_Admission one lira; Sundays free._
A favourite spot of Shelley's--"among the flowery glades and thickets
of odoriferous blossoming trees, which are extended in ever winding
labyrinths upon its immense platforms and dizzy arches suspended in
the air." So the poet wrote of this spot. But now it is all changed:
the hand of the explorer has ruthlessly pulled up the trees, and
scraped the wild flowers and weeds from the ruined walls, exposing
beautiful mosaic pavements, it is true, but which hardly repay for the
loss of nature's verdure.
The magnificent Thermæ of Caracalla display in the clearest and most
complete manner the skeleton of an edifice of this kind--these
glorious ruins standing, as it were, intact before us.
They were begun by Caracalla in the year 212, enlarged by
Heliogabalus, and completed by Alexander Severus; their area being
140,000 square yards--length, 1840 yards by 1476. As many as 1600
persons could, it is said, bathe in them at the same time. The baths,
properly so called, were 1720 feet in length and 375 in width, and
they were surrounded by pleasure-gardens, porticoes, a stadium, &c.
The reservoir was supplied by the Antonine aqueduct, which carried the
water from the Claudian over the Arch of Drusus. The principal
entrance to the baths was from the Via Nova, one of the favourite
promenades of the ancient Romans, made by Caracalla. Among the works
of art discovered in the thermæ may be mentioned the Farnese Hercules,
the Colossal Flora, the Farnese Bull, the Atreus and Thyestes, the Two
Gladiators, and the Venus Callipyge. The bronzes, cameos, bas-reliefs,
medals, &c., found in the thermæ are too numerous to mention. The urns
in green basalt now in the Vatican Museum, and the granite basins of
the Piazza Farnese, formerly belonged to the Baths of Caracalla. The
baths remained entire, both as regards their architecture and their
internal decoration, until the middle of the sixth century, when the
aqueducts were destroyed by Vitiges.
[Illustration: BATHS OF CARACALLA.]
The portion of this series of main chambers, with which all the others
are connected, like the limbs of an organic body, was a rotunda. The
open space at the foot of the Aventine was intended for a stadium. The
games held in it could be viewed from the tiers of seats, which rose,
as in a theatre, above the reservoir, still in existence, on the
declivity of the hill. From this the building was supplied with water,
conveyed to the different points by means of an aqueduct.
In order to attain a correct idea of the ground-plan, we must proceed
to the space in the centre, enclosed on the side towards the road by a
high wall furnished with window niches for the reception of statues.
This was the great swimming-bath, as is proved by the excavations,
which have revealed the deep level of the original floor. Beyond this
are small rooms where the bathers were oiled and shampooed; beyond
these again is the GRAND PERISTYLIUM, enclosed with pillars and a
portico, in which were performed the athletic exercises; adjoining
were the Women's Baths. Returning through the HEMICYCLIA, we enter the
PINACOTHECA, or Fine Art Gallery. This brings us to the TEPIDARIUM, or
Warm Bath, with four hot baths, CALDARIA, at the corners, from which
the SUDATORIUM, or Sweating Room, was entered. This was called the
CELLA SOLEARIS. The roof was supported by bars of brass interwoven
like the straps of a sandal. Vitruvius tells us that the Sudatorium
ought to be circular, with a circular window in the centre of the
dome, with a shutter to be opened or shut,--thus controlling the
atmosphere as required. The Solearis was considered a great
architectural feat, and inimitable. Of this grand rotunda only four
piers are left, but these are sufficient to give an idea of its size;
and it was to the Baths of Caracalla what the Pantheon was to the
Baths of Agrippa: that is the only perfect part of those baths left;
this is the only part of these baths wanting.
The mosaics of the pavement have sunk down, as it were, in the form of
troughs, in consequence of the piers on which the arches rested, as on
a sort of grating, having been broken when the latter fell in, and not
being properly shored up when excavated.
The remainder of the building recently excavated corresponds with the
parts we have described.
Some of the beautiful mosaic pavements may be seen in the Lateran and
Borghese Villa Palaces.
_Above the baths, on an eminence of the Aventine, is the_