Modern and Recent Plumbing Fixtures—Passing of the Marble
Lavatory—Public Wash Houses—Public Comfort Stations—Conclusion 119
List of Illustrations
Page
1 Rebekah at the Well 2
2 Well at the Rancho Chack 4
3 Ancient Roman Fountain at Corinth 6
4 The Cisterns at Carthage 7
5 Pole and Bucket for Raising Water 8
6 Ruins of Ancient Cisterns 8
7 Old Roman Water-Wheel 9
8 Water Carrier with Jar 9
9 Water Carrier with Goat-Skin Bag 11
10 Pool of Siloam 12
11 Pool of Solomon 13
12 Aqueduct near Tunis, Leading to Ancient Carthage 14
13 Ancient Roman Well 15
14 Ruins of a Roman Aqueduct 17
15 Distant View of the Claudia Aqueduct 18
16 Near View of the Claudia Aqueduct 19
17 Aqueduct in Ruins, Ephesus 20
18 Roman Aqueduct, Segovia, Spain 22
19 Water Tower and Roman Ruins, Chester, England 23
20 Roman Water Pipes, made of Bored-out Blocks of Stone 24
21 Trophies of Marius 25
22 Old Roman Lead and Terra Cotta Pipe 26
23 The Women's Baths, Pompeii 28
24 The Cloaca Maxima. From an old woodcut 31
25 The Cloaca Maxima. From a recent photograph 32
26 Egyptian Lady Having Head Sprayed, 1700 B. C. 33
27 Greek Women Bathing 34
28 Greek Bath Tubs 34
29 The Roman Aqueduct of Segovia, Spain 36
30 Mosaic from Floor of Baths of Caracalla 37
31 Ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, Rome 38
32 Interior of the Frigidarium, Caracalla 39
33 Outer Row of Baths, Caracalla, Rome 41
34 Thermæ of Titus at Rome 46
35 Clipeus. From an old woodcut 46
36 Floor Plan of the Baths of Pompeii 47
37 Frigidarium. From an old woodcut 48
38 Atlantes 50
39 Coppers for Heating Water in Roman Baths 52
40 Ground Plan of Thermæ of Caracalla 55
41 Hypocaust for Heating Water, Thermæ of Caracalla 57
42 Restoration of Thermæ of Titus. (Restored by Leclerc) 58
43 Plan of the Thermæ of Titus, Rome. (Restored by Leclerc) 59
44 Sectional Elevation, Thermæ of Titus, Rome 60
45 Frigidarium, Thermæ of Caracalla, Rome. (Restored by
Viollet-le-Duc.) 61
46 Interior View of Aqueduct, Lisbon, Portugal 62
47 Destroyed Lead Font, Great Plumstead, Norfolk 64
48 Leaden Cup, of the time of Vespasian 65
49 Lead Pipehead and Pipe 66
50 Lead Cistern with the Arms of the Fishmongers' Company 67
51 Car of Juggernaut 68
52 Distant View of Zempoala Aqueduct, Queretaro, Mexico 70
53 Near View of Zempoala Aqueduct, Mexico 71
54 Zempoala Aqueduct. From an old print 72
55 The Oldest Bathroom in the World 76
56 Savery's Engine 77
57 Newcomen's Engine 78
58 Pump House, Philadelphia 79
59 Wooden Boilers used in Philadelphia Water Supply 80
60 Bored-out Log Pipe, used in British Columbia 81
61 Valve for Wooden Pipes used in Philadelphia Water Supply 82
62 Hydrant for Wooden Pipes used in Philadelphia Water Supply 82
63 Modern Vertical Triple-Expansion Pumping Engine 83
64 Aqueduct Crossing the Alcantara Valley 84
65 Bathing and Burning Hindu Dead at Benares 90
66 Map Showing Relation of Cholera and the Broad Street Pump 92
67 York Survey of the Broad Street Pump 101
68 The Fountain of Elisha 108
69 Map Showing Location of Cases of Cholera in Hamburg and Altona 110
70 New York Public Baths 118
71 Bathroom of the Early Seventies 119
72 One Stage in the Evolution of the Porcelain Enameled Bath 120
73 A Slop Sink of Long Ago 120
74 Bath Tub Encased in Woodwork 121
75 An Old Marble-Top Lavatory 121
76 A Modern Porcelain Enameled Lavatory 122
77 Present Stage in the Evolution of Porcelain Enameled Baths 123
78 A Twentieth Century Bathroom 124
[Illustration: LAOCOÖN AND HIS SONS
STATVARY FOVND IN THE BATHS OF TITVS
This group of statuary is now in the Vatican, Rome]
[Illustration: History of Sanitation: CHAPTER I]
SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER. Sanitation of Primitive Man—Early Wells—Rebekah
at the Well—Joseph's Well—The Rancho Chack.
History repeats itself. The march of progress is onward, ever
onward, but it moves in cycles. A center of civilization springs up,
flourishes for a time then decays; and from the ashes of the perished
civilization, phœnix-like, there springs a larger, grander, more
enduring civilization. Nowhere in the cycle of progress is this more
noticeable than in the history of sanitation. Centers of civilization,
like Jerusalem, Athens, Rome and Carthage, arose to pre-eminence in
sanitary matters, built sewers, constructed aqueducts and provided for
the inhabitants magnificent baths the equal of which the world has
never since seen. After the splendors of Carthage and Rome, darkness
succeeded; a darkness from which we slowly emerged in the sixteenth
century and are now speeding on to eclipse the sanitary splendors of
even the old Roman empire.
In its broadest sense, a history of sanitation is a story of the
world's struggle for an adequate supply of wholesome water, and its
efforts to dispose of the resultant sewage without menace to health
nor offence to the sense of sight or smell. In ancient as in modern
times, water was the chief consideration of a community. Centers of
population sprung up in localities where water was plentiful, and
where for commercial, strategetic or other reasons, a city was built
remote from a water course, great expenditures of labor and treasure
were made constructing works to conduct water to the city from distant
springs, lakes or water courses. Ruins—still standing—of some of those
engineering works give us some idea of the magnitude of the water
supply for ancient cities belonging to the Roman empire.
[Illustration: Rebekah at the Well]
In the early days of primitive man, sanitation was among his least
concerns. He obtained water from the most convenient source, and
disposed of his sewage in the least laborious way. Those who lived
in the vicinity of streams solved the problem by moving to the bank,
where, like their more highly civilized descendants of to-day, they
drew water from the up side of the stream and returned the sewage to
the water to pollute and possibly contaminate it for their neighbors
lower down.
Communities living remote from natural water courses soon learned the
value of wells as a source of water supply. Many mentions of wells are
made in the Book of Genesis, and it is affirmed by Blackstone that at
that period wells were the cause of violent and frequent contention;
that the exclusive property or title to a well appeared to be vested in
the first digger or occupant, even in such places where the ground and
herbage remained in common.
While this statement might be true of many instances, there can be no
doubt that public wells were dug even in those remote times. Indeed,
the first mention made of a well, in the Book of Genesis, would
indicate that its waters were free to all. Abraham's oldest servant,
Eliezer, had been entrusted with the duty of selecting a wife for
Abraham's son, Isaac. The servant journeyed to the ancient city of
Nahor, and there "he made his camels to kneel down without the city by
a well of water at the time of the evening that women go out to draw
water." And he said: "Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and
the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water, and let it
come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher,
I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will
give thy camel drink also; Let the same be she that Thou hast appointed
for thy servant, Isaac. And it came to pass that Rebekah came out, and
the damsel was very fair to look upon, and she went down to the well
and filled her pitcher, and the servant said, Let me I pray thee drink
a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord, and when
she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy
camel also. And she hastened to empty her pitcher in the trough and ran
again unto the well to draw water for all the camels."
In Assyria and Persia from earliest times, water has been conveyed to
towns from astonishing distances in open channels, and in Egypt, also
in China, gigantic works for conveying water both for domestic use and
for irrigation have been in existence from remote antiquity. In China,
a knowledge of the art of well drilling has existed for centuries.
Travelers speak of wells drilled by Chinese, centuries ago, to a depth
of 1,500 feet.
In the valley of the Nile are many famous wells. Joseph's Well[1] at
Cairo, near the Pyramids, is perhaps the most famous of ancient wells.
It is excavated in solid rock to a depth of 297 feet and consists of
two stories or lifts. The upper shaft is 18 by 24 feet and 165 feet
deep; the lower shaft is 9 by 15 feet and reaches to a further depth of
132 feet. Water is raised in two lifts by means of buckets on endless
chains, those for the lower level being operated by mules in a chamber
at the bottom of the upper shaft, to which access is had by means of a
spiral stairway winding about the well.
[Illustration: Well at the Rancho Chack]
In America, the use of wells as a means of water supply is of great
antiquity, dating back to pre-historic races. In the United States,
along the valley of the Mississippi, artificially walled wells have
been found that are believed to have been built by a race of people
who preceded the Indians. Primitive tribes that lived in the hills
sometimes had their ingenuity taxed to provide a water supply. In the
hills or mountains of Yucatan, at Santa Ana, in the Sierra de Yucatan,
there exists a well of great antiquity that shows the difficulty under
which the aborigines labored in their search for water. The well is
located on the Rancho Chack. It is not known whether this well was
constructed by hand labor or is one of the numerous caverns in the
rock, fashioned by the boundless forces of nature, and with which the
hills abound. Water is reached after descending by ladder a distance
of over 100 feet and traversing a passage 2,700 feet long or about
half a mile in length. The rocky sides of the tunnel are worn smooth
by the friction of clothes or bodies brushing against the surface, and
the roof of the tunnel is black from soot and smoke from countless
torches that have lighted water bearers to the spot where a pool of
clear, lukewarm water bars the passage. How many centuries this little
subterranean pool has supplied water to the natives of this region
there is no means of ascertaining. The well is used at the present
time, and perhaps when Carthage was a village, Rome a wilderness,
and Christianity unthought of, this little pool of water hidden in
the bowels of the earth and accessible only after traversing a dark,
slippery, perilous passage, was to the Indians of that locality
what the old oaken bucket was to the New England villagers of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: ANCIENT ROMAN FOVNTAIN AT CORINTH
GREEK PEASANTS WASHING CLOTHES
From Stereograph, copyright 1908 by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
(See page iv)]
[Illustration: CHAPTER II]
SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER. Cisterns—Early Mention of Cisterns—Cisterns
of Carthage—Early Methods of Raising Water—Water Carriers—Pool of
Siloam—Pool of Solomon—Aqueducts—Carthagenian Aqueduct—Aqueducts of
Rome—Aqueducts of Segovia, Spain—Trophies of Marius.
The storage of water in cisterns or reservoirs is by no means a modern
practice. The earliest tribes of whom we have any traditions or records
resorted to this method for providing a supply of water. In xi Kings,
18-31, the first mention is made of cisterns in "Drink ye every one
the water of his cistern." The methods employed by the ancients to
construct cisterns must have been laborious and unsatisfactory. Cement
at that time was unknown and bricks were not made, so that the modern
cistern, as we know it, could not have existed. No doubt in some
localities where clay was plentiful the cisterns were scooped out of
the earth and puddled with clay, just as many reservoirs of to-day are
made. This method of constructing a cistern, however, would limit the
form to a cup-shaped affair, which would be very difficult to roof
over. If the cisterns were not covered, as much water might be lost by
evaporation as would be used by the inhabitants, so that at its best a
clay-puddled cistern must have been an unsatisfactory affair. In the
locality of mountains and quarries, cisterns were hewn out of the solid
rock. "They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed
them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."—Jer. 2-3.
Rock-hewn cisterns must have made ideal storage reservoirs for water.
The darkness of the cavern would prevent the growth of vegetation,
while the thick walls of rock, affording a shelter from the sun, would
keep the water cool and refreshing.
[Illustration: The Cisterns at Carthage. All that is left of the
Ancient City]
[Illustration: Pole and Bucket for Raising Water]
[Illustration: Ruins of Ancient Cisterns]
It is worthy of noting here that the ancients seem to have been aware
of the movement of ground water through the soil, a fact that was
forgotten and rediscovered in comparatively recent times. In Prov.
5-15 the statement, "Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running
waters out of thine own well," would lead to this conclusion, unless,
indeed, they classed a bubbling spring as a well.
The earliest known cistern or reservoir of which we have any authentic
knowledge are the masonry cisterns or reservoirs that stored water for
the supply of the ancient city of Carthage. These cisterns, which are
wonderfully well preserved, are still to be seen on the site of the
ancient Punic city, but outside of what was the walled city, before it
was totally destroyed by the Romans.
[Illustration: Old Roman Water Wheel]
[Illustration: Water Carrier with Jar]
These cisterns were originally covered with earth, and it is due to
that fact, perhaps, that they escaped destruction when the Romans razed
the city. It is easy to criticise the judgment of others, and no doubt
if all the facts were known, there were good and sufficient reasons
why the Roman general did not destroy the cisterns and cut off the
supply of water from Carthage during the siege of that city. But in
the light of our present knowledge of warfare, when a water supply is
considered a vulnerable point, most carefully guarded by the besieged,
and the point of most furious attack by the besiegers, when the fall
of the city is considered almost accomplished when its water supply
is taken, it seems an oversight on the part of the Romans not to have
discovered and destroyed the cisterns, particularly as the destruction
of everything in the city and environs was their mission at Carthage.
It is an oversight, however, for which we may be thankful, since it
preserved for future times an interesting engineering work of great
magnitude for that period.
The cisterns of Carthage are eighteen in number, and each 100 feet
long, 20 feet wide and nearly 20 feet deep. They lie in two long
parallel rows and empty into a common gallery situated between the
rows. From this center collecting gallery the water was delivered
through conduits direct to the city of Carthage.
The earliest method of raising water from a well, cistern or other
source of supply was by hand. This method, however, was laborious and
unsatisfactory, particularly when necessary to raise large quantities
of water for irrigation purposes, or to supply the inhabitants of
a community at a great distance or high elevation, and it was not
long before the mechanical ingenuity of our ancestors devised means
for transferring this arduous duty to oxen, asses or other beasts of
burden. Sometimes, as in the case of the Romans, this work is made a
penal punishment, and persons found guilty of certain offenses were
sentenced to the water-wheel.
About the earliest known device for raising small quantities of water
was the pole and bucket, which was commonly employed in Italy, Greece
and Egypt. The great antiquity of this method of raising water is
proved by representations of it in Egyptian paintings. It consisted of
a bucket attached to a pole that was suspended by trunnions so located
that when the bucket was filled with water the thick end of the pole
would just balance the combined weight of bucket and water. This
permitted its use for many hours at a time, when raising water for
irrigation without greatly fatiguing the operator.
[Illustration: Water Carrier with Goat-skin Bag]
The most ingenious and highly involved form of ancient water-raising
machine was a water-wheel. The method of operating a water-wheel
depended much on the region where used. In Egypt, along the Nile, oxen
were employed for this purpose. In China, coolies were found more
satisfactory even in raising large quantities of water for irrigation
purposes, which they did by walking a simple form of treadmill on the
outer edges of the water-wheel. The Romans, slow at originating, but,
like the Japanese, quick to recognize the value of anything new and
adapt it to their purposes, borrowed the idea of the water-wheel from
the Greeks or Egyptians, but made it automatic when used in streams
and rivers by adding paddles that dipped into the running water and
were moved by the current of the stream. Water-wheels operated by oxen
were in use at Cairo up to the twelfth century, where they raised water
vertically a distance of 80 feet from the Nile to an aqueduct that
supplied the citadel of Cairo.
Our present elaborate system of water distribution was of humble
origin. It was not a rapid growth, but a gradual evolution. Its four
principal stages were: First, distribution from natural sources by
water carriers; second, aqueducts conveying water to communities where
a system of sub-conduits or aqueducts conveyed the water from the main
aqueduct to reservoirs at different points in a city; third, a system
of distributing mains through which water was furnished to householders
at certain hours only during the day; and fourth, our present system
of continuous supply at all hours of the day and night. In the first
stages of water distribution, water was carried on the backs of water
carriers in earthenware jars constructed especially for the purpose,
or in goat or other animal skins properly tanned and sewed to hold
water. While this method of water distribution is of great antiquity,
it is still practiced in most tropical countries, and to this day water
carriers, some with the burdens on their backs, others with goatskins
of water on donkeys' backs or with jars of water in two-wheeled carts,
may be seen plying their trade in Mexican and Egyptian cities.
The earliest record we have of any effort to supply a community with
water conveyed in tunnels or aqueducts from a great distance, dates
from the year 727 B. C. King Hezekiah or Ezekias, who reigned in
Jerusalem at that time, was much troubled over the poor quality of
water furnished to the city and undertook to provide a better supply.
[Illustration: Pool of Siloam]
[Illustration: Pool of Solomon]
He had built at the gates of the city a vast reservoir, the "Pool of
Siloam," but when it was completed, found that a sufficient quantity
of water could not be had without conveying it from a distant source
on the easterly side of a range of hills of solid rock, over which it
would be impossible to convey it. In no way daunted he set to work
to pierce the hills with a tunnel or aqueduct, capable of supplying
the city with water. Work was commenced simultaneously at both ends
of the tunnel and progressed uninterruptedly until the workmen met
in the center under the mountain or hill. An inscription in old
Hebrew characters, found close to Jerusalem and preserved in the
Constantinople Museum, throws some interesting light on this, for that
period, remarkable engineering work. Translated, the inscription reads:
"The piercing is terminated. When the pick of one had not yet struck
against the pick of the other, and while there was yet a distance of 3
ells, it was possible to hear the voice of one man calling to another
across the rock separating them, and the last day of the piercing, the
miner's pick met against pick. The height of rock above the heads of
the miners was 100 ells. Then the water flowed into the reservoir over
a length of 1,200 ells." This tunnel was cut through a mountain of
solid rock. The tunnel varied in dimensions from ⅝ of a yard to a yard
in width, and from 1 to 3 yards in height, according to the hardness of
the rock.
[Illustration: Aqueduct near Tunis, leading to Ancient Carthage]
The magnitude of this undertaking can be realized only when it is
considered that the tunnel was constructed without the aid of blasting
agents, machine drills, steam, electricity or any of the great forces
or devices now controlled by man and used in modern engineering
construction.
At a later period in the world's history, Roman engineers, tunneling
through the rock, used fire as well as chisels to disintegrate the
rock. The usual method of procedure was to build an intensely hot
fire against the rock, and when the rock had been heated to the right
temperature it was drenched with cold water to crack and disintegrate
it. According to Pliny, vinegar was sometimes used instead of water,
under the impression that it was more effective in disintegrating rock.
It is doubtful if this method was used in constructing the tunnel at
Jerusalem. In fact it can be stated with considerable assurance that
the entire tunnel was cut by drilling and chiseling, as the tool marks
are plainly discernible. It further is evident that, as stated in the
tablet found near Jerusalem, the tunnel was worked from both ends until
the miners met in the center. This is evidenced by the direction of the
tool marks, which plainly show that the cutting on each side of the
center was done in different directions.
Prior to the construction of the tunnel, the ancient city of Jerusalem
was supplied with water through two aqueducts, one of which supplied
water from the famous pools of Solomon, to the south of the city, and
the other poured its contents into the pools of Hezekiah, outside the
walls of the city.
The Greeks were the next in point of time to construct tunnels in
connection with the building of aqueducts. In 625 B. C. the Greek
engineer Eupalinus constructed a tunnel 8 feet broad by 8 feet high and
4,200 feet long, through which was built a channel to supply the city
of Athens with water.
[Illustration: Ancient Roman Well]
This period marks the beginning in Greece and Rome of a school of
architects and engineers whose works have left a lasting impression
on art and engineering science, and to this day are monuments of
proportion and beauty of design that are studied by all students of
architecture and engineering. It is quite probable that Greece supplied
the first engineers that constructed aqueducts in Carthage and Rome.
The similarity in design of these various works points forcibly to the
conclusion that they were all designed by disciples of one school.
Whether the first aqueducts were built in Carthage or in Rome is a
matter of some uncertainty, although the fact that an aqueduct supplied
Carthage with water at the time it was destroyed by the Romans would
point to the Carthagenian aqueduct as the prior. The first Roman
aqueduct was built in the year 312 B. C., and the city of Carthage,
which, after a protracted struggle of 118 years, from 265 B. C. to 147
B. C., was finally conquered and destroyed by the Romans, was at that
time supplied with water from distant springs through an aqueduct.
It is quite probable that Carthage was supplied with water from
two different sources. The cisterns already mentioned provided a
supply of rain water for industrial and most domestic uses, while
the aqueduct, the channel of which had a cross-section of 10 inches
square, brought drinking water from springs in the Zaghorn Mountains,
some 60 kilometers distant. The aqueduct contoured the hillside for a
considerable distance, at times went under ground, and on approaching
the city was carried on arches of magnitude seemingly out of proportion
to the size of the channel. At present it is suffering the fate of most
ancient ruins. It is used as a quarry from which stones are taken to
construct buildings in nearby towns and villages.
While the ruins of aqueducts and tunnels at Jerusalem, Athens and
Carthage give some idea of the skill and knowledge of hydraulic and
sanitary matters possessed by the engineers of that period, we must
turn to Rome and study their system of water supply, drains for sewage
and the ruins of their magnificent baths to form a true conception
of the skill of the early school of Roman engineers and the lavish
expenditures of treasure by the inhabitants to secure an adequate
water supply for Rome. No aqueducts were built in Rome before the year
312 B. C. Prior to that time the inhabitants supplied themselves with
water from the Tiber or from wells, cisterns or springs. The first
aqueduct was begun by Appius Claudius, the censor, and was named after
him the Aqua Appia. This aqueduct had an extreme length of 11 miles,
and almost all of the work was entirely under ground. Remains of this
work no longer exist. After the Aqua Appia was completed the building
of aqueducts seems to have become almost a habit of the Romans, and
it was not long—272 B. C.—before M. Aurius Dentatus began a second
one called the Anio Vetus, which brought water from the river Anio, a
distance of 43 miles. This aqueduct was constructed of stone and the
water channel was lined with a thick coat of cement—no doubt Pozzolana
cement—made from rock of volcanic origin, which, upon being pulverized
and mixed with lime, possessed the hydraulic property of setting under
water. Indeed, there can be but little doubt that were it not for this
natural cement the construction of Roman aqueducts would have been more
difficult to accomplish.
[Illustration: Ruins of a Roman Aqueduct]
The water furnished by the Anio Vetus was of such poor quality that
it was almost unfit for drinking. A further supply being found
indispensable, the Senate commissioned Quintus Marcius Rex, the
man who had superintended the repairs of the two already built, to
undertake a third, which was called after him the Aqua Marcia. This was
the most pretentious aqueduct undertaken. It was 61 miles long, about 7
of which were above ground, carried on arches, and of such height that
water could be delivered to the loftiest part of Capitoline Mount. A
considerable number of the arches of this aqueduct are still standing.
Remains are also standing of the Aqueduct Tepula (127 B. C.) and the
Aqua Julia (35 B. C.), which, if we except the Herculea branch, are
next in point of date. Near the city of Rome the three aqueducts were
united in one line of structure, forming three separate water courses,
one above another, the lowermost of which formed the channel of the
Aqua Marcia and the uppermost that of the Aqua Julia.
[Illustration: Distant View of the Claudia Aqueduct]
Thirteen years after the Julia, the Virgo aqueduct was built. This
aqueduct was 14 miles long and is said to be so named because the
spring from which it is supplied was first pointed out by a girl
to some soldiers who were in search of water. This aqueduct still
exists entire, having been partly restored by Nicholas V and the work
completed by Pope Pius IV in 1568.
[Illustration: Near View of the Claudia Aqueduct]
In the tenth year of the Christian era, the Augusta aqueduct was built.
This aqueduct was only 6 miles long, and the water that it brought
from Lake Aluetimus was of such bad quality as to be scarcely fit for
drinking, on which account it is supposed that the founder, Augustus,
intended it chiefly for his naumachia.
It might be interesting at this point to deviate a little from the
history of the Roman aqueducts and draw aside the curtain to catch a
glimpse of the aquatic sports or pastimes of a Roman emperor of that
period. The naumachia of Augustus was a rectangular basin 1,800 feet
long by 1,200 feet wide, in which actual sea fights between rival
fleets were held for the amusement of the emperor and his friends. The
combatants in these sea fights were usually captives, or criminals
condemned to death, who fought as in gladiatorial combats, until one
party was killed, unless saved by the clemency of the emperor. The
vessels engaged in the sea fight were divided into two parties, called
respectively by names of different maritime nations, as Persians and
Athenians. The sea fights were conducted on the same magnificent scale
and with the same disregard of life as characterized the gladiatorial
combats and other public games of the Romans held in the Colosseum. In
Nero's naumachia, sea monsters were swimming around in the artificial
lake to make short work of any poor unfortunate that was unlucky enough
to go overboard.
In some of the sea fights exhibited by different emperors, the ships
were almost equal in number to real fleets. In one battle there were
19,000 combatants and 50 ships on each side.
It was for the purpose then of supplying one of these artificial lakes
with water that the Augusta aqueduct was constructed.
[Illustration: Aqueduct in Ruins, Ephesus]
Perhaps the best known aqueducts of Rome are the Claudia and the Anio
Novus. The completion of these waterways, which was accomplished
respectively in 50 and 52 A. D., doubled the supply of water to Rome.
The Claudia aqueduct was 46 miles in length and the Anio Novus 58 miles
in length. The Claudia was commenced by Caligula in the year 38, but
was completed, as was the Anio Novus, by the Emperor Claudius.
Many other aqueducts besides those mentioned were built at different
periods to add to the water supply of Rome. A table is given below
showing the date of the constructions and their lengths.
The magnificence displayed by the Romans in the construction of
aqueducts was not confined to the capital. Wherever Roman colonies
were established, it would appear that vast sums were expended in
providing the community with a suitable supply of water. Ruins of
aqueducts built by the Romans may still be seen at many points in
Spain, France, Africa, Greece, and even England can point to the ruins
of a water tower built by this prolific school of Roman engineers. At
the present time there are probably one hundred or more structures
of this kind in existence, some of which are in daily use, supplying
water to inhabitants of communities for whose ancestors they were built
centuries ago.
ROMAN AQUEDUCTS, ARRANGED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
Name of Date of Length
Aqueduct Construction Miles
Appia 313 B. C. 11
Anio Vetus 273 B. C. 43
Marcia 145 B. C. 61
Herculea branch 3
Tepula 127 B. C. 13
Julia 35 B. C. 15
Virgo 21 B. C. 14
Augusta 10 A. D. 6
Absietina 10 A. D. 22
Claudia 50 A. D. 46
Anio Novus 52 A. D. 58
Neronian branch 97 A. D. 2
Trajana 111 A. D. 42
Hadriana 117-1585 A. D. 15
Aurelia 162 A. D. 16
Severiana 200 A. D. 10
Antoniniana branch 212 A. D. 3
Sabina-Augusta 130-300 A. D. 15
Alexandrina 230 A. D. 15
Jova 300 A. D.
(The miles above given are Roman miles, of 4,854 feet. The
entire length of aqueduct in English miles would be 398.)
[Illustration: Aqueduct of Segovia, Spain]
The aqueduct of Segovia, Spain, is one of the most perfect and
magnificent works of the kind remaining. It is built without mortar,
is entirely of stone and of great solidity. The piers are 8 feet wide
by 11 feet deep, and where the aqueduct approaches the city it attains
a height of about 100 feet. This aqueduct is over 2,400 feet long, is
built in two tiers of arches and although almost eighteen hundred years
old, still supplies water to the city. Of the 109 arches, however, 30
are of modern construction, being reproductions of the ancient arches.
[Illustration: Water Tower and Roman Ruins, Chester, England]
The constructive details of these old water courses are as interesting
as are their general design. At the mouth of each aqueduct there
generally was constructed a reservoir in which to collect water from
the springs or streams that supplied it, and in which impurities could
settle before the clarified water was delivered into the channel. The
water channel was usually formed either of stone or brick coated on the
inside with cement to make it water-tight. It was arched over on top,
and at certain intervals vent holes were provided through which access
could be had to the channel to make repairs. When two or more channels
were carried one above another, the vent holes of the lower ones were
placed in the sides. When possible, aqueducts were carried in a direct
line, but frequently they were given a tortuous course either to avoid
boring through hills, where their construction would have entailed
too great expense, or else to avoid very deep valleys or soft marshy
ground. In every aqueduct, besides the principal reservoirs at its
mouth and terminal, there were intermediate ones at certain distances
along its course, in which any remaining sediment might be deposited.
In addition to serving as sediment basins, these reservoirs made it
more easy to superintend and keep in repair the different sections,
and provided service reservoirs to furnish irrigation water for fields
and gardens and water for stock. The principal reservoir was that in
which the aqueduct terminated. This reservoir or castella, as it was
called, far exceeded any of the others in grandeur of architecture, or
in magnitude and solidity of construction. The ruins of a work of this
kind that still exist on the Esquiline Hill at Rome, are about 200 feet
long by 130 feet wide, and had a vaulted roof that rested on 48 immense
pillars disposed to form rows so as to form 5 aisles and 75 arches.
From the description of this interesting reservoir, the interior must
have greatly resembled many of the covered slow-sand fillers recently
constructed in this country, in which elliptical groined arches form
the roof, which is carried on brick columns spaced as in the reservoirs
at Rome, about 15 feet from center to center. Judging from the fact
that not only the aqueducts but also the reservoirs were covered to
exclude light, it seems reasonable to conclude that Roman engineers
were aware that absence of light prevented or altogether checked the
growth of algæ and other objectionable forms of water vegetation.
Nowhere in the writings of the early historians is any mention made of
trouble due to this cause, but as the water supply of Rome was obtained
from both ground (spring) and surface sources, which in many cases
were mixed together, the resultant mixture would have furnished the
best possible soil for algæ, the ground water providing the necessary
mineral food and the surface water furnishing the seed. It is quite
probable, therefore, that the aqueducts and reservoirs were covered to
prevent such growths.
[Illustration: Roman Water Pipes made of Bored-out Blocks of Stone]
Besides the principal reservoir, each aqueduct had a number of smaller
ones at different points in the sections they supplied, to provide that
neighborhood with water. It is estimated that all told there were 247
of the auxiliary public reservoirs scattered throughout the city. These
reservoirs were supplied from the principal reservoir through pipes
of lead, burned earthenware, and in some cases bored out blocks of
stone. Burned earthenware pipes were generally used not only on account
of their greater cheapness, but because the Romans were aware of the
injurious effect of lead poisoning, and looked with suspicion on water
that had been conducted through lead pipes.
When a number of individuals living in the same neighborhood had
obtained a grant of water, they clubbed together and built a private
reservoir into which the whole quantity allotted to them collectively
was transmitted from the public reservoir. The object of private
reservoirs was to facilitate the distribution of the proper amount of
water to each person and to avoid puncturing the main aqueduct in too
many places. When a supply of water from the aqueduct was first granted
for private use, each householder granted the privilege obtained his
quantity by tapping a branch supply pipe into the main aqueduct, and
conducting the branch to a domestic reservoir within his own house.
Later when the system of private reservoirs was adopted, each domestic
supply of water was obtained from the private reservoir and piped to
the domestic reservoir which was made of lead.
[Illustration: Trophies of Marius]
The façade of an aqueduct reservoir known as the "Trophies of Marius"
may be seen in the accompanying reproduction of a woodcut made in
the sixteenth century. The ground plan shows part of the internal
construction. The stream of water is first divided by the round
projecting buttress into two courses which are again sub-divided into
five minor streams that discharge into the reservoir as indicated in
the cut.
[Illustration: Old Roman Lead and Terra-cotta Pipe]
The quantity of water supplied to Rome compared favorably with the
per capita allowance of water provided at the present time for the
principal cities of the United States, and was far in excess of the
water supplied at the present time to British and European cities.
According to Clemens Herschel, however, Rome, with a population of
1,000,000 people, had a daily water supply of only 32,000,000 U. S.
gallons. In estimating the quantity of water brought to the city by
the system of aqueducts, Mr. Herschel makes due allowance for and
deducts what he thinks might be lost by leakage, theft, water supplied
to artificial lakes for sea fights, and also assumes that a certain
percentage of the channels at all times were cut out of service for
repairs. He makes no allowance, however, for water obtained from
different sources, such as wells, springs and the Tiber River, from
which, no doubt, many of the inhabitants obtained their entire supply
of water. Indeed, in the year 35 B. C., M. Agrippa, as the head of the
water supply system of Rome, in addition to repairing the Aqua Julia
and Marcia aqueduct, supplied the city with 700 wells and 150 springs.
There is no reason to believe that conditions in Rome were different
from those existing to-day in our large cities, and it is more than
probable that the poor people of Rome were but scantily supplied with
water from the aqueducts. The supply obtained by them from ground
sources should therefore be added to that supplied by the aqueducts,
and it would then be found, as most writers assert, that the per
capita daily supply of water to Rome was equal to about 100 U. S.
gallons.
Such enormous quantities of water could not be poured daily into
a limited area without material and physical injury resulting if
provision were not made to dispose of the surplus. Hence it was that
a system of drains was evolved in Rome, which, while not the first
in point of time, nevertheless were the only ones known to have been
constructed by the ancients, until within a comparatively recent date
ruins of sewerage systems were unearthed in Bismya, an ancient Symerian
or pre-Babylonian city.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: · THE · WOMEN'S · BATHS · POMPEII ·]
[Illustration: CHAPTER III]
SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER. Early Sewage Disposal—Removal of Offensive
Materials from Temples of Jerusalem—Sewage System of a Pre-Babylonian
City—Sewers of Rome—The Cloaca Maxima—The Dejecti Effusive Act.
Before describing the sewerage system of Rome, it might be interesting
to glance backward at the efforts made prior to that time to dispose of
excreta and household wastes.
It is in Deuteronomy, one of the Books of Moses, that first mention is
made of the disposal of excreta: "Thou shalt have a place also without
the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad.
"And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be when
thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shall turn
back and cover that which cometh from thee."
No doubt the object of Moses in promulgating that law was to preserve
cleanliness about camp and to hide offensive matter from sight in the
least odorous way. Nevertheless no more sanitary method could have
been adopted. Deposited as the soil was, in small quantities, just
underneath the surface of the ground it was soon reduced to harmless
compounds by the teeming bacteria in the living earth.
Recent explorations in Jerusalem have brought to light extensive
drains for the removal from the vicinity of the temples of offensive
matters peculiar to the bloody sacrifices of that ancient people; and
in an August, 1905, issue of the _Scientific American_, Edgar James
Banks, field director of the Babylonian expedition of the University
of Chicago, gives an interesting description of house drains and
sewage disposal wells constructed at Bismya some 4,500 years ago. The
following account is abstracted from that article:
"Babylonia is perfectly level. From Bagdad to the Persian Gulf there
is not the slightest elevation save for the artificial mounds or an
occasional changing sand drift. In most places there is a crust of hard
clay upon the surface, baked by the hot sun of summer time so hard
that it resembles stone. Beneath the crust, which at Bismya is seldom
more than 4 feet in thickness and in places entirely lacking, is loose
caving sand reaching to an unknown depth.
"Drainage in such a country, without sloping hills or streams of
running water, might tax the ingenuity of the modern builder. In
constructing a house, the ancient Sumerian of more than 6,000 years
ago first dug a hole into the sand to a considerable depth. At Bismya
several instances were found where the shaft had reached the depth of
45 feet beneath the foundation of the house. From the bottom he built
up a vertical drain of large cylindrical terra cotta sections, each of
which is provided with grooved flanges to receive the one above. The
sections of one drain were about 19 inches in diameter and 23½ inches
in height; others were larger and much shorter. The thickness of the
wall was about 1.06 inches. The tiles were punctured at intervals with
small holes of about ¾ inch in diameter. The section at the top of the
drain was semi-spherical, fitting over it like a cap and provided with
an opening to receive the water from above. Sand and potsherds were
then filled in about the drain and it was ready for use. The water
pouring into it was rapidly absorbed by the sand at the bottom, and
if there it became clogged the water escaped through the holes in the
sides of the tiles.
"The temple at Bismya was provided with several such drains. One palace
was discovered with four. A large bath resembling a modern Turkish
bath and provided with bitumen floor, sloping to one corner, emptied
its waste water into one. The toilets in the private houses of 6,000
years ago were almost identical with those of the modern Arab house—a
small oblong hole in the floor, without a seat. Several found in Bismya
were provided with vertical drains beneath.
"In clearing out the drains a few of them whose openings had been
exposed were filled with the drifting sand. Others were half full of
the filth of long past ages. In one at the temple we removed dozens
of shallow terra cotta drinking cups not unlike a large saucer in
shape and size. Evidently it received the waste water of the drinking
fountain and the cups had accidentally dropped within.
"In the Bismya temple platform, constructed about 2750 B. C., we
discovered a horizontal drain of tile, each of which was about 3 feet
long and 6 inches in diameter and not unlike in shape those at present
employed. It conducted the rain water from the platform to one of the
vertical drains. One tile was so well constructed that for a long
time it served as a chimney for our house, until my Turkish overseer
suggested that its dark, smoked end project from the battlements of the
house to convince the Arabs that we were well fortified; thus it served
as a gun until the close of the excavations."
[Illustration: The Cloaca Maxima. From an old woodcut]
The first sewers of Rome were built between 800 and 735 B. C., and
therefore antedate the first aqueduct by between 440 and 487 years.
It is evident, therefore, that as originally planned the sewers of
Rome were intended to carry off the surface water and in other ways
serve to drain the site of the ancient city. Indeed, the Cloaca
Maxima, which was constructed during the period of the Kings, from
735 to 510 B. C., was intended to drain the marshy hollow between the
Capitoline, Palatine and Esquiline hills, and afterwards, by a process
of development, became part of a combined sewage system for the city.
[Illustration: The Cloaca Maxima. From a Recent Photograph]
That the engineers who designed the sewerage system of Rome had a clear
conception of the service expected of such drains, is evidenced by
the manner in which the system was proportioned. The pipes gradually
enlarged from their extremities in the buildings through all the
ramifications of the system until they finally reached the outlet at a
bulkhead or quay-wall in the Tiber. It is stated by early writers that
so complete was this system of sewers that every street in the ancient
city was drained by a branch into the Tiber.
[Illustration: Egyptian Lady Having Head Sprayed, 1700 B. C.]
The Cloaca Maxima was one of the largest and most celebrated of the
ancient sewers. The solidity of this structure can be judged by the
fact that it has been in uninterrupted service for over 2,400 years,
and at the present time is still in use, with no signs of immediate
failure. The arches were made of neatly jointed stones fitted together
without cement. It is stated by Pliny that a cart loaded with hay could
pass down the Cloaca Maxima. It should be borne in mind, however, that
a Roman cart and load of hay were of smaller dimensions than a modern
one. The actual dimensions of the mouth of the sewer are 11 feet wide
by 12 feet high. The lateral branches of the main sewer were of a size
in proportion with their requirements and in proportion to the main
or trunk sewer. The dimensions of these sewers are evidenced by the
service they performed for Nero, who threw into them the unfortunate
victims of his nightly riots.
[Illustration: Greek Women Bathing]
[Illustration: Greek Bath Tubs]
While each street in Rome was provided with an adequate sewer, it is
more than probable that only a small percentage of the population had
branches extending into their houses. In those that had, the latrines
were located adjacent to the kitchen, where through the untrapped
end of the sewer noxious gases were continually arising to vitiate
the surrounding air. The only ventilation the sewers of Rome had was
through these untrapped ends.
Many of the houses of Rome were lofty and inhabited near the top by
the poor, who—drainage systems not extending above the first floor—had
very imperfect means for carrying off rubbish and other accumulations.
A practice seems to have grown up then of throwing such liquid and
solid matter from the windows, sometimes to the discomfort or injury of
hapless pedestrians.
To provide against accidents due to this cause, the Dejecti Effusive
Act was passed, which gave damages against a person who threw or poured
out anything from a place or upper chamber upon a road frequented
by passersby, or on a place where people used to stand. The act,
however, gave damages only when the person was injured, but nothing was
recoverable if the wearing apparel was damaged. A strange provision of
this act was that it applied only in the daytime and not to the night,
which, however, was the most dangerous time for passersby.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE ROMAN AQVEDVCT OF SEGOVIA SPAIN
(See page iv)]
[Illustration: CHAPTER IV.]
SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER. Origin of Bathing—Early Greek Baths—Roman Private
Baths—Public Baths of Rome—Ruins of Baths of Caracalla—Description of
the Thermæ—The Thermæ of Titus at Rome—Baths of Pompeii—Heating Water
for Roman Baths—Thermæ of Titus Restored.
The value of bathing for pleasure, cleanliness and health was early
realized by the ancients, who in many cases made the daily bath part of
their religious ritual, with the hope of thus inducing a practice that
would, from constant observance, become a habit not easy to overcome,
and which would be a lasting benefit to the health of the individual
and a safeguard to the community.
[Illustration: Mosaic from the Floor of the Baths of Caracalla]
It perhaps was among the Greeks that bath tubs were first introduced.
The early Greek bathing vessels (see preceding woodcuts) were made of
polished marble, shaped something like a punch bowl, stood about 30
inches high, and were not occupied by the bather as in a modern bath
tub, but served only to hold the water which was applied to the bather
by an attendant, who dashed or poured, as circumstances required, a
vessel full of water on his head or body. Both woodcuts shown were
reproduced from ancient Greek vases and convey a fair idea of the way
these baths were used. One of the bathers is shown with an iron, bone,
bronze or ivory instrument called a _strigilis_, in his hand, which
was used to scrape off perspiration when the bather emerged from the
hot room, or induced a flow by exercising in the gymnasium, which was
generally connected with the baths. The inscription on the woodcut,
representing men bathing, shows that this was a public bath, and is
probably the earliest picture of a bathing establishment extant. The
women's bath bowl differed but slightly from the men's. It was a trifle
lower and considerably deeper, but the method of using was the same as
for the men.
[Illustration: Ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, Rome]
While the Greeks were prior to the Romans in the use of the bath, they
considered it effeminate to use warm water, and consequently their
bathing establishments never attained the luxury and splendor that
later marked the Roman baths. When bath tubs were first introduced
into Rome, the wealthy inhabitants fitted up their houses with a
bathroom much as do the people of our own time. As the luxury, pleasure
and benefit of the bath became better known, more elaborate bathing
facilities similar to a modern Turkish bath were installed. In some
houses several rooms were devoted to this purpose. The anointment of
the body with oils was one of the characteristics of a Roman bath.
The practice was indulged in by people of both sexes, and the time
when applied depended much on the treatment the bather was taking. For
instance, most bathers anointed the body as the finishing touch of the
bath, while some bathers applied the oil before going to the hot or
sweat room.
[Illustration: Interior of the Frigidarium or Cold Bath, Caracalla]
No luxury can be monopolized by the rich, and it was not long before
public bathing establishments, in which a small entrance fee was
charged, were built by private capital. Following quickly on the heels
of these private enterprises, came the establishment of public baths,
then, according to the authority of Pliny, for 600 years Rome needed
no medicine but the public baths.
When the public baths were first instituted they were only for the
lower classes, who alone bathed in public. The people of wealth and
those who held positions of state bathed in their own homes. But this
monopoly of the poor was not long enjoyed. In the process of time even
the emperors bathed in public among their subjects, and we read of the
abandoned Gallienus amusing himself by bathing in the midst of the
young and old of both sexes, men, women and children.
In the earlier stages of Roman history a much greater delicacy was
observed with respect to promiscuous bathing, even among men, than
obtained at a later period. Virtue passed away as wealth increased, and
the public baths became places of meeting and amusement where not only
did men bathe together in numbers, but even men and women stripped and
bathed promiscuously in the same bath.
Some idea of the magnitude of the baths at Rome can be gained from a
statement of the number of bathers they could accommodate at one time.
The baths of Diocletian, which were perhaps the most commodious of them
all, could accommodate at one time 3,200 bathers. One hall of this
famous bathing institution was at a later date converted by Michael
Angelo into the church of St. Marie de gli Angeli.
The baths of Caracalla, built A. D. 212, were perhaps the most famous
of the baths of Rome. They were not as commodious however as many other
baths, and they had accommodations at one time for only 1,600 bathers,
or just one-half that could be accommodated by the baths of Diocletian.
The following description of the Roman baths, together with the
historical sketch of the people of that period who indulged in the
luxury, is abstracted from an old dictionary of Greek and Roman
antiquities, published in London, England, almost a century ago. The
illustrations are from woodcuts appearing in the article.
[Illustration: Outer Row of Baths, Caracalla, Rome]
"In the earlier ages of Roman history a much greater delicacy was
observed with respect to promiscuous bathing, even among the men,
than was usual among the Greeks; for according to Valerius Maximus,
it was deemed indecent for a father to bathe in company with his own
son after he had attained the age of puberty, or son-in-law with his
father-in-law, the same respectful reserve being shown to blood and
affinity as was paid to the temples of the gods, toward whom it was
considered an act of irreligion even to appear naked in any of the
places consecrated to their worship. But virtue passed away as wealth
increased, and when the thermæ came into use, not only did the men
bathe together in numbers, but even men and women stripped and bathed
promiscuously in the same bath. It is true, however, that the public
establishment often contained separate baths for both sexes adjoining
each other, as will be seen to have been also the case at the baths of
Pompeii. Aulus Gellius relates a story of a consul's wife who took a
whim to bathe at Teano, a small provincial town of Campania, in the
men's baths, probably because in a small town the female department,
like that at Pompeii, was more confined and less convenient than
that assigned to the men, and an order was consequently given to the
quaestor to turn the men out. But whether the men and women were
allowed to use each other's chambers indiscriminately, or that some of
the public baths had only one common set of baths for both, the custom
prevailed under the empire of men and women bathing indiscriminately
together. This custom was forbidden by Hadrian, and Alexander Severus
prohibited any baths common to both sexes from being opened in Rome.
When the public baths were first instituted they were only for the
lower orders, who alone bathed in public, the people of wealth, as well
as those who formed the Equestrian and Senatorian orders, using private
baths in their own houses. But this monopoly was not long enjoyed, for
as early even as the time of Julius Cæsar, we find no less a personage
than the mother of Augustus making use of the public establishments,
which were probably at that time separated from the men's, and, in
process of time, even the emperors themselves bathed in public with the
meanest of the people. Thus Hadrian often bathed in public among the
herd, and even the virtuous Alexander Severus took his bath among the
populace in the thermæ he had himself erected, as well as in those of
his predecessors, and returned to the palace in his bathing dress; and
the abandoned Gallienus amused himself by bathing in the midst of the
young and old of both sexes, men, women and children.
The baths were opened at sunrise and closed at sunset, but in the time
of Alexander Severus, it would appear that they were kept open nearly
all night, for he is stated to have furnished oil for his own thermæ,
which previously were not opened before daybreak and were shut before
sunset; and Juvenal includes in his catalogue of female immoralities
that of taking the bath at night, which may, however, refer to private
baths.
The price of a bath was a quadrant, the smallest piece of coined money
from the age of Cicero downward, which was paid to the keeper of the
bath. Children below a certain age were admitted free, and strangers,
also foreigners, were admitted to some of the baths, if not to all,
without payment.
The baths were closed when any misfortune happened to the republic, and
Sentonius says that the Emperor Caligula made it a capital offence to
indulge in the luxury of bathing upon any religious holiday. The baths
were originally placed under the superintendence of the ædiles, whose
business it was also to keep them in repair, and to see that they were
kept clean and of a proper temperature.
The time usually assigned by the Romans for taking the bath was the
eighth hour or shortly afterward. Before that time none but invalids
were allowed to bathe in public. Vilruvins reckoned the best hours
adapted for bathing to be from midday until about sunset. Pliny took
his bath at the ninth hour in summer and the eighth in winter; and
Martial speaks of taking a bath when fatigued and weary at the tenth
hour and even later.
When the water was ready and the baths prepared, notice was given by
the sound of a bell. One of these bells with the inscription Firmi
Balneatoris was found in the thermæ Diocletiane, in the year 1548.
When the bath was used for health merely or cleanliness, a single one
was considered sufficient at a time, and that one only when requisite.
But the luxuries of the empire knew no such bounds, and the daily bath
was sometimes repeated as many as seven and eight times in succession.
It was the usual and constant habit of the Romans to take the bath
after exercise, and previous to the principal meal; but the debauchees
of the empire bathed also after eating, as well as before, in order to
promote digestion so as to acquire a new appetite for fresh delicacies.
Nero is said to have indulged in this practice.
Upon quitting the bath, it was usual for the Romans, as well as the
Greeks, to be anointed with oil; indeed, after bathing, both sexes
anointed themselves, the women as well as the men, in order that the
skin might not be left harsh and rough, especially after hot water.
Oil is the only ointment mentioned by Homer as used for this purpose,
and Pliny says the Greeks had no better ointment at the time of the
Trojan war than oil perfumed with herbs. A particular habit of body
or tendency to certain complaints, sometimes required the order to be
reversed and the anointment to take place before bathing. For this
reason, Augustus, who suffered from nervous disorders, was accustomed
to anoint himself before bathing, and a similar practice was adopted
by Alexander Severus. The most usual practice, however, seems to have
been to take some gentle exercise in the first instance, and then after
bathing to be anointed either in the sun or in the tepid or thermal
chamber, and finally to take their food.
The Romans did not content themselves with a single bath of hot or
cold water, but they went through a course of baths in succession, in
which the agency of air as well as water was applied. It is difficult
to ascertain the precise order in which the course was usually taken,
if indeed there was any general practice beyond the whim of the
individual. Under medical treatment, of course, the succession would
be regulated by the nature of the disease for which a cure was sought,
and would vary also according to the different practice of different
physicians. It is certain, however, that it was a general practice to
close the pores and brace the body after the excessive perspiration
of the vapor bath, either by pouring cold water over the head, or by
plunging at once into the tank. Musa, the physician of Augustus, is
said to have introduced the practice which became quite the fashion, in
consequence of the benefit which the emperor derived from it, though
Dion accuses him of having artfully caused the death of Marcellus by
an improper application of the same treatment. In other cases it was
considered conducive to health to pour warm water over the head before
the vapor bath, and cold water immediately after it; and at other times
a succession of warm, tepid and cold water was resorted to.
The two physicians, Galen and Celsus, differ in some respects as to the
order in which the baths should be taken; the former recommending first
the hot air of laconicum, next the bath of warm water, afterward the
cold, and finally to be well rubbed; while the latter recommends his
patients first to sweat for a short time in the tepid chamber without
undressing, then to proceed into the thermal chamber, and after having
gone through a regular course of perspiration there, not to descend
into the warm bath, but to pour a quantity of warm water over the head,
then tepid, and finally cold; afterward to be scraped with the strigil
and finally rubbed dry and anointed. Such in all probability was the
usual habit of the Romans when the bath was resorted to as a daily
source of pleasure, and not for any particular medical treatment; the
more so as it resembles in many respects the system of bathing still in
practice among the Orientals who succeeded by conquest to the luxuries
of the enervated Greeks and Romans.
Having thus detailed from classical authorities the general habits of
the Romans in connection with their systems of bathing, it now remains
to examine and explain the internal arrangements of the structures
which contained their baths, which will serve as a practical commentary
upon all that has been said. Indeed, there are more ample and better
materials for acquiring a thorough insight into Roman manners in this
one particular than for any of the other usages connected with their
daily habit.
In order to make the subjoined description clear, a reproduction from
an old woodcut of a fresco painting on the walls of the thermæ of
Titus at Rome, is here reproduced, showing in broken perspective the
general arrangement of one of the baths known as the thermæ. Heat was
supplied to warm the apartments and the water used in the baths by the
furnace shown extending under the entire floor of the establishment.
This furnace was known as a Hypocustum. To the right may be seen the
vessels in which water for the baths was heated. The topmost vessel,
the Frigidarium, contained cold water from which the hot water tanks
and the various baths were supplied. Next in order is the tepidarium,
in which water of moderate temperature was stored, and in the lowest,
the caldarium, was heated the hottest water used in the baths. After
the end of the republic, large establishments used to have a separate
steam bath, the laconicum, and in this apartment, or sometimes
adjoining the tepidarium, was the Clipeus, a small circular chamber
covered by a cupola. The Clipeus received its light through an aperture
in the center of the dome, and this aperture served also as a vent from
the chamber. The Clipeus was heated by means of a separate heating
apparatus, and its temperature could be raised to an enormous degree or
could be regulated to suit the bather by raising or lowering the shield.
[Illustration: Thermæ of Titus at Rome]
[Illustration: Clipeus. From an old woodcut]
The tepidarium, as the name would imply, was a room in which a
moderately warm bath could be taken and where the process of dry
rubbing also took place. In the balneum a hot bath could be taken,
originally in a tub, but in later times in a large reservoir; and in
the frigidarium a cold plunge could be had. The elæothesium was the
anointing room where the body was rubbed with oil and massaged.
[Illustration: Floor Plan of the Baths of Pompeii From an old woodcut]
A good idea of the general layout of a Roman bath can be gained from
the accompanying woodcut, showing the ground floor plan of the baths
of Pompeii. The baths, as may be seen by the illustration, are nearly
surrounded on three sides by houses and shops. The whole building,
which comprises a double set of baths, has six different entrances
from the street, one of which, A, gives admission to the smaller set
only, which was appropriated to the women, and five others to the
male department, of which two, B and C, communicate directly with the
furnaces, and the other three, D, E, F, with the bathing apartments,
of which F, the nearest to the Forum, was the principal one; the other
two, D and E, being on opposite sides of the building served for the
convenience of those who lived on the north and east sides of the city.
To have a variety of entrances was one of the qualities considered
necessary to a well constructed set of baths.
[Illustration: Frigidarium. From an old woodcut]
Passing through the principal entrance, F, which is removed from the
street by a narrow footway, and after descending three steps, the
bather finds upon his left hand a small chamber or toilet room, 1,
which contains a latrine. From passage, F, he proceeded to covered
portico, 2, which ran around three sides of an open court, 3, and
this portico and court together formed the vestibule of the baths, in
which servants belonging to the establishment, as well as such of the
slaves and attendants of the great and wealthy, whose services were not
required in the interior, waited. Within the court the keeper of the
baths who exacted the fee paid by each visitor, was also stationed, and
accordingly in it was found the box for holding the money. The room, 4,
which runs back from the portico, might have been apportioned to him,
or if not, it might have been a waiting room for the convenience of the
better classes while waiting the return of their acquaintances from
the interior. In this court, likewise, as being the most public place,
advertisements for the theater and other announcements of general
interest were posted, one of which, announcing a gladiatorial show,
still remains. The passageway, 5, is the corridor which leads from
the entrance, E, to the vestibule; and the cell, 6, is a toilet room
similar to 1. Number 7 is a passage of communication which leads into
the chamber, 8, which served as a room for undressing. This room is
also accessible from the street by the door, D, through the corridor,
9, in which a small niche is observable, which probably served for
the station of another doorkeeper, who collected money from those
entering from the north street. Here, then, is the center in which
all the persons must have met before entering into the interior of the
baths; and its locality, as well as other characteristic features of
its fitting up, leave no room to doubt that it served as an undressing
room. It does not appear that any general rule of construction was
followed by the architects of antiquity with regard to the locality and
temperature best adapted for a dressing room. The bathers were expected
to take off their garments in the dressing room, not being permitted
to enter the interior unless naked. The clothes were then delivered to
a class of slaves whose duty it was to take charge of them. These men
were notorious for dishonesty, and leagued with all the thieves of the
city, so that they connived at the robberies they were placed there to
prevent. To so great an extent were these robberies carried, that very
severe laws were finally enacted making the crime of stealing from a
bath a capital offence.
To return to the chamber itself, it is vaulted and spacious, with
stone seats along two sides of the wall and a step for the feet below,
slightly raised from the floor. Holes can still be seen in the walls
which might have served for pegs on which the garments were hung when
taken off; for in a small provincial town like Pompeii, where a robbery
committed in the bath could scarcely escape detection, there would
be no necessity for slaves to take charge of them. The dressing room
was lighted by a window closed with glass, and the walls and ceilings
were ornamented with stucco mouldings and painted yellow. There are no
less than six doors to this chamber: one leading to the entrance, E,
another to the entrance, D, a third to the small room, 11, a fourth
to the furnaces, a fifth to the tepid apartment, and the sixth opened
upon the cold baths, 10. The bath, which is coated with white marble,
is 12 feet 10 inches in diameter, about 3 feet deep and has two marble
steps to facilitate the descent into it, and a seat surrounding it
at a depth of 10 inches from the bottom, for the purpose of enabling
the bathers to sit down and wash themselves. It is probable that many
persons contented themselves with cold baths only, instead of going
through the severe course of perspiration in the warm apartments; and
as the frigidarium could have had no effect alone in baths like these,
the natatio must be referred to when it is said that at one period cold
baths were in such request that scarcely any others were used.
There is a platform or ambulatory around the bath, also of marble, and
four inches of the same material disposed at regular intervals around
the walls, with pedestals for statues probably placed in them. The
ceiling is vaulted and the chamber lighted by a window in the center.
The annexed woodcut represents a frigidarium with its cold bath at
one extremity, supposed to have formed a part of the Formian Villa of
Cicero, to whose age the style of construction, the use of the simple
Doric order, undoubtedly belongs. The bath itself, into which water
still continues to flow from a neighboring spring, is placed under the
alcove, and the two doors on each side opened into small chambers.
In the cold bath of Pompeii the water ran into the basin through a
spout of bronze and was carried off again through a conduit on the
opposite side. It was also furnished with a waste pipe under the coping
to prevent the water from running over.
[Illustration: Atlantes. From an old woodcut]
No. 11 is a small chamber on the side opposite to the frigidarium,
which might have served for shaving or for keeping unguents or
strigils; and from the centers of the side of the frigidarium, the
bather who intended to go through the process of warm bathing and
sudation entered into 12, the tepidarium.
The tepidarium did not contain water, either at Pompeii or at the
baths of Hippias, but was merely heated with warm air of an agreeable
temperature, in order to prepare the body for the great heat of the
vapor and warm baths; and, upon returning, to obviate the danger of too
sudden transition to the open air.
In the baths of Pompeii, this chamber served likewise as a disrobing
room for those who took the warm bath, for which purpose the fittings
up are evidently adapted, the walls being divided into a number of
separate compartments or recesses for receiving the garments when taken
off. One of these compartments, known as an Atlantes, is shown in the
annexed woodcut.
In addition to this service there can be little doubt that this
apartment was used as a depository for unguents and a room for
anointing, which service was performed by slaves. For the purpose of
anointing, the common people used oil simply or sometimes scented, but
the more wealthy classes indulged in the greatest extravagances with
regard to their perfumes and unguents. These they evidently procured
from the elæothesium of the baths, or brought with them in small
glass bottles, hundreds of which have been discovered in different
excavations made in various parts of Italy.
From the tepidarium, a door which closed by its own weight, to prevent
the admission of cold air, opened into No. 13, the thermal chamber.
After having gone through the regular course of perspiration, the
Romans made use of instruments called strigils, to scrape off the
perspiration, much in the same way as we are accustomed to scrape the
sweat off a horse with a piece of iron hoop after he has run a heat or
come in from violent exercise. These instruments, many of which have
been discovered among the ruins of the various baths of antiquity, were
made of bone, bronze, iron and silver. The poorer classes were obliged
to scrape themselves, but the more wealthy took their slaves to the
baths for the purpose, a fact which is elucidated by a curious story
related by Spartianus. The Emperor while bathing one day, observing
an old soldier, whom he had formerly known among the legions, rubbing
his back as the cattle do against the marble walls of the chamber,
asked him why he converted the walls into a strigil, and learning
that he was too poor to keep a slave he gave him one, and money for
his maintenance. On the following day, upon his return to the bath,
he found a whole row of old men rubbing themselves in the same manner
against the wall, in the hope of experiencing the same good fortune
from the prince's liberality; but instead of taking the hint, he had
them all called up and told them to scrub one another.
[Illustration: Coppers for Heating Water. From an old woodcut]
The strigil was by no means a blunt instrument, consequently its edge
was softened by the application of oil which was dropped on it from a
small vessel. This vessel had a narrow neck, so as to discharge its
contents drop by drop. Augustus is related to have suffered from an
over violent use of this instrument. Invalids and persons of delicate
habit made use of sponges, which Pliny says answered for towels as well
as strigils. They were finally dried with towels and anointed.
The common people were supplied with these necessaries in the baths,
but the more wealthy carried their own with them.
After the operation of scraping and rubbing dry, they retired into or
remained in the tepidarium until they thought it prudent to encounter
the open air. But it does not appear to have been customary to bathe
in the water, when there was any, which was not the case at Pompeii
nor at the Baths of Hippias, either of the tepidarium or frigidarium;
the temperature only of the atmosphere in the two chambers being of
consequence to break the sudden change from the extreme hot to cold.
Returning now to the frigidarium, 8, which according to the directions
of Vitruvius has a passage, 14, communicating with the mouth of the
furnace, _e_, and passing down that passage we reach the chamber, 15,
into which the præfurnium projects, and which has also an entrance from
the street, B, appropriated to those who had charge of the fires. There
are two stairways in it, one leading to the roof of the baths, and the
other to the coppers which contained the water. Of these there were
three, one of which contained the hot water, caldarium; the second,
the tepid, tepidarium; and the last, the cold, frigidarium. The warm
water was introduced into the warm bath by means of a conduit pipe,
marked on the plan, and conducted through the wall. Underneath the
caldarium was placed the furnace which served to heat the water and
give out streams of warm air into the hollow cells of the hypocanstum.
These coppers were constructed in the same manner as is represented in
the engraving from the Thermæ of Titus; the one containing hot water
being placed immediately over the furnace, and as the water was drawn
out from these it was supplied from the next, the tepidarium, which
was already considerably heated, from its contiguity to the furnace
and the hypocaust below it, so that it supplied the deficiency of the
former without materially diminishing its temperature; and the space
in the last two was in turn filled up from the farthest removed, which
contained the cold water received direct from the square reservoir
behind them. Behind the coppers there is another corridor, 16, leading
into the court, 17, appropriated to the servants of the baths, and
which has also the conveniences of an immediate communication with the
street by the door, C.
We now proceed to the adjoining set of baths, which were assigned to
the women. The entrance is by the door, A, which conducts into a small
vestibule, 18, thence into the apodyterium, 19, which, like the one in
the men's baths, has a seat on either side built up against the wall.
This room opens upon a cold bath, 20, answering to the natiatio of
the other set, but of much smaller dimensions. There are four steps
on the inside to descend into it. Opposite to the door of entrance
there is another doorway which leads to the tepidarium, 21, which also
communicates with the thermal chamber, 22, on one side of which is a
warm bath in a square recess. The floor of this chamber is suspended
and its walls perforated for flues, like the corresponding one in the
men's baths.
The comparative smallness and inferiority of the fittings up in this
suit of baths has induced some Italian antiquaries to throw a doubt
upon the fact of their being assigned to women, and ingeniously
suggest that they were a set of old baths, to which the larger ones
were subsequently added when they became too small for the increasing
wealth and population of the city. But the story already quoted of the
consul's wife who turned the men out of their bath at Teanum for her
convenience, seems sufficiently to negative such a supposition and to
prove that the inhabitants of ancient Italy, if not more selfish, were
certainly less gallant than their successors. In addition to this,
Vitruvius expressly enjoins that the baths of the men and women, though
separate, should be contiguous to each other, in order that they might
be supplied from the same boilers and hypocaust; directions that are
here fulfilled to the letter, as a glance at the plans will demonstrate.
Notwithstanding the ample account which has been given of the plans
and usages respecting baths in general, something yet remains to
be said about that particular class denominated _thermæ_, of which
establishment the baths, in fact, constituted the smallest part.
The thermæ, properly speaking, were a Roman adaptation of the Greek
gymnasium. The thermæ contained a system of baths in conjunction with
conveniences for athletic games and youthful sports, places in which
rhetoricians declaimed, poets recited and philosophers lectured, as
well as porticos and vestibules for the idle, and libraries for the
studious. They were decorated with the finest objects of art, both in
painting and sculpture, covered with precious marbles and adorned with
fountains and shaded walks. It may be said that they began and ended
with the Empire, for it was not until the time of Augustus that these
magnificent structures were commenced. M. Agrippa was the first who
afforded these luxuries to his countrymen by bequeathing to them the
thermæ and gardens which he had erected in the Campus Martius. The
Pantheon, now existing at Rome, served originally as a vestibule to
these baths; and, as it was considered too magnificent for the purpose,
it is supposed that Agrippa added the portico and consecrated it as a
temple, for which use it still serves.
The example set by Agrippa was followed by Nero and afterward by Titus,
the ruins of whose thermæ are still visible, covering a vast extent,
partly under ground and partly above the Esquiline Hill.
Previous to the erection of these establishments for the use of the
population, it was customary, for those who sought the favor of the
people, to give them a day's bathing free of expense.
[Illustration: Ground Plan of Thermæ of Caracalla. From an old woodcut]
Thus, according to Divi Cassius, Faustus, the son of Sulla, furnished
warm baths and oil gratis to the people for one day; and Augustus, on
one occasion, furnished warm baths and barbers to the people for the
same period free of expense, and at another time for a whole year to
the women as well as the men. From thence it is fair to infer that
the quadrant paid for admission to the balnea was not exacted at the
thermæ, which as being the works of the emperors, would naturally
be opened with imperial generosity to all, and without any charge,
otherwise the whole city would have thronged to the establishment
bequeathed to them by Agrippa; and in confirmation of this opinion it
might be remarked that the old establishments, which were probably
erected by private enterprises, were termed Meritorial.
Most, if not all, of the other regulations previously detailed as
relating to the economy of the baths, apply equally to the thermæ; but
it is in these establishments especially that the dissolute conduct of
the emperors and other luxurious indulgence of the people in general,
as detailed in the compositions of the satirists and later writers,
must be considered to refer.
Although considerable remains of the Roman thermæ are still visible,
yet, from the very ruinous state in which they are found, we are far
from being able to arrive at the same accurate knowledge of their
component parts and the usages to which they were applied, as has
been done with respect to the balnea; or, indeed, to discover a
satisfactory mode of reconciling their constructive details with the
description left us by Vitruvious and Lucian. All, indeed, is doubt
and guesswork. Each of the learned men who have pretended to give an
account of their contents differing in all the essential particulars
from one another; and yet the general similarity of the ground plan of
the three which still remain cannot fail to strike even a superficial
observer; so great indeed that it is impossible not to perceive at
once that they were all constructed upon a similar plan. Not, however,
to discuss the subject without enabling the reader to form something
like a general idea of these enormous edifices, which from their
extent and magnificence have been likened to provinces, a ground plan
of the thermæ of Caracalla is annexed, which are the best preserved
among those remaining, and which were perhaps more splendid than all
the rest. Those apartments of which the use is ascertained with the
appearances of probability, will be alone marked and explained. The
dark parts represent the remains still visible; the open lines are
restorations.
[Illustration: Hypocaust for Heating Water, Thermæ of Caracalla
From an old woodcut]
A is a portico fronting the street made by Caracalla when he
constructed his thermæ. B are separate bathing-rooms, either for
the use of the common people, or perhaps for any person who did not
wish to bathe in public. C are apodyteria attached to them. D, D and
E, E, the porticos. F, F, exedra in which there were seats for the
philosophers to hold their conversations. G, passages open to the air.
H, H, sladra. I, I, possibly schools or academies where public lectures
were delivered. J, J and K, K, rooms appropriated to the servants of
the bath. In the latter are staircases for ascending to the principal
reservoir. L, space occupied by walks and shrubberies. M, the arena
or stadium in which the youth performed their exercises, with seats
for spectators. N, N, reservoirs with upper stories; O, aqueduct which
supplied the baths. P, cistern.
This external range of buildings occupies one mile in circuit.
We now come to the arrangement of the interior, for which it is very
difficult to assign satisfactory destinations. Q represents the
principal entrances, of which there were eight. R is the natiatio or
cold water baths to which the direct entrance from the portico is by a
vestibule on either side marked S, and which is surrounded by a set of
chambers that serve most probably as rooms for undressing and anointing.
Those nearest to the peristyle were, perhaps, where the powder was kept
which the wrestlers used in order to obtain a firmer grip upon their
adversaries.
The inferior quality of the ornaments which these apartments had, and
the staircases in two of them, afford evidences that they were occupied
by menials. T is considered to be the tepidarium with four warm baths
taken out of its four angles, and two labra on its two flanks. There
are steps for descending into the baths, in one of which traces of the
conduit are still manifest. It would appear that the center part of
this apartment served as a tepidarium, having a cold water lavatory in
four of its corners. The center part, like that also of the preceding
apartment, is supported by eight immense columns.
[Illustration: Restoration of Thermæ of Titus. (Restored by Leclerc)]
[Illustration: Plan of the Thermæ of Titus, Rome. (Restored by Leclerc)]
The apartments beyond this, which are too much dilapidated to be
restored with any degree of certainty, contained, of course, the
laconium and sudatories, for which the round chamber, W, and its
appurtenances seem to be adapted, and which are also contiguous to the
reservoirs, Z, Z. The apartments e, e' are probably places where youths
were taught their exercises, with the appurtenances belonging to them.
The chambers on the other side, which are not marked, probably served
for the exercises in bad weather. These baths contained an upper story,
of which nothing remains beyond what is just sufficient to indicate
the fact. It will be observed that there is no part of the bathing
department separate from the rest which could be assigned to the use of
women exclusively. From this it must be inferred either that both sexes
always bathed together promiscuously in the thermæ, or that the women
were excluded altogether from these establishments.
[Illustration: Sectional Elevation, Thermæ of Titus, Rome. (Restored by
Leclerc.)]
It remains to explain the manner in which the immense body of water
required for the supply of a set of baths in the thermæ was heated.
This has been done very satisfactorily by Piranesi and Cameron, as may
be seen by a reference to the two sectional elevations showing the
reservoir and aqueducts belonging to the Thermæ of Caracalla. A are
arches of the aqueduct which conveyed the water into the reservoir, B,
whence it flowed into the upper range of cells through the aperture at
C, and thence again descended into the lower ones by the aperture, D,
which were placed immediately over the hypocaust, E, the furnace of
which can be seen in the transverse section at F. There were thirty-two
of these cells arranged in two rows over the hypocaust, sixteen on each
side, and all communicating with one another, and over these a similar
number similarly arranged, which communicated with those below by the
aperture at D. The parting walls between these cells were likewise
perforated with flues which served to disseminate the heat all around
the whole body of water. When the water was sufficiently warm it was
turned on to the baths through pipes conducted likewise through flues
in order to prevent the loss of temperature during passage, and the
lower reservoir was supplied as fast as water was drawn off from the
reservoir next above, which in turn was supplied with water from the
topmost tier and the aqueduct.
[Illustration: Frigidarium, Thermæ of Caracalla, Rome. (Restored by
Viollet-le-Duc)]
Perhaps a better idea of the thermæ can be had by an examination of
the plan of the Thermæ of Titus, Rome, restored by Leclerc, also the
sectional elevation and front elevation of the same bath, restored
by the same artist. The original drawings, which won the _Grand Prix
de Rome_, are preserved in the library of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
Paris. A restoration by Viollet-le-Duc, which appeared with the other
restorations in the June, 1906, number of the _Architectural Record_,
conveys a very good idea of the interior of a frigidarium.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: · INTERIOR · VIEW · OF · AQVEDVCT ·
· LISBON · PORTVGAL]
[Illustration: CHAPTER V]