Roman baths unveiled. Ancient thermalism and the Peutinger Map

M. Bassani, M. Bolder-Boos, U. Fusco (edd.), Rethinking the Concept of “Healing Settlements”: Water, Cults, Constructions and Contexts in the Ancient World,

2006

The eparchy of Mylopotamos is home to a cluster of Roman baths including examples at Eleutherna, Stavromenos, Chamalevri, Alpha and Plaka Kalis. Furthermore, Roman baths have also been identified at Sybritos and Vizari located south of the modern boundaries of the province, but are best understood as part of this larger regional concentration. This article examines this notable concentration of Roman baths through an appraisal of their common heating system. This heating system is characterised by the application of clay spacer pins to the main architectural walls of the bathhouse. These spacer pins secure a parallel screen wall, composed of a series of large flat tiles, which creates a cavity allowing for the circulation of hot air generated in the hypocaust of the bath. This heating system, incorporating the use of spacer pins, is not exclusively restricted to the Mylopotamos region but represents the characteristic Roman bathhouse heating system of the island of Crete. In the wider empire, spacer pins have been found in baths in North Africa, Israel, Cyprus, Rhodes, and Asia Minor, but not elsewhere. The dense distribution of this heating system across Crete contrasts starkly with its apparent rarity on mainland Greece (where a preference for spacer tubes and tubuli / box tiles is demonstrable). Wider imperial distribution of spacer pins supports direct connections and influence between Crete and Asia Minor (particularly in Lycia), and to a lesser extent, North Africa. There are clear economic benefits to the use of spacer pins in bathhouse heating systems as they could be produced quickly, efficiently and economically on a large scale in Crete. Their production is confirmed in many of the major sites of production of amphorae on the island, being securely identified at Chersonisos, Tsoutsouros, Dermatos and Gortyna. This coupling of the manufacture of spacer pins with amphora production sites establishes their manufacture on an intense island-wide scale during the 2nd and 3rd century BC, which also corresponds to a period of extensive construction of public baths across the island. The grouping in Mylopotamos represents the densest inland bathhouse concentration on the island, and, since a public bath, no matter how small, was necessary for civic esteem in the Roman period, as it was in such visible terms that rival cities measured their status, their presence intimates that this inland area was particularly attractive for urban development. By the 3rd century AD these major sites had grown to such a size whereby they could generate small satellite settlements within their hinterlands (as possibly represented by the baths of Vizari and Alpha). This dynamic is a testimony to the success of the Roman urban pattern in Crete, which not only created urban structures but also transformed rural life, and establishes Eleutherna as one of the most dominant cities in Crete during the imperial period. http://www.philology.uoc.gr/conferences/mylopotamos/abstracts.pdf

Thermalism in the Roman Provinces The Role of Medicinal Mineral Waters across the Empire, 2024

Archaeological evidence attests that mineral springs were a significant element of Thracian culture both in the pre-Roman and the Roman periods. The discovered finds reveal that the interest in some healing sites popular in Roman times was in place earlier as well, clearly indicating an indigenous tradition. Thermal sites in Roman Thrace demonstrate significant diversity in size and architectural appearance. As scholars have argued, the position and accessibility of a thermal site are crucial to its development and popularity (Bassani and Fusco 2019). While roads undoubtedly existed in Thrace before the province’s establishment in AD 46 (Torbatov 2004: 84), the Roman infrastructure significantly facilitated travelling, making it comfortable and affordable to a broader audience. Advanced road networks, in turn,improved the accessibility to rural and mountain areas, where many mineral springs are situated. Furthermore, it enhanced the popularity of existing sites by allowing for easier and more convenient travel, especially for sick individuals searching for a cure – the most common visitors to spas. The new roads made healing sites easily accessible to inhabitants of neighbouring cities, whose population looked for a place to relax and ease their ailments. Compared to their village counterparts, the cities’ overall wealthier population was another impulse for the development of spas, which now had to cater to a more demanding clientele. The paper explores the development of thermal sites through their correlation with the road network and infrastructure in Roman Thrace. The chronology of each site is juxtaposed with relative historical sources and the current knowledge of the road system to explain the changes in the appearance and the expansion observed in thermal settlements. Given the limited volume, the subject is explored based on case studies of settlements, i.e. Skaptopara, Aquae Calidae (Burgaski mineralni bani) and Germania. By presenting the evolution of the described healing sites in connection to the road network, the author explores their relationship to better understand the development of Thracian spas in the Roman period.

Water and Society IV, 2017

To consider water as a common good means to intend to address not only the natural resource, but also the ability to use it and the rights that a community has to enjoy that resource. Furthermore, water is seen not only as the basis for human existence, but also as a source of metaphysical symbolism, aesthetic pleasure, having therapeutic values. In fact, water is closely linked to the concept of the bath in both its main forms: one devoted exclusively to cleaning, a personal and private matter; and the other as a restoring activity and the centre of social life and of the community. To this second category belong the thermal baths that are able to reveal, through different forms, local traditions and identities. Sardinia is one of the most promising regions of Italy for the exploitation of geothermal resources, with the presence of numerous thermal sources. Thermal springs, spread over the island's territory, revealing their ancient origins with different characteristics: sites included in consolidated urban contexts (Sardara, Fordongianus) and point elements scattered throughout the landscape (Benetutti, Dorgali) represent the memory of structures that over the centuries have constituted important opportunities to generate spaces for the community. This paper illustrates, within the thermal bath system of Sardinia, three cases where the thermal waters can be considered a common good, while also investigating the relationship between spatial structures and the resource management process.

With its 36 excavated public and private baths, Pompeii provides unique evidence to study the development of bathing culture from a multifaceted perspective. This paper explores this development and its socio-cultural context and impact, focusing on the eight publicly owned and publicly accessible baths: Central Baths, Forum Baths, Palaestra Baths, Praedia Iulia Felix Baths, Republican Baths, Sarno Baths, Stabian Baths, and Suburban Baths. Key features considered here include location, size, design, technical standard regarding heating, water management and vaulting, as well as bathing program and decoration. After a brief discussion of the research history, the development of bathing culture is discussed in four different time periods, often identified as significant periods in Pompeii’s urban history. It is argued that baths of Samnite Pompeii in the late 2nd century BC (phase 1) represent the highest currently known standard in terms of bathing program and technology. Conceptual differences and technological innovations were least pronounced in the transition between the Samnite town and early Roman colony founded in 80 BC (phase 2). Supplying baths by the aqueduct from the early Imperial period onwards (phase 3) enabled the most significant change to bathing programs and practices, notably the introduction of bathing forms with running cold water. The earthquake of AD 62 (phase 4) did not entail stagnation and decline; on the contrary, the baths were enlarged, embellished, and improved. The state of research does not allow determining, however, whether the development of Pompeii’s “bathscape” was standard regarding the quantity and quality of baths.

Water as hazard