Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition — John Shaqi
Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present ConditionBucke, Charles
History
Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition
Bucke, Charles
Cities and towns, Ancient
this duty also of going into those places which received the people, and
of exacting cleanliness, and an useful and healthie temperature; not
this which is lately found out, like unto a setting on fire, so that it
is meet indeed to be washed alive, as a slave convicted of some crime.
It seemeth to me now to be of no difference, whether the bathe be
scalding hot or be but warme. Of how great rusticity do some now condemn
Scipio, because into his warm bathe he did not with large windowes (of
transparent stone) let in the light? O miserable man! He knew not how to
live; he was not washed in strained water, but oftentimes in turbid,
and, when more vehemently it did rain, in almost muddy water.”
The more extensive and best-preserved baths now remaining in Rome are
those of Titus, Antoninus, Caracalla, and Dioclesian. In the time of
Ammianus Marcellinus there were sixteen public baths. These were
surrounded by extensive gardens; and the main buildings were used, some
for bathing and swimming; some for athletic exercises; and others for
lectures, recitation, and conversation. They were splendidly fitted up,
and furnished with considerable libraries.
The ruins of what are called the baths of Titus extend to a great area.
The site is, to a considerable extent, occupied by gardens; in various
parts of which are to be seen fragments, all once belonging to the same
edifice. This building seems to have consisted of two stories. Of the
upper one little remains; but of the lower there are more than thirty
rooms accessible.
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