Chap. IV.
HOMAN.
121
Emplecton , that is to say, masonry faced with triangular bricks, the whole bound togetherby rows of large quadrangular tiles, placed at certain distances over each other, andtraversing the whole thickness of the walls; these were coated with cement; sometimeslamina; of marble were employed entirely to face them. From a review of all that remainwe find that the most complete baths consisted of six principal apartments : the first,called the Apodyterium, was appropriated to undressing, and had shelves all roundon which to place the clothes, and attendants, called capsarii, took charge of them. Thisapartment was also called Spoliatorium: all baths had not an apodyterium, and itappears from Lucian, that where this apartment was omitted, the frigidarium was used forits purpose. The apodyterium is not named either in the gymnasium of Vitruvius , orin the palzestri described by Lucian; it is probable that there was none in the gymnasiumof the Greeks, and that the frigidarium supplied the defect.
The second apartment was the cold bath, called by the Romans Frigidarium; it wasusually exposed to the north, and used as already stated. Galiani insists that the tepi-darium and frigidarium were the same, but the paintings that remain to us prove thecontrary, nor is it the opinion of Mercurialis and Baccio.
The third was the Tepidarium: its principal use seems to have been to prevent, by thetemperate air which it contained, the dangerous effects of too sudden a transition from theextreme of heat to that of cold; thus in the paintings of the baths of Titus, it is seenbetween the frigidarium and the comamerata sudatio. According to all historians thefrigidarium was united to the warm bath; hence Pliny calls it the middle chamber (cellamedia). Galen gives it the same name, and adds that thus it should be called, not only onaccount of its situation, as being the centre, but also with relation to its heat, “tins chamberbeing as many degrees colder than the third, or the warm bath, as it was warmer than thefirst, or frigidarium.” Although there were occasional bathers in the frigidarium and thetepidarium, still they were not generally so used, it being more common to walk throughthese halls or chambers at a slow pace, for it was the temperature of the air, mid not thatof the water, which induced so many to frequent them.
The fourth apartment was that called Laconicum, from the name of the stove whichwarmed it, and which was introduced from Laconia: it sent forth a dry heat, by nomeans, says Galen, calculated for warm temperaments. Dion tells us that those whosweated in the laconicum oiled themselves, and then entered the cold bath ; it was originallyintended for old men and infirm persons. According to Vitruvius and the various paintingswhich remain from the baths of Titus, it was contiguous to tne tepidarium, and com-municated to it a more temperate heat; it was a species of stove placed generally in theangle of the apartment, circular, and surmounted by a little cupola open at top ; theflame of the hypocaustum entered the laconicum, and was lessened or increased by a brazenshield suspended to a chain, by means of which, says Vitruvius , the degree of heat to begiven to the apartment was regulated. In the baths of Titus, instead of the brazen shield,a globe is represented attached to a chain, which, placed over the opening through whichthe flame arose, served to disperse and increase its power. It is undoubted that thelaconicum was only the stove or furnace: the mistakes which have arisen concerning it wereoccasioned by its name being frequently applied to the apartment in which it was placed;this apartment in the above painting is called comamerata sudatio, and at length the partwas taken for the whole: but Vitruvius makes an evident distinction, (lib. 5. chap. 10.)and he explains himself still more clearly in the following chapter, in which he reckons thestove among the apartments of the palasstri; “it should have,” says he, “in one of itsangles the laconicum, and in the other the warm bath.” If, then, the laconicum was to be inone corner of the stove, it is clear that it was not the stove, but only a part of it; had itbeen so, as some insist, of what use was the comamerata sudatio ? and why two stoves ? Thelaconicum, or the stove, according to Vitruvius , had niches called sudationes, in which thosewho used these dry baths placed themselves, as shown in several ancient paintings. Theseniches were as high to the curve of the head as they were wide.
The fifth apartment was the Balneum, or warm bath, called Thermolousia; it was themost frequented. Its size, says Vitruvius , “must be proportioned to the number of bathers,its width a third less than its height,” without comprehending the gallery' called the schola ,which was continued round, and terminated on the side of the basin, by a little wall ofsupport; this gallery was large enough to accommodate those who waited for their turns.The middle was occupied by a basin called piscina, or by a bath called alveum, as shown ina painting of the ancient balneum : the place in which they bathed was immediately underthe window from whence the light proceeded, so that no shadow should be cast by thepersons walking about.
The sixth apartment was the Eleothesium or Onctuarium; in it were kept the oils andperfumes used by the bathers both on going in and out of the hath ; it was so constructedas to receive a considerable quantity of heat from the hypocaustum.
The Hypocaustum was a subterranean furnace, the bottom of which formed an inclinedplane, gradually falling towards the opening, by which the wood was put in; Vitruvius