Archimedes Texts

Some have condemned Baths, imagining
they made Men effeminate, while others
have had so great an Opinion of them, that
they have washed in them seven Times a Day.
The ancient Physicians, in order for the Cure
of various Distempers by means of Bathing,
erected a great Number of Thermes or publick
Baths in the City of Rome at an incredible Ex
pence. Heliogabalus particularly built Thermæ
in a great many Places, but having washed
once in each, he immediately ordered it to be
demolished, scorning ever to wash twice in the
same Bath. I am not thoroughly determined
whether this Kind of Structure be of a publick
or private Nature: And indeed I cannot help
thinking that it partakes somewhat of both,
since in many Particulars, it borrows from the
Designs of private Edifices, and in many others
from those of publick ones. A publick Bath
or Thermæ requiring a very large Area of
Ground to stand upon, it is not proper to build
it in the principal and most frequented Part of
the City, neither should it be placed too far
out of the Way, because both the chief Citi
zens and the Women must resort thither to
wash themselves. The Thermæ itself must have
a large open Space clear round it, which must
be encompassed with a high Wall, with proper
Entrances at convenient Places. In the Mid
dle of the Therme must be a large stately Hall,
which must be as it were the Center of the
whole Edifice, with Cells all round it after the
Manner of the Etrurian Temple, which we
have already described. Into this Hall we are
to enter through a handsome Vestibule, front
ing to the South, from which we pass into an
other smaller Vestibule or Lobby, and so into
the great Hall. From the Hall is a large Gate
fronting to the North, which opens into a large
open Square, on the Right and Left of which
are spacious Porticoes, and immediately behind
those Porticoes are the cold Baths. Let us once
more go back into the great Hall. On the
right Side of this Hall, which lies to the East,
is a broad spacious Lobby, with three Cells on
each Side of it, lying opposite to each other.
This Lobby carries us into another open Square,
which I call the Xystus, which is encompassed
with Porticoes on every Side. Of these Porti
coes, that which fronts you as you come into
the Square, has a handsome Withdrawing
room behind it. The Portico whose Front lies
to the South has cold Baths behind it, in the
same Manner as in the other Square, with con
venient Dressing-rooms adjoining to them:
And in the opposite Portico are the warm
Baths, which receive the south Sun by Win
dows broke out behind the Portico. In con
venient Angles in the Porticoes of the Xystus
are the other smaller Vestibules, for Passages
out into the open Space which encompasses the
whole Thermæ. These are the several Mem
bers of the Thermæ which lie on the right Side
of the great Hall, and there must be just the
same on the left which lies to the West, an
swering to the former: The Lobby with three
Cells on each Side, the open Square or Xystus
with its Porticoes and Withdrawing-rooms, and
the smaller Vestibules in the Angles of the
Xystus. Let us return once more to that prin
cipal Vestibule of the whole Structure, which
I said fronted the South; on the right Hand of
which, upon the Line which runs to the East
are three Rooms, and as many on that which
runs to the West; the one for the Women,
and the other for the Men. In the first Room
they undressed; in the second they anointed
themselves, and in the third they washed: And
some for the greater Magnificence, added a
fourth, for the Friends and Servants of those
that were bathing to wait for them in. These
Bathing-rooms received the Noon-day Sun at
very large Windows. Between these Rooms
and those Cells which I told you lay along the
Side of the inner Lobbies, which lead out of
the great Hall into the open Square on the Side
or Xystus, another open Area was left, which
threw Light into the south Side of those inner
Cells that lie along those Lobbies from the great
Hall. The whole Edifice of the Thermæ, as
I before observed, was encompassed clear round
with a broad open Space, which was even spa
cious enough for Races, nor were Goals want
ing in proper Places of it for that Purpose. In
the open Space on the south Side in which is
the principal Vestibule of the whole Edifice,