Roman public baths
Termas públicas monumentales
- Date
- c. 100 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Pompeii (Stabian Baths) and Rome, Italy
- Credited to
- Campanian cities and Rome; monumentalised by Agrippa
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A complex of hot, warm and cold baths, pools, a gymnasium and libraries, supplied by aqueducts and hypocausts, open to the whole population for a minimal fee. An integration of hydraulic, thermal and architectural engineering.
What it led to
- Mass public hygiene and reduced disease
- A space for cross-class sociability and urban leisure
- Great concrete domes and vaults (Caracalla, Diocletian)
- The Islamic hammam and modern spas
Built on
Made possible
- Cast glass window panec. 50 CE
- Large-span concrete dome (Pantheon)c. 126 CE
- Dome of the Pantheon
- Hammam