to their footings, some had entirely disappeared. In addition to all this, the study of the building was complicated by the effect of recent drainage operations, and still more by the fact that here also we had to deal with the work of several different periods.

The Rooms of the Bath

The plans of Roman baths vary very much. There is not merely the balneum, a series of rooms on a small scale intended solely for the purpose of bathing, but also the thermae, or great establishments such as those of which we find the ruins in Rome and at Pompeii. These latter comprised halls for games, waiting-rooms, bazaars, and restaurants, the bath being in fact hut one of many attractions. Most of the buildings which we find on the outskirts of the forts have only the rooms which we are accustomed to associate with the actual process of the Roman bath. At the same time the plans differ widely, and not infrequently we meet with larger and more important structures. The Newstead bath began on a comparatively small scale, but was afterwards enlarged. We shall probably be able to understand it better by examining one or two typical plans from other sites, for it has to be borne in mind that the general scheme of a Roman public bath was the same, whether it was placed in Italy or away on the frontiers of the Empire.

However large and complex the building became, there were three chambers of different temperature to be found in all. To begin with, there was the frigidarium, or cold room, at one end of which was a cold bath. Then there was the tepidarium, a fairly warm room, from which the bather entered the third chamber, or caldarium, a hotter apartment, calculated to induce perspiration, and having at one end a bath of warm water, and at the other a great vase or basin filled with cold water, with which to douche the bather before he passed out again. In the larger baths this nucleus had various additions attached to it, such as an outer courtyard, an apodyterium, or dressing-room, which was frequently combined with the frigidarium, and a store for oils and substances used in anointing the bathers. The tepidarium had sometimes added to it a laconicum or sudatorium, that is, a small chamber, usually circular in form and heated to a high temperature, but having no bath. All the buildings, whether great or small, were of course provided with furnaces for supplying the hot air to the warm rooms, and with arrangements for heating water.

Bath in Lipari

A brief glance at one or two definite examples will be of assistance in interpreting the Newstead plan. We may take first a small bath-house

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