The Private Life of the Romans Part 15

--360. Weapons and Armor.--The armor and weapons used in these combats are known from pieces found in various places, some of which are shown in Fig. 152, --345, and from paintings and sculpture, but we are not always able to a.s.sign them to definite cla.s.ses of gladiators. The oldest cla.s.s was that of the Samnites (Fig. 151, --344). They had belts, thick sleeves on the right arm (_manica_), helmets with visors, shown in Fig. 154, --348, greaves on the left leg, short swords, and the long shield (_scutum_). Under the Empire the name Samnite was gradually lost and gladiators with equivalent equipment were called _hoplomachi_ (heavy armed), when matched against the lighter armed Thracians, and _secutores_, when they fought with the _retiarii_. The Thracians (Fig. 166) had much the same equipment as the Samnites, the mark of distinction being the small shield (_parma_) in place of the _scutum_ and, to make up the difference, greaves on both legs. They carried a curved sword. The Gauls were heavy armed, but we do not know how they were distinguished from the Samnites. In later times they were called _murmillones_, from an ornament on their helmets shaped like a fish (_mormyr_). The retiarii had no defensive armor except a leather protection for the shoulder, shown in Fig. 165. Of course the same man might appear by turns as Samnite, Thracian, etc., if he was skilled in the use of the various weapons; see the inscription in --363.

--361. Announcement of the Shows.--The games were advertised in advance by means of notices painted on the walls of public and private houses, and even on the tombstones that lined the approaches to the towns and cities. Some are worded in very general terms, announcing merely the name of the giver of the games with the date:

A SVETTI CERTI AEDILIS FAMILIA GLADIATORIA PUGNAB POMPEIS PR K JVNIAS VENATIO ET VELA ERUNT[4]

[Footnote 4: "On the last day of May the gladiators of the Aedile Aulus Suettius Certus will fight at Pompeii. There will also be a hunt and the awnings will be used."]

Others promise in addition to the awnings that the dust will be kept down in the arena by sprinkling. Sometimes when the troop was particularly good the names of the gladiators were announced in pairs as they would be matched together, with details as to their equipment, the school in which each had been trained, the number of his previous battles, etc. To such a notice on one of the walls in Pompeii some one added after the show the result of each combat. The following is a specimen only of this announcement:

MVNUS N... IV III PRID IDUS IDIBUS MAIS T M O T _v._ PUGNAX NER III _v._ CYCNVS IVL VIII _p._ MVRRANVS NER III _m._ ATTICVS IVL XIV[5]

[Footnote 5: "The games of N... from the 12th to the 15th of May. The Thracian Pugnax, of the gladiatorial school of Nero, who has fought three times will be matched against the _murmillo_ Murra.n.u.s, of the same school and the same number of fights. The _hoplomachus_ Cycnus, from the school of Julius Caesar, who has fought eight times will be matched with the Thracian Atticus of the same school and of fourteen fights."]

The letters in italics before the names of the gladiators were added after the exhibition by some interested spectator, and stand for _vicit_, _periit_, and _missus_ ("beaten, but spared"). Other announcements added to such particulars as those given above the statement that other pairs than those mentioned would fight each day, this being meant to excite the curiosity and interest of the people.

--362. The Fight Itself.--The day before the exhibition a banquet (_cena libera_) was given to the gladiators and they received visits from their friends and admirers. The games took place in the afternoon. After the _editor muneris_ had taken his place (--355), the gladiators marched in procession around the arena, pausing before him to give the famous greeting: _morituri te salutant_. All then retired from the arena to return in pairs according to the published programme. The show began with a series of sham combats, the _prolusio_, with blunt weapons. When the people had had enough of this the trumpets gave the signal for the real exhibition to begin. Those reluctant to fight were driven into the arena with whips or hot iron bars. If one of the combatants was clearly overpowered without being actually killed, he might appeal for mercy by holding up his finger to the _editor_. It was customary to refer the plea to the people, who waved cloths or napkins to show that they wished it to be granted, or pointed their thumbs downward as a signal for death. The gladiator who was refused release (_missio_) received the death blow from his opponent without resistance. Combats where all must fight to the death were said to be _sine missione_, but these were forbidden by Augustus.

The body of the dead man was dragged away through the _porta Libitinensis_, sand was sprinkled or raked over the blood, and the contests were continued until all had fought.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 168. TESSERA GLADIATORIA][6]

[Footnote 6: _Lepidus Mummeiani s(ervus). Spectavit m(ense) Iunio, C.

Sentio Consule._]

D M ET MEMORIAE AETERNAE HYLATIS DYMACHAERO SIVE a.s.sIDARIO P VII RV I ERMAIS CONIVX CONIVGI KARISSIMO P C ET S AS D[7]

[Footnote 7: Inscription on tomb of a gladiator. "To the G.o.ds Manes and the lasting memory of Hylas, a dimachaerus or essedarius of seven victories and head trainer. His wife Ermais erected this monument to her beloved husband and dedicated it, reserving the usual rights."]

--363. The Rewards.--Before making his first public appearance the gladiator was technically called a _tiro_. After his first victory he received a token of wood or ivory (Fig. 168), which had upon it his name and that of his master or trainer, a date, and the letters SP, SPECT, SPECTAT, or SPECTAVIT, meaning perhaps _populus spectavit_.

When after many victories he had proved himself to be the best of his cla.s.s, or second best, in his _familia_, he received the t.i.tle of _primus_, or _secundus_, _palus_. When he had won his freedom he was given a wooden sword (_rudis_). From this the t.i.tles _prima rudis_ and _secunda rudis_ seem to have been given to those who were afterwards employed as training masters (_doctores_, --349) in the schools. The rewards given to famous gladiators by their masters and backers took the form of valuable prizes and gifts of money. These may not have been so generous as those given to the _aurigae_ (--341), but they were enough to enable them to live in luxury the rest of their lives. The cla.s.s of men, however, who followed this profession probably found their most acceptable reward in the immediate and lasting notoriety that their strength and courage brought them. That they did not shrink from the _infamia_ that the profession entailed is shown by the fact that they did not try to hide their connection with the amphitheater.

On the contrary, their gravestones record their cla.s.ses and the number of their victories, and have often cut upon them their likenesses with the _rudis_ in their hands.

--364. Other Shows in the Amphitheater.--Of other games that were sometimes given in the amphitheaters something has been said in connection with the circus (--343). The most important were the _venationes_, hunts of wild beasts. These were sometimes killed by men trained to hunt them, sometimes made to kill each other. As the amphitheater was primarily intended for the butchery of men, the _venationes_ given in it gradually but surely took the form of man-hunts. The victims were condemned criminals, some of them guilty of crimes that deserved death, some of them sentenced on trumped up charges, some of them (and among these were women and children) condemned "to the lions" for political or religious convictions.

Sometimes they were supplied with weapons, sometimes they were exposed unarmed, even fettered or bound to stakes, sometimes the ingenuity of their executioners found additional torments for them by making them play the parts of the sufferers in the tragedies of mythology. The arena was well adapted, too, for the maneuvering of boats, when it had been flooded with water (--357), and naval battles (_naumachiae_) were often fought within the coliseum as desperate and as b.l.o.o.d.y as some of those that have given a new turn to the history of the world. The earliest exhibitions of this sort were given in artificial lakes, also called _naumachiae_. The first of these was dug by Caesar, for a single exhibition, in 46 B.C. Augustus had a permanent basin constructed in 2 B.C., measuring 1,800 by 1,200 feet, and four others at least were built by later emperors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 169. HALL IN THERMAE OF CARACALLA]

--365. The Daily Bath.--To the Roman of early times the bath had stood for health and decency only. He washed every day his arms and legs, for the ordinary costume left them exposed (--239), his body once a week. He bathed at home, using a very primitive sort of wash-room, situated near the kitchen (--203) in order that the water heated on the kitchen stove might be carried into it with the least possible inconvenience. By the last century of the Republic all this had changed, though the steps in the change can not now be followed. The bath had become a part of the daily life as momentous as the _cena_ itself, which it regularly preceded. It was taken, too, by preference in one of the public bathing establishments which were by this time operated on a large scale in all parts of Rome and also in the smaller towns of Italy and even in the provinces. These offered all sorts of baths, plain, plunge, douche, with ma.s.sage (Turkish), and besides in many cases features borrowed from the Greek gymnasia, exercise grounds, courts for various games, reading and conversation rooms, libraries, gymnastic apparatus, everything in fact that our athletic clubs now provide for their members. The accessories had become really of more importance than the bathing itself and justify the description of the bath under the head of amus.e.m.e.nts. In places where there were no public baths, or where they were at an inconvenient distance, the wealthy fitted up bathing places in their houses, but no matter how elaborate they were the private baths were merely a makeshift at best.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 170. TEPIDARIUM AT POMPEII]

--366. Essentials for the Bath.--The ruins of the public and private baths found all over the Roman world, together with a dissertation by Vitruvius, and countless allusions in literature, make very clear the general construction and arrangement of the bath, but show that the widest freedom was allowed in matters of detail. For the luxurious bath of cla.s.sical times four things were thought necessary: a warm ante-room, a hot bath, a cold bath, and the rubbing and anointing with oil. All these might have been had in a single room, as all but the last are furnished in every modern bathroom, but as a matter of fact we find at least three rooms set apart for the bath in very modest private houses and often five or six, while in the public establishments this number may be multiplied several times. In the better equipped houses were provided: (1) A room for undressing and dressing (_apodyterium_), usually unheated, but furnished with benches and often with lockers for the clothes; (2) the warm ante-room (_tepidarium_), in which the bather waited long enough for the perspiration to start, in order to guard against the danger of pa.s.sing too suddenly into the high temperature of the next room; (3) the hot room (_caldarium_) for the hot bath; (4) the cold room (_frigidarium_) for the cold bath; (5) the _unctorium_, the room for the rubbing and anointing with oil that finished the bath, from which the bather returned into the _apodyterium_ for his clothes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 171. STRIGILES]

--367. In the more modest houses s.p.a.ce was saved by using a room for several purposes. The separate _apodyterium_ might be dispensed with, the bather undressing and dressing in either the _frigidarium_ or _tepidarium_ according to the weather; or the _unctorium_ might be saved by using the _tepidarium_ for this purpose as well as for its own. In this way the suite of five rooms might be reduced to four or three. On the other hand, private houses had sometimes an additional hot room without water (_laconic.u.m_), used for a sweat bath, and a public bathhouse would be almost sure to have an exercise ground (_palaestra_), with a pool at one side (_piscina_) for a cold plunge and a room adjacent (_destrictarium_) in which the sweat and dirt of exercise were sc.r.a.ped off with the _strigilis_ (Fig. 171) before and after the bath. It must not be supposed that all bathers went the round of all the rooms in the order given above, though that was common enough. Some would dispense with the hot bath altogether, taking instead a sweat in the _laconic.u.m_, or failing that, in the _caldarium_, removing the perspiration with the strigil, following this with a cold bath (perhaps merely a shower or douche) in the _frigidarium_ and the rubbing with linen cloths and anointing with oil. Young men who deserted the campus and the Tiber (--317) for the _palaestra_ and the bath would content themselves with removing the effects of their exercise with the sc.r.a.per, taking a plunge in the open pool, and then a second sc.r.a.ping and the oil. Much would depend on the time and the tastes of individuals, and physicians laid down strict rules for their patients to follow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 172. SUSPENSURA]

--368. Heating the Bath.--The arrangement of the rooms, were they many or few, depended upon the method of heating. This in early times must have been by stoves placed in the rooms as needed, but by the end of the Republic the furnace had come into use, heating the rooms as well as the water with a single fire. The hot air from the furnace was not conducted into the rooms directly, as it is with us, but was made to circulate under the floors and through s.p.a.ces between the walls, the temperature of the room depending upon its proximity to the furnace.

The _laconic.u.m_, if there was one, was put directly over the furnace, next to it came the _caldarium_ and then the _tepidarium_, while the _frigidarium_ and the _apodyterium_ having no need of heat were at the greatest distance from the fire and without connection with it. If there were two sets of baths in the same building, as there sometimes were for the accommodation of both men and women at the same time, the two _caldaria_ were put on opposite sides of the furnace (see the plan in --376) and the other rooms were connected with them in the regular order, the two entrances being at the greatest distance apart. The method of conducting the air under the floors is shown in Fig. 172.

There were really two floors, the first being even with the top of the firepot, the second (_suspensura_) with the top of the furnace.

Between them was a s.p.a.ce of about two feet into which the hot air pa.s.sed. On the top of the furnace, just above the level, therefore, of the second floor, were two kettles for heating the water. One was placed well back, where the fire was not so hot, and contained water that was kept merely warm; the other was placed directly over the fire and the water in it, received from the former, was easily kept intensely hot. Near them was a third kettle containing cold water.

From these three kettles the water was piped as needed to the various rooms. The arrangement will be easily understood after a study of the plans in ----376, 378.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 173. SECTION OF CALDARIUM]

--369. The Caldarium.--The hot water bath was taken in the _caldarium_ (_cella caldaria_), which served also as a sweat bath when there was no _laconic.u.m_. It was a rectangular room and in the public baths was longer than wide (Vitruvius says the proportion should be 3:2) with one end rounded off like an apse or bay window. At the other end stood the large hot water tank (_alveus_), in which the bath was taken by a number of persons at a time. The _alveus_ (Fig. 173) was built up two steps from the floor of the room, its length equal to the width of the room and its breadth at the top not less than six feet. At the bottom it was not nearly so wide, the back sloping inward, so that the bathers could recline against it, and the front having a long broad step, for convenience of descent into it, upon which, too, the bathers sat. The water was received hot from the furnace, and was kept hot by a metal heater (_testudo_), opening into the _alveus_ and extending beneath the floor into the hot air chamber. Near the top of the tank was an overflow pipe, and in the bottom was an escape pipe which allowed the water to be emptied on the floor of the _caldarium_, to be used for scrubbing it. In the apse-like end of the room was a tank or large basin of metal (_labrum_, _solium_), which seems to have contained cool water for the douche. In private baths the room was usually rectangular and then the _labrum_ was placed in a corner. For the accommodation of those using the room for the sweat bath only, there were benches along the wall. The air in the _caldarium_ would, of course, be very moist, while that of the _laconic.u.m_ would be perfectly dry, so that the effect would not be precisely the same.

--370. The Frigidarium and Unctorium.--The _frigidarium_ (_cella frigidaria_) contained merely the cold plunge bath, unless it was made to do duty for the _apodyterium_, when there would be lockers on the wall for the clothes (at least in a public bath) and benches for the slaves who watched them. Persons who found the bath too cold would resort instead to the open swimming pool in the _palaestra_, which would be warmed by the sun. In one of the public baths at Pompeii a cold bath seems to have been introduced into the _tepidarium_, for the benefit, probably, of invalids who found even the _palaestra_ too cool for comfort. The final process, that of sc.r.a.ping, rubbing, and oiling, was exceedingly important. The bather was often treated twice, before the warm bath and after the cold bath; the first might be omitted, but the second never. The special room, _unctorium_, was furnished with benches and couches. The sc.r.a.pers and oils were brought by the bathers, usually carried along with the towels for the bath by a slave (_capsarius_). The bather might sc.r.a.pe (_destringere_) and oil (_deungere_) himself, or he might receive a regular ma.s.sage at the hands of a trained slave. It is probable that in the large baths expert operators could be hired, but we have no direct testimony on the subject. When there was no special _unctorium_ the _tepidarium_ or _apodyterium_ was made to do instead.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 174. BATH AT CAERWENT]

--371. A Private Bathhouse.--In Fig. 174 is shown the plan of a private bath in Caerwent, Monmouthshire, England, the ruins of which were discovered in the year 1855. It dates from about the time of Constantine (306-333), and small though it is gives a clear notion of the arrangement of the rooms. The entrance _A_ leads into the _frigidarium B_, 10'6" x 6'6" in size, with a bath _C_, 10'6" x 3'3".

Off this is the _apodyterium D_, 10'6" x 13'3", which has the apse-like end that the _caldarium_ ought to have. Next is the _tepidarium E_, 12' x 12', which contrary to all the rules is the largest instead of the smallest of the four main rooms. Then comes the _caldarium F_, 12' x 7'6", with its _alveus G_, 6' x 3' x 2', but with no sign of its _labrum_ left, perhaps because the basin was too small to require any special foundation. Finally comes the rare _laconic.u.m H_, 8' x 4', built over one end of the furnace _I_, which was in the bas.e.m.e.nt room _KK_. The hot air pa.s.sed as indicated by the arrows, escaping through openings near the roof in the outside wall of the _apodyterium_. It should be noticed that there was no direct pa.s.sage from the _caldarium_ to the _frigidarium_, no special entrance to the _laconic.u.m_, and that the _tepidarium_ must have served as the _unctorium_. The dimensions of the bath as a whole are 31 x 34 feet.

--372. The Public Baths.--To the simpler bathhouse of the earlier times as well as to the bath itself was given the name _balneum_ (_balineum_), used often in the plural, _balnea_, by the dactylic poets for metrical convenience. The more complex establishments of later times were called _balneae_, and to the very largest with features derived from the Greek gymnasia (--365) the name _thermae_ was finally given. These words, however, were loosely used and often interchanged in practice. Public baths are first heard of after the second Punic war. They increased in number rapidly, 170 at least being operated in Rome in the year 33 B.C., and later there were more than 800. With equal rapidity they spread through Italy and the provinces, all the towns and many villages even having at least one. They were public only in the sense of being open to all citizens who could pay the modest fee demanded for their use. Free baths there were none, except when some magistrate or public-spirited citizen or candidate for office arranged to relieve the people of the fees for a definite time by meeting the charges himself. So Agrippa in the year 33 B.C.

kept open free of charge 170 establishments at Rome. The rich sometimes provided free baths for the people in their wills, but always for a limited time.

--373. Management.--The first public baths were opened by individuals for speculative purposes. Others were built by wealthy men as gifts to their native towns, as such men give hospitals and libraries now, the administration being lodged with the town authorities who kept the buildings in repair and the baths open with the fees collected. Others were built by the towns out of public funds, and others still as monuments by the later emperors. However started, the management was practically the same for all. They were leased for a definite time and for a fixed sum to a manager (_conductor_) who paid his expenses and made his profits out of the fees which he collected. The fee (_balneatic.u.m_) was hardly more than nominal. The regular price at Rome for men seems to have been a _quadrans_, less than a cent, the bather furnishing his own towels, oil, etc., as we have seen (--370).

Women paid more, perhaps twice as much, while children up to a certain age, unknown to us, paid nothing. Prices varied, of course, in different places. It is likely that higher prices were charged in some baths than in others in the same city, either because they were more luxuriously equipped or to make them more exclusive and fashionable than the rest, but we have no positive knowledge that this was done.

--374. Hours Opened.--The bath was regularly taken between the _meridiatio_ and _cena_, the hour varying, therefore, within narrow limits in different seasons and for different cla.s.ses (--310). In general it may be said to have been taken about the eighth hour, and at this hour all the _conductores_ were bound by their contracts to have the baths open and all things in readiness. As a matter of fact many people preferred to bathe before the _prandium_ (--302), and some at least of the baths in the larger places must have been open then.

All were regularly kept open until sunset, but in the smaller towns, where public baths were fewer, it is probable that they were kept open later; at least the lamps found in large numbers in the Pompeian baths seem to point at evening hours. It may be taken for granted that the managers would keep the doors open as long as was profitable for them.

--375. Accommodations for Women.--Women of respectability bathed in the public baths, as they bathe in public places now, but with women only, enjoying the opportunity to meet their friends as much as did the men.

In the large cities there were separate baths devoted to their exclusive use. In the larger towns separate rooms were set apart for them in the baths intended generally for men. Such a combination is shown in the next paragraph and the arrangement has been explained in --368. In the very small places the bath was opened to men and women at different hours. Late in the Empire we read of men and women bathing together, but this was true of women only who had no claim to respectability at all.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 175. THERMAE AT POMPEII]

--376. Thermae.--In Fig. 175 is shown a plan of the so-called Stabian baths at Pompeii, which gives a correct idea of the smaller _thermae_ and serves at the same time to ill.u.s.trate the combination of baths for men and women under the same roof. In the plan the unnumbered rooms opening upon the surrounding streets were used for shops and stores independent of the baths, those opening within were for the use of the attendants or for purposes that can not now be determined. The main entrance (_1_), on the south, opened upon the _palaestra_ (_2_), surrounded on three sides by colonnades and on the west by a bowling alley (_3_), where large stone b.a.l.l.s were found. Behind the bowling alley was the _piscina_ (_6_) open to the sun, with a room on either side (_5_, _7_) for douche baths and a _destrictarium_ (_4_) for the use of the athletes. There were two side entrances (_8_, _11_) at the northwest, with the porter's room (_12_) and manager's office (_10_) within convenient reach. The room (_9_) at the head of the bowling alley was for the use of the players and may be compared with the similar room for the use of the gladiators marked _9_ in Fig. 156 (--350). Behind the office was the _latrina_ (_14_).

--377. On the east are the baths proper, the men's to the south. There were two _apodyteria_ (_24_, _25_) for the men, each with a separate waiting-room for the slaves (_26_, _27_) with a door to the street.

Then come in order the _frigidarium_ (_22_), the _tepidarium_ (_23_), and the _caldarium_ (_21_). The _tepidarium_, contrary to custom, had a cold bath as explained in --370. The main entrance to the women's bath was at the northeast (_17_), but there was also an entrance from the northwest through the long corridor (_15_), both opening into the _apodyterium_ (_16_). This contained in one corner a cold bath, there being no separate _frigidarium_ in the baths for women. Then come in the regular position the _tepidarium_ (_18_) and _caldarium_ (_19_).

The furnace (_20_) was between the two _caldaria_, and the position of the three kettles (--368) which furnished the water is clearly shown.

It should be noticed that there was no _laconic.u.m_. It is possible that one of the waiting-rooms for men (_24_) may have been used as an _unctorium_. The ruins show that the rooms were most artistically decorated and there can be no doubt that they were luxuriously furnished. The colonnades and the large waiting-rooms gave ample s.p.a.ce for the lounge after the bath, which the Roman prized so highly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 176. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN]

--378. Baths of Diocletian.--The irregularity of plan and the waste of s.p.a.ce in the Pompeian _thermae_ just described are due to the fact that it was rebuilt at various times with all sorts of alterations and additions. Nothing can be more symmetrical than the _thermae_ of the later emperors, as a type of which is shown in Fig. 176 the plan of the Baths of Diocletian, dedicated in 305 A.D. They lay on the east side of the city and were the largest and with the exception of those of Caracalla the most magnificent of the Roman baths. The plan shows the arrangement of the main rooms, all in the line of the minor axis of the building; the uncovered _piscina_ (1), the _apodyterium_ and _frigidarium_ (2), combined as in the women's baths at Pompeii, the _tepidarium_ (3), and the _caldarium_ (4) projecting beyond the other rooms for the sake of the sunshine. The uses of the surrounding halls and courts can not now be determined, but it is clear from the plan that nothing was omitted known to the luxury of the time. An idea of the magnificence of the central room may be had from Fig. 169 (--365), showing the corresponding room in the Baths of Caracalla.

CHAPTER X

TRAVEL AND CORRESPONDENCE. BOOKS

REFERENCES: Marquardt, 469-474, 731-738, 799-833; Voigt, 359 f.; Goll, II, 418-462, III, 1-45; Guhl and Koner, 538-544, 766 f., 783 f.; Friedlander, II, 36-291; Ramsay, 76-78, 512-516; Pauly-Wissowa, _carpentum_, _cisium_, _charta_, _Brief_, _Buch_, _Buchhandlung_, _Bibliotheken_; Smith, Harper, Rich, Lubker, _viae_, _tabulae_, _liber_, _bibliotheca_, and other Latin words in text; Baumeister, 2079 f., 354, 361-364; Blumner, I, 308-327; Johnston, Latin Ma.n.u.scripts, 13-21, 27-34, 36.