Bathing in Public in the Roman World

467 Pages·1999·23.382 MB·English

by  Garrett G. Fagan

Bathing in Public
in the Roman World
Garrett G. Fagan
Ann Arbor
The University of Michigan Press
Copyright © by the University of Michigan 1999
All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America by
The University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
® Printed on acid-free paper
2002 2001 2000 1999 4 3 2 1
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
or otherwise, without the written permission
of the publisher.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fagan, Garrett G., 1963-
Bathing in public in the Roman world / Garrett G. Fagan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-472-10819-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Public baths—Rome. 2. Rome—Antiquities. 3. Rome—Social
life and customs. 4. Inscriptions—Rome. I. Title.
DG97.F34 1999
391.6'4—dc21 98-51147
CIP
Acknowledgments
This book is the product of a truly international effort that has seen work
progress in Canada, the United States, Germany, Ireland, England, Italy, and
Tunisia. On my travels, I have encountered many individuals who helped the
project reach completion. I shall try to remember as many as I can, but if I
miss any names, it is through human frailty and not purposeful omission.
My first debt is to the Killam Trust at the University of British Columbia,
whose generous financial support provided me with the time to prepare the
manuscript in 1995-96. James Russell, my sponsor at UBC, offered many
invaluable insights and deployed his oracular knowledge to my benefit, thus
saving me from several gaffes, oversights, or misconceptions. Fikret Yegiil
and Janet DeLaine read the entire manuscript and offered many helpful
criticisms. I thank also David Engel, Philip Harding, and Harry Edinger for
looking over my translations of the inscriptions, and I thank Simon Weber-
Brown for checking the original texts. Kim Stabler and Celia Schultz proof­
read the entire manuscript and did much of the checking, respectively.
Richard J.A. Talbert is to be thanked for suggesting the topic in the first place
and seeing it through an earlier manifestation, as did George Paul and Daniel
Geagan.
Various individuals assisted at other stages of production, directly or
indirectly. F. Yegiil, C. Parslow, R.J.A. Wilson, and A. Koloski-Ostrow pro­
vided or offered to provide original illustrations; J.J. Rossiter hosted me on
an extended visit to Carthage; H.-J. Schalles provided an enlightening tour of
the reconstructed balneum attached to the guest house in the Archaeological
Park at Xanten; D. Candilio provided access to otherwise closed-off areas of
the Baths of Diocletian; J. Boersma, C. Bruun, and J. DeLaine gave me
offprints of their work on the baths; and conversations and correspondence
with all of the above as well as with A. Corbeill, D. Gargola, E. Haley, C.H.
viii Acknowledgments
Hallett, P.B. Harvey, A. Trevor Hodge. M. McDonnell, M.F. Trundle, and
CJ.. Simpson have required me to crystallize, revise, or abandon my argu­
ments at various points. Naturally, none of the preceding should be held
accountable for any remaining errors or for the opinions I express. A great
debt of gratitude also goes to my editor at the University of Michigan Press,
Ellen Bauerle, without whose patience, support, and levelheadedness this
book would never have been finished. My wife, Katherine, has offered vital
emotional support on a sometimes rocky road, and I thank her deeply for it.
My final acknowledgment is to Michael Shiels, S.J., who long ago wrote
on a schoolboy’s Latin homework, “Stay with the Roman world; it has a lot
to offer,” and who thereby set me on the path that has led me here.
Contents
Abbreviations.......................................................................................... xi
Introduction............................................................................................ 1
1. A Visit to the Baths with Martial.................................................... 12
2. The Growth of the Bathing Habit................................................. 40
3. Accounting for the Popularity of Public Baths.............................. 75
4. Baths and Roman Medicine............................................................ 85
5. Bath Benefactors 1: Rome..................................................................104
6. Bath Benefactors 2: Italy and the Provinces....................................128
7. The Physical Environment: Splendor and Squalor..........................176
8. The Bathers..........................................................................................189
Conclusion ................................................................................................220
Epigraphic Sample ........................................................................................223
Introduction to the Epigraphic Sample ................................................225
A. Constructional Benefactions ............................................................233
B. Nonconstructional Benefactions ......................................................300
C. Nonbenefactory Texts........................................................................317
D. Greek Texts ........................................................................................329
Appendixes ..................................................................................................349
1. The Spread of Public Bathing in the Italian Peninsula
to ca. a.d. 100 .................................................................................. 351
2. The Distribution of Nonimperial Baths in Rome ..........................357
3. Parts of Baths Mentioned in the Epigraphic Sample......................368
x Contents
Bibliography 373
Index of Names 391
Geographic Index 399
Index of Topics ........................................................................................407
Index of Ancient Sources 413
Concordance of Inscriptions 431
Illustrations following page 210
Abbreviations
Abbreviations for ancient authors used throughout this book follow those in
The Oxford Classical Dictionary3; abbreviations for journals and peri­
odicals follow those listed in the American Journal of Archaeology 95
(1991): 1-16; for items not listed there, I have followed the form in L’Année
Philologique (Paris, 1927-). Abbreviations of epigraphic collections follow
those in H Bérard et al., Guide de l’épigraphiste: Bibliographie choisie des
épigraphies antiques et médiévales1 (Paris, 1989), 16-17; such collections
that have been used in the composition of this book are listed below, pp.
229-30. Included here are works cited in the notes only by author’s name or
by an acronym, as well as those works not found in any of the above sources.
For works cited occasionally in the notes but not frequently enough to
warrant inclusion here, a short form of the title is used that is readily trace­
able in the main bibliography at the back of the book.
CGL G. Goetz, ed. Corpus Glossariorum Latin­
orum. 7 vols. Leipzig, 1888-1923.
Curchin L.A. Curchin. The Local Magistrates of Ro­
man Spain. Toronto, 1990.
Degrassi A. Degrassi. 1 fasti consolari dell’impero ro-
mano dal 30 avanti Cristo al 613 dopo Cristo.
Rome, 1952.
Duncan-Jones, Economy R. Duncan-Jones. The Economy of the Roman
Empire: Quantitative Studies1. Cambridge,
1982.
Duncan-Jones, Structure R. Duncan-Jones. Structure and Scale in the
Roman Economy. Cambridge, 1990.
FTUR G. Lugli. Fontes ad Topographiam Veteris Urbis
Romae Pertinentes. 7 vols. Rome, 1952-69.
FUR Carettoni, G., A.M. Colini, L. Cozza, and G.
Gatti, eds. La pianta marmorea di Roma antica,
Forma Urbis Romae. 2 vols. Rome, 1960.
xii Abbreviations
Heinz W. Heinz. Römische Thermen: Badewesen und
Badeluxus im römischen Reich. Munich,
1983.
Jackson R. Jackson. Doctors and Diseases in the Ro­
man Empire. Norman, 1988.
Koloski-Ostrow A.O. Koloski-Ostrow. The Sarno Bath Com­
plex. Rome, 1990.
Laurence R. Laurence. Roman Pompeii: Space and So­
ciety. London, 1994.
LTUR E.M. Steinby, ed. Lexicon Topographicum
Urbis Romae. Vols. 1 and 2. Rome, 1992,
1995.
Manderscheid H. Manderscheid. Bibliographie zum
römischen Badewesen unter besonderer
Berücksichtigung der öffentlichen Thermen.
Munich, 1988.
Manderscheid, H. Manderscheid. Die Skulpturenausstattung
Skulpturenausstattung der kaiser zeitlich en Thermenanlagen. Berlin,
1981.
Meiggs R. Meiggs. Roman Ostia1. Oxford, 1973.
Merten E.W. Merten. Bäder und Badegepflogenheiten
in der Darstellung der Historia Augusta. Bonn,
1983.
MRR T.R.S. Broughton. The Magistrates of the Ro­
man Republic. 2 vols. Baltimore, 1951, 1952.
Supplement, 1960.
Nielsen I. Nielsen. Thermae et Balnea: The Architec­
ture and Cultural History of Roman Public
Baths1. 2 vols. Arhus, 1993.
OLD P.G.W. Glare, ed. The Oxford Latin Dictio­
nary. Oxford, 1982.
Pasquinucci M. Pasquinucci, ed. Terme romane e vita quo-
tidiana. Modena, 1987.
PECS R. Stillwell, ed. The Princeton Encyclopedia of
Classical Sites. Princeton, 1976.
PGM1 H.D. Betz, ed. The Greek Magical Papyri in
Translation1. Chicago, 1992.
PLRE A.H.M. Jones, J.R. Martindale, and J. Morris.
The Prosopography of the Later Roman Em­
pire. Vols. 1 and 2. Cambridge, 1971, 1980.
Abbreviations xiii
RE Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Alter­
tumswissenschaft. Stuttgart, 1894-1980.
Richardson, Dictionary L. Richardson jr. A New Topographical Dic­
tionary of Ancient Rome. Baltimore, 1992.
Richardson, Pompeii L. Richardson jr. Pompeii: An Architectural
History. Baltimore, 1988.
Scarborough J. Scarborough. Roman Medicine. Ithaca,
1969.
Solin H. Solin. Die griechischen Personennamen in
Rom: Ein Namenbuch. 3 vols. Berlin, 1982.
Sullivan J.P. Sullivan. Martial: The Unexpected Classic.
Cambridge, 1991.
Syll. M. Rostovtzeff. Tesserarum Urbis Romae et
Suburbi Plumbearum Sylloge. St. Petersburg,
1903.
Tab. Sulis R.S.O. Tomlin. “Tabellae Sulis: Roman In­
scribed Tablets of Tin and Lead from the Sa­
cred Spring at Bath.” In The Temple of Sulis
Minerva at Bath, vol. 2, The Finds from the
Sacred Spring, edited by B. Cunliffe, 59-277.
Oxford, 1988.
Thermes M. Lenoir, ed. Les thermes romains: Actes de
la table ronde organisée par l’Ecole française
de Rome. Rome, 1991.
Thomasson B.E. Thomasson. Laterculi Praesidum. 3 vols.
Göteborg, 1972-90.
Toner J.P. Toner. Leisure and Ancient Rome. Cam­
bridge, 1995.
Veyne P. Veyne. Le pain et le cirque: Sociologie histo­
rique d’un pluralisme politique. Paris, 1976.
Weber M. Weber. Antike Badekultur. Munich, 1996.
Wesch-Klein G. Wesch-Klein. Liberalitas in Rem Publicam:
Private Aufwendungen zugunsten von Ge­
meinden im römischen Afrika bis 284 n. Chr.
Bonn, 1990.
Yegiil E Yegül. Baths and Bathing in Classical Antiq­
uity. Cambridge, MA, 1992.
Introduction
For the Romans, bathing was a social event. The abundant physical remains
of public baths stand in eloquent testimony to this fact and are found in
almost every type of Roman settlement, from cities, towns, and hamlets to
religious sanctuaries and frontier forts. Even Roman baths dubbed “private”
by modern scholars—those located in domestic settings—were hardly so by
the standards of today. Except for the very earliest examples, such baths were
habitually designed to accommodate more than one bather, and written
testimony makes it clear that they were used for such social purposes as
welcoming visitors or extending dinner parties. We are clearly in the presence
of a deeply rooted communal bathing habit, where the act of getting clean
has become a social process, to be shared not only with invited guests (in
private baths) but with everyone (in public ones).1
To most modern Western sensibilities, communal bathing is an alien con­
cept. Public bathhouses are today generally associated with licentiousness
and sexual promiscuity. Due in part to the thorough dissemination of effi­
cient hydraulic and heating systems and also to a long-standing Christian
heritage of abhorrence of bodily functions and public nudity, most West­
erners bathe privately in their own homes. The same is not true the world
over, however, and perhaps it will be useful to preface our examination of the
now defunct Roman bathing culture by briefly surveying communal bathing
habits that survive to this day, albeit often under siege from Western-
influenced, private alternatives.
In western Europe, only the Finns still practice a truly public bathing
habit. Their saunas are found all over the country, in private homes, attached *
. 1. Some houses have two sets of “private” baths, one large and one small (an example is
the Casa del Criptoportico at Pompeii [located at 1.6.2/4J). The best explanation for this
arrangement is that the grander suite was for the use of the host and guests, while the smaller one
was for everyday purposes. Roman private baths are in need of greater study. For preliminary
work on the subject, see N. de Haan, “Privatbäder in Pompeji und Herkulaneum und die
städtische Wasserleitung,” Mitteilungen des Leichtweiss-instituts für Wasserbau der Tech­
nischen Universität Braunschweig 117 (1992): 423-45; id., “Dekoration und Funktion in den
Privatbädern von Pompeji und Herculaneum,” in E. M. Moormann, ed., Functional and Spatial
Analysis of Wall Painting, (Leiden, 1993), 34-37; id., “Roman Private Baths,” Balnearia 2, no.
2 (1994): 8-9. See also Pasquinucci, 77-78 (by M. Cerri).