Our last stop is the Stabian baths.
Since very few people could afford baths at home, most Pompeians relied on communal baths.
Public baths also functioned like modern sports clubs, offering amenities such as gyms, pools, restaurants, and libraries.
Pompeii had 5 public baths, each capable of accommodating around 1,000 people.
These baths were popular spots for both bathing and socializing.
The Stabian Baths are among the oldest surviving baths from the Roman world.
There featured separate sections for men and women.
The men's section was larger, less expensive and more elaborately designed than the women's.
Bathers would typically arrive at the baths around 2pm, after work.
They would head to their lockers, change into linen bath clothes and gather oils, sponges and strigils, small metal blades to scrape off sweat and dead skin.
Slaves would provide towels and wooden sandals.
Fun fact : some baths had explicit sexual frescos above each locker to help bathers remember which one was theirs!
Men often exercised in the open air gym - typically lifting weights or playing ball games - and then swam in the open-air pool.
They would then often enjoy a massage and scrub before entering the thermal baths.
The bathing process involved starting in the warm room, moving on to the hot room, returning to the warm room, and finally finishing in the cold room.
Slaves would tend fires in furnace rooms next door, channeling hot air through tunnels to heat the adjoining rooms.
Light would be very dim, provided by small windows, lanterns and torches.
Pompeiians could spend hours socialising in the baths before heading home for dinner.
Roman poet Martial humorously describes how he would be pestered by people at the baths :
"To escape Menogenes at the baths is quite impossible, although you try every art to do so. He will catch your warm ball with eager hands... He will pick up the football, when collapsed... If you bring linen with you, he will declare it whiter than snow... If you comb your scanty hair with the toothed ivory, he will say that you have arranged your tresses like those of Achilles... He will praise everything, admire everything about you, until, after having patiently endured a thousand tortures, you utter the invitation, "Come and dine!"
Not everyone enjoyed living near the baths.
As Seneca explains :
“I live over a public bath house. Just imagine every kind of annoying noise! The sturdy gentleman does his exercise with lead weights; when he is working hard (or pretending to) I can hear him grunt; when he breathes out, I can hear him panting in high pitched tones. Or I might notice some lazy fellow, content with a cheap rub-down, and hear the blows of the hand slapping his shoulders. The sound varies, depending on whether the massager hits with a flat or hollow hand. To all of this, you can add the arrest of the occasional pickpocket; there’s also the racket made by the man who loves to hear his own voice in the bath or the chap who dives in with a lot of noise and splashing!”
Curious to learn more?
Follow up with the A.I :
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