue in the Vatican.) In the Thermae , spoken of above, the baths were of secondary importance. They were a Roman adaptation of the Greek gymnasium, contained exedrae for the philosophers and rhetoricians to lecture in, porticoes for the idle, and libraries for the learned, and were adorned with marbles, fountains, and shaded walks and plantations. M. Agrippa, in the reign of August us, was the first who afforded these luxuries to his countrymen, by bequeathing to them the thermae and gardens which he had erected in the Campus Martius. The example set by Agrippa was followed by Nero, and afterwards by Titus, the ruins of whose thermae are still visible, covering a vast extent, partly under ground and partly above the Esquiline hill. Thermae were also erected by Trajan, Car a call a, and Diocletian, of the two last of which ample remains still exist. Previously to the erection of these establishments for the use of the population, it was customary for those who sought the favour of the people to give them a day’s bathing free of expense. From thence it is fair to infer that the quadrant paid for admi ion into the balneae was not exacted at the thermae , which, as being the works of the emperors, would naturally be opened with imperial generosity to all, and without any charge.