Seneca in an entertaining letter (Ep. 86) gives an account of a visit about 60 A.D. to the villa at Liternum in which the Elder Scipio had lived in the years immediately preceding his death, in 183 B.C. The philosopher was particularly struck with the bath, the simplicity of which he contrasts forcibly with the luxurious appointments of his own time. We cannot follow him through the extended disquisition--he speaks of various refinements of luxury of which we find no traces at Pompeii; but he mentions as the most striking difference the lack of light in the old bath, with its small apertures more like chinks than windows, while in his day the baths were provided with large windows protected by glass, and people 'wanted to be parboiled in full daylight,' besides having the enjoyment meanwhile of a beautiful view. Some such feeling as this we have in turning from the two older baths at Pompeii--one of pre-Roman origin, the other dating from the time of Sulla--to the Central Baths, which were in process of construction at the time of the eruption, and had been designed in accordance with the prevailing mode of life. This extensive establishment, at the corner of Stabian and Nola streets, occupied the whole of a block; but a large part of the frontage on the two streets mentioned was utilized for shops. Notwithstanding the size of the building, it had only a single series of apartments, which were laid out on a correspondingly large scale. It was doubtless built for men, although the use of it at certain hours by women may possibly have been contemplated, in case the women's baths at the two other establishments should be overcrowded. Entrances from three streets lead to the ample palaestra, from which the remains of the houses demolished to make room for it had not yet been entirely removed. On the northeast side is the excavation for a large swimming tank (_h_), and for a water channel leading to the closet (_e_). In order to have water at hand for building purposes, the masons had built a low wall around an old impluvium on the south side (shown on the plan, Fig. 94) into which a feed pipe ran. For a short distance on the north side the stylobate had been made ready for the building of the colonnade; elsewhere only the preliminary work had been done. The rooms at the southeast corner (_f_, _g_) were no doubt intended for dressing rooms for the palaestra and the plunge bath. [Illustration: Fig. 94.--Plan of the Central Baths. _d._ Palaestra. _h._ Swimming tank. _i_, _l._ Stores _p._ Apodyterium. _q._ Tepidarium. _r._ Laconicum. _s._ Caldarium. _x_, _y._ Furnaces.] Two small rooms (_b_, _c_) open upon the north entrance of the palaestra; one of them, perhaps, was to be a ticket office, for the adjustment of matters relating to admission, the other a cloak room, in which the _capsarius_ would guard the valuables of the bathers.