While at the court of Alcinous, Ulys-in is de scribed as laved by attendant nymphs, and in the tenth book of the Odyssey, the whole process of bathing that hero, at the court of the enchantress i Circe, is minutely described. (Id. lib. x. v. 358.) It appears from this passage, that it was usual in those early ages to anoint the body with oil or un guents, after the warm bath.
Among the Spartans, cold bathing was particularly practised ; and bathing and swimming formed a part of the gymnastic exercises inculcated on the Spartan youth by the laws of Lycurgus. It is probable, how ever, that in later times the Spartans also employed the warm or vapour bath, as the term laconicum, ap plied to the stove used in the warm bath among the Romans, is evidently derived from Laconia.t Cold bathing and swimming were practised by the Roman youth as part of their exercises in the Campus lllartzus, and the latter commonly terminated the foot race. The youthful candidates for the prize in this exercise, directed their course towards the banks of the Tiber, and after the violent exertion of miming,• plunged headlong into the stream. This they were accustomed to cross twice before the contention ed ; and it was usual to anoint the bodies of the swimmers before the contest, a practice which would have the effect of diminishing the action of the cold. See Horace, Od. lib. i. ode 8. ; and Satyr. lib. ii.
In the later periods of the Roman empire, when re finement and luxury had arrived at the highest pitch, the custom of warm bathing generally prevailed among the more wealthy citizens, and the most mag nificent and extensive apartments for the exercise of this luxury were constructed by the emperors and no bles. Many remains of these splendid edifices still exist, and afford us admirable specimens both of the architecture and refinement of the Romans. In the public baths there were sometimes six apartments, and seldom fewer than five. The first of these was called apodyterizem, where the bathers undressed, and deposited their clothes, whence it was also called spo liatorium. In the ordinary baths this apartment was wanting. The second room in the most complete, and the first in the ordinary baths, was thefrigidari unz, or apartment for the cold bath. Where there
was no apodyterium, the bathers undressed in this room, whether they were to use the cold or the warm bath. The third apartment was the tepidariunz, so called, not because it contained the warm bath, but because it was warmed to a moderate temperature, to serve as an intermediate room between the warm and cold baths, thus diminishing the danger of sudden ex posure to the air, after warm bathing. In the fourth room, called laconicum, was placed a stove for heating the air of the room ; and here those who were to use the warm bath remained for some time before immersion, and were anointed after warm bathing, or before enter ing the cold bath. The fifth apartment was the-proper balneum, or warm bath, and was usually made sufficient ly large to contain several bathers at the same time. It was furnished with a gallery, where those who waited for their turns in the bath might walk, and was light ed by a single window, placed immediately over, or opposite to, the alveum, or receptacle for the warm water. The sixth and last apartment, called eleothe or unetuarium, seems to have formed a sort of closet for containing the oils or unguents with which the bathers were anointed. Below the building was a furnace called hypocaust or suspensura, for heating the several warm apartments, and probably the water employed in the warm bath.
These structures were called thernur, and were very numerous in the capital of the Roman empire. The construction of public baths appears to have commenced under Augustus, and to have been intro duced by Mecznas his favourite. It was soon carried to an astonishing height ; and the erection of baths, where the people might be accommodated gratis, be came an established and successful method of gaining their affections. According to Fabricius, there were in Rome not fewer than 8.56 public baths, some of which were sufficiently large to contain at once 1800 persons. The most celebrated of these were the baths of Caracalla, Dioclesian, and Titus, the remains of which still exist, to testify the magnificence of their founders.