Baths of the Roman Empire

The Romans were fond of bathing, and public baths were important elements of civic architecture throughout the empire.

Some were enormous and architecturally complex. The buildings enclosed three main rooms visited sequentially by the bathers—the warm room (Tepidarium), the hot room (Calidarium), and the cool room (Frigidarium).

Wide barrel-vaulted ceilings covered many of the rooms, and beneath the floor were systems of ducts that brought hot air from nearby furnaces to heat the rooms.

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