The History of Baths

Latin Glossary of Bathing Through the Ages - A to H

Alveus

The hot bathing pool in the caldarium. The pool is described in some detail by Vitruvius It was a communal pool able to accommodate several individuals

Apodyterium

A reception room and changing room providing storage space for clothing and other possessions while bathing.

Balnea

Terms denoting bath buildings. Used to refer to small city baths of the type excavated at Pompeii, the bath buildings were both public and private, and segregated and mixed.

Balneator

The "bath-man," often the manger of the complex. His role and duties are most unclear and varied from place to place. He had a job collecting money at the door pouring water over customers keeping the cloakroom and even stoking the furnaces and procuring the women.

Baptisterium

A rare term for a cold pool, located either in the interior environment of the frigidarium or outside in the open air. It became associated with initiation into the Christian faith, presumably because most early Christian baptisms were often staged in the cold pools of Roman baths.

Caldarium

This was hottest room in regular sequence of bathing rooms. Vitruvius describes it in detail.

Calida piscina

A large pool, heated independently of the pools in the caldarium. An excellent example has been found in the Suburban Baths at Herculaneum. Maecanas introduced it to the city of Rome and Pliny's Laurentine villa had one attached to the hot rooms.

Cella Solearis / Soliaris

This is a disputed term. It is mentioned in the Historia Augusta as part of the Baths of Caracalla. The rooms containing solia, or communal pools can be considered a synonym for Caldarium.

Exedra

In Roman baths exedrae were often open rooms off the palaestra, used for rest and relaxation. Identified exedrae have optional decorating columns in their front and often seats and benches and Vitruvius has written that they were used for philosophical debates and other educational purposes.

Frigidarium

This was coldest room in the regular sequence of bathing rooms. Architecturally, the room varied in design and dimensions. The earliest are represented in 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.

Gymnasium

A roman word derived from the Greek word meaning naked. It was a large area devoted to exercise in Ancient Greece.

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