Therefore, the glossary below should not be taken as the final word on any of these terms. If some entries betray uncertainty or appear to overlap with others, this can be put down to the naure of the beast. The glossary is provided for broad convenience. Each entry is designed to allow a wide appreciation for each term, usually with references to representative ancient evidence. More detailed discussions of the terms can be found in Nielsen, 1.153-166 or Yegül, 487-49.
The hot bathing pool in the caldarium. The pool is described in some detail by Vitruvius (5.10.4). It also gave its name to the testudo alvei. It was a communal pool able to accomodate several individuals (Cic. Cael. 67).
Changing room. The term is attested in several ancient sources (e.g., Lucian Hipp. 5; Pliny Ep. 5.6.25) and inscriptions (e.g., CIL 8.828 = ILS 5173; CIL 10.3922 = ILS 5708; CIL 14. 2119 = ILS 5707; ILS 5712; CIL 8. 1295). It appears to be taken over from a room in the Greek gymnasium (Plato Euthphr. 272e-273a).
Terms denoting bath buildings. Used to refer to small city baths of the type found at Pompeii. Despite the grammatical semantics of Varro (Ling. 9.68-69) -- who, by means of these words, seeks to distinguish private from public baths, or baths with women's sections from baths without -- an abundance of written evidence makes it clear that the Romans used these terms interchangeably with each other and with balneum to denote bath buildings, both public and private, and segregated and mixed.
The "bath-man," broadly defined. His role and duties are most unclear and appear to have varied from place to place. In some instances, the balneator seems to be the manager of a facility (CGL 2.569 §34), in others he is a minister performing a host of tasks: collecitng money at the door (Cic. Cael. 62), pouring water over customers (CGL 2.561 §38), anointing (Plaut. Poen. 703-4), keeping the cloakroom (Dig. 16.3.1.8), and even stoking the furnaces (Pliny HN 18.156) and procuring (Dig. 3.2.4.2). What all of these notices take for granted, however, is that the balneator is very much on-the-spot, a visible representative of the management, if not the actual management. A fragment of Petronius (Frg. 2) makes mention of a balneatrix, a female balneator, but this is probably little more than a joke.
This term applied is liberally in the written sources both to bath buildings, private and public, to the act of bathing itself, and to bathing tubs (see Oxford Latin Dictionary, s.v.). In its purest form it seems to denote a private bath and the act of bathing, but it is often found in reference to public bathing establishments.
A rare term for a cold pool, located either in the interior environment of the frigidarium (Pliny Ep. 2.17.11, 5.6.25) or outside in the open air (Sid. Apoll. Ep. 2.2.8). It became associated with initiation into the Christian faith, presumably because early baptisms were often staged in the cold pools of Roman baths.
This was hottest room in regular sequence of bathing rooms. It is described in detail by Vitruvius (5.10.4, see also 8.2.4) and mentioned by Pliny (Ep. 5.6.25) who terms it a cella caldaria. Sidonius Apollinaris (Ep. 2.2.4) uses the term cella coctilium, the "room of the dry wood (for burning)." It's form and function have been fully studied by modern scholars such as Nielsen and Yegül.
A large pool, heated independently of the pools in the caldarium. An excellent example has been found in the Suburban Baths at Herculaneum. It appears to have been introduced to the city of Rome by Maecanas (Dio 55.7.6), and Pliny's Laurentine villa had one attached to the hot rooms (Ep. 2.17.11).
This is a term of disputed application. It is mentioned in the Historia Augusta as part of the Baths of Caracalla (Carac. 9.4-5) and in many inscriptions (collected at the end of J. DeLaine's article on the subject). In all likelihood the term was applied rooms containing solia, or communal pools; if so, it can be considered a synonym for caldarium. The fullest and most cogent study of the cella solearis is that by J. DeLaine, although useful survey of the evidence is also provided by E. Merten, pp. 26-27.
This word described applied to a person who undertook a contract for any purpose (e.g., a construction job, collection of taxes, a lease, etc). When applied to baths, it generally denotes the manager of an establishment, possibly more remote than a balneator, but occasionally synonymous with him. The rights and duties of the conductor of a bathhouse are most fully explained in the lex Metallum Vipascense, a charter from an imperial mining community in Spain detailing the regulations for the lease of the bathhouse there (CIL 2.5181 = ILS 6891). It is a moot point how generally applicable these regulations are.
This is a hard room to identify in surviving remains. The word, in fact, is not widely attested in the Roman world and appears only in two inscriptions: one from Sullan Pompeii (CIL 12.1635 = 10.829 = ILS 5706 = ILLRP 648), the other from Carpi in North Africa (CIL 8.24105a = ILS 9367). Interestingly, both texts are late republican in date. The room appears to have been an adjunct to palaestra and was designated for scraping with strigils. It was an optional room, since this operation could take place in the palaestra itself or in the tepidarium.
This term applies to any architectural element that opens off and onto a usually larger element. In Roman baths exedrae were often open rooms off the palaestra, used for rest and relaxation (see Pliny Ep. 10.70.3). Identified exedrae sometimes have columns in their front and often have seats and benches. Vitruvius (5.11.2) comments that they were used for philosophical debates and other educational purposes.
This was coldest room in the regular sequence of bathing rooms. The room has a variety of designations in original sources (see Nielsen, 1.154, s.v. "Frigidarium: Ancient Sources). Architecturally, the room varied in design and dimensions. The earliest forms are represented in the small, isolated rotundas given over entirely to cold plunge pools found in the baths of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Gradually the room evolved into to the colossal cross-vaulted central chambers of the imperial thermae. The finest example of the latter variety of frigidarium still standing is that of the Baths of Diocletian, known today as the Basilica S. Maria D'Angeli. The modern visitor, entering the basilica on a hot summer's day, can immediately feel the effect of the high roofs and windows -- and most developed frigidaria would have had high roofs exactly for this effect. Occasionally, changing rooms (apodyteria) doubled as frigidaria, when cold pools were provided in them.
This was a basin that stood at hip- or waist-height somewhere in the caldarium. Its purpose was to provide sweating bathers with an opportunity to splash themselves with cold water. The labrum often stands in an apse specifically designed for it, termed the schola labri (Vitruv. 5.10.4). In more sophisticated and luxurious baths, the labrum was replaced with a multiplicity of heated pools, but it remained popular in smaller facilities.
This was a superheated sweat bath. A brazier would be set in the middle of the round laconicum and bathers would undergo an sauna-like experience (apparently in a dry heat). The laconicum is found more commonly in earlier baths, although examples are known in small facilities as late as the second century AD. In such facilities it was accessible directly from the tepidarium or the palaestra, offering the bathers an alternative and truncated bathing routine. At Pompeii and Herculaneum such a routine appears to have gone out of fashion, since the laconica of the Stabian Baths (Pompeii) and Forum Baths (Herculaneum) were later converted into frigidaria.
A term of unclear application. It seems orginally to have pertained only to parts of baths, possibly the heated section, but it was later applied to entire bath buildings, as in Lavacrum Agrippinae. See Fagan, "Lavacrum" on this.
Open-air swimming pool.
Term usually applied to exercise court; sometimes also called peristyle.
Term loosely applied to pools, whether heated or not.
Furnace room.
Hemicycular apse in which the larbum stood. Usually located in the caldarium.
Wooden sandals to protect bathers' feet from the hot floors.
Ball-playing court, either open court or roofed room.
Curved instruments, usually made of metal, wood, bone, or terracotta, used to scrape the product of exercise and anointing off the bather. This procedure took place either in the palaestra or the tepidarium.
Sweat-bath (humid); optional.
Medium-heated room in regular sequence of bathing rooms.
Term applied to bath buildings. Usually used to denote richly decorated establishments, especially large Imperial baths.Testudo alvei ("The tortoise of the pool")
A remarkable device for ensuring that the heated water in hot pools was evenly distributed. It was a hollow metal receptacle, that sat directly over the fire in the furnace. It opened into the pool, and by the process of convection water circulated into it from the pool and, once heated, back out into the pool. A couple of complete examples are known -- one of lead from Cuicul, one of bronze from Künzig -- suggesting they were often hemi-tubes. Despite the scarsity of the device itself, emplacements for it are a regular feature of surviving remains of baths. The term is found in Vitruvius (5.10.1).
Bear
with us, we're still building. More terms will be added in coming weeks.
Suggestions and submissions should send directly to Garrett
G. Fagan.