Public baths were an important part of everyday life in Pompeii and Herculaneum. The ruins of substantial bath buildings with luxurious features like mosaics and marble have been uncovered, including the Forum Baths, Stabian Baths, and Suburban Baths in Pompeii and the Central Baths and Suburban Baths in Herculaneum. Visiting the public baths was a social activity where people would bathe, get massages, and relax in rooms kept warm by hypocaust heating systems, following a conventional routine of undressing, hot, warm, and cold baths.

1. Everyday Life - Baths

2. Everyday Life - Baths
• The main evidence for the baths
(thermae) as an aspect of everyday life
comes from the buildings themselves
• In Pompeii the main public baths were
the Forum Baths, the Stabian Baths
and the Suburban Baths
• In Herculaneum the Central Baths
and the Suburban (or Marine) Baths
have been uncovered

3. Everyday Life - Baths
• These public baths were substantial buildings with several large rooms, some of
which were equipped with luxurious features such as mosaics, marble fittings and
glass windows

4. Everyday Life - Baths
• Most houses did not have bathrooms
• A visit to the public baths was a matter of personal hygiene, but it was also a social
activity
• There were places for exercise, business and relaxation, and people could have a
massage as well as a bath

5. Everyday Life - Baths
• Men and women bathed separately
• In some baths there were separate entrances and rooms for men and women
• In others men and women used the same facilities, but at different times of the day

6. Everyday Life - Baths
• The baths had similar features and there was a conventional bathing routine
• Bathers would undress in the change room (apodyterium); enter the caldarium to
take a hot bath, after which the sweat and oil were scraped away with a strigil
• Then off to the tepidarium for a warm bath, followed by a plunge in a cold bath, the
frigidarium

7. Everyday Life - Baths
• The tepidarium and the caldarium were heated by a hypocaust, which circulated
hot air from the furnaces beneath the floor and through pipes set into the wall
• The large number of lamps excavated at the Stabian Baths in Pompeii suggest that
they were open at night