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HISTORY OF ENGINEERING.

Book I.

calls it Suspensura. It should be formed, says he, of a pavement made of large tilesof a foot and a half, laid with such inclination that if a ball were thrown in, it could notremain, but must return to the mouth of the furnace. By this means the flame rose morereadily, and extended over the whole suspended floor. This was formed of large tilesplaced on little piers two feet high, made of clay, so prepared as to resist the action ofthe fire. The hypocaustum extended under the greater number of the apartments beforenamed.

Besides the apartments especially destined for the use of the bath, there were severalothers connected with the exercises used before and after, such as the spheristerium,conisterium, coryceum, stadium, ephebeum, all of which made part of the gymnasium, butwhich did not exist in all baths, particularly in those of private individuals.

The arrangements cited were variable according to the fancy and pleasure of the owner.See Pliny’s Laurentium. The following description taken from the Hippias of Lucianmay give an idea of the various apartments in the ancient baths.

After passing the grand vestibule, we enter a spacious hall, for the use of those domesticswho wait on their masters. On the left arc the chambers, where they retire before quittingthe bath ; these are the most beautiful and agreeable of all; advancing, we enter the bathroom, intended for the most opulent persons ; through this apartment, on either side, are theplaces for putting the clothes ; the centre of the space is very lofty, and well lighted, andcontains three baths, of cold water, ornamented with Lacedaemonian marble; there are also twoancient marble statues, one of the Goddess of Health, the other of Esculapius : leaving thispart by an oblong vaulted passage, there is a visible increase of heat throughout the building,though not disagreeably so, and you are conducted to a well lighted hall, in which are theoils and essences; it is on the right hand, and communicates with the palestra? ; the twojambs of the doors are encrusted with Phrygian marble : in the contiguous apartment, thismarble shines everywhere, even in the ceiling, consequently this is the finest of all; it is suf-ficiently large to permit of walking and taking exercise in it, and there are many convenientsituations for sitting down. On leaving this, we enter the warm passage, which is ex-tremely long; it is encrusted with Numidian marble, and leads to a well lighted andbeautiful hall, painted in purple ; here are three warm baths. To go out of it, it is notnecessary to retrace your steps; a shorter way leads to the cold bath across the warm room,the heat of which diminishes by degrees; all these apartments are well lighted from thetop. Ilippias has shown much judgment in constructing the hall which contains the coldbath, so tliat it has the north in front; as for the others, which demand a greater degree ofheat, he has exposed them to the south, south-east, and west.

By this description it appears that there was no apodyterium in the bath of Hippias ;there were only shelves for the clothes at each end of the frigidarium, which containedthree cold baths. The bathers then entered the warm passage which led to the onctuarium,whence, after anointing themselves, they passed into the spheristerium, which was the largestand finest apartment; when the exercises were ended, they went to the warm bath, by apassage in which there was sufficient heat to keep up that which had been produced in thespheristerium. Thus, when arrived at the warm bath, the bathers found little differencebetween it and the heat of their bodies, and after having taken it, they traversed an apart-ment in which the heat gradually diminished until they arrived at the frigidarium, in whichwere their garments.

The following description of the Greek baths is from Vitruvius . After describing thedifferent apartments of the gymnasium, he says, at the right of the ephebeum was thecoryceum, an apartment for shaving, dressing, &c. ; near this was the conisterium, in whichwas kept the sand for the use of the wrestlers ; in the corner of the peristyle is the loutronor cold bath ; near this latter was the frigidarium, on going out of which was ^ passagewhich led to the propigneum ; near the furnace in the corner of the portico further on, butby the side of the frigidarium, was the vaulted room for the sweating; its length was gene-rally twice its width, and the laconicum was placed at one of its angles, opposite to that ofthe warm bath.

The arrangements of each of the apartments above named differs still more in thethermes of the Romans, although there is a certain uniformity in the plans : as there weretwo peristyles, we are justified in concluding that there was a double set of baths, as Varroand others prove incontestibly that the women’s apartments were separated from those ofthe men; the observations of Martial and St. Cyprian by no means contradict thisopinion; the improprieties they refer to relate to females of a licentious character. Hieseparation of the baths is remarked in those of Caracalla ; at least a large portion is pre-ceded by a vestibule, which enclosed the principal body of the building. This part isdivided into fifty vaulted rooms, separated from each other, but perfectly similar ; some ofthe baths still remain, and from one nearly entire we can deduce the manner of its arrange-ment. It is preceded by a small vestibule; the place for the bath is 31 feet long, and 15feet 3 inches wide. The basin which receives the water is in masonry with a course offreestone, which separates it 18 inches from the wall at bottom, and from the two return