What could be better in antiquity — and today — than relaxing at the Roman baths? From saunas to hot rooms to cold plunges, both public and private thermae catered to the populace of most Roman cities. But baths were more than just a space to get clean. Much like modern museums, they were often places to visit a library, interact with friends, display one’s wealth, and even take in some art. Thousands of baths existed across the Roman Empire at its height — and this year alone, Mediterranean archaeologists uncovered several such sites, from Spain to Italy to Turkey.
In Spain, at the site of Roman Ilici, archaeologists from the University of Alicante finished excavating the eastern baths of the city. In a press release, researcher Jaime Molina Vidal noted that the unearthed 14,000-square-foot complex is one of the largest Roman bathhouses discovered in the Valencian region of ancient Hispania. In addition, it is “richly decorated with mosaic floors and built on an extraordinary scale,” speaking to the “splendor and prosperity of the city during the 2nd century [CE].” On the other side of the Mediterranean, in August, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism also announced the discovery of a mosaic and Roman bath complex, this one at the site of Elâzığ, dating to the 3rd century CE. Like most of its kind, it boasted an extensive hypocaust system for heating via fireproof furnaces circulating hot air beneath the floors.
These baths were decorated by transient mosaic artists or nearby mosaic workshops, which were prevalent in the Mediterranean at this time. Artisans decorated bath floors with intricate designs all over what is modern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, North Africa, Italy, Spain, Gaul, and many other sites across the Roman Empire.
View of the Great Bath, part of the Roman Baths complex, in Bath, England (photo by Diego Delso via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
In addition to larger public baths, there were also a number of private complexes built by the wealthy. In January, the Pompeii Archaeological Park announced the discovery of a private bath connected to an upper-class house in Pompeii. It could hold up to 30 people and included a typical Goldilocks-esque offering of a cold room called a frigidarium, a hot room referred to as the caldarium, and a warm room, or tepidarium. The changing room at the Pompeii house, the apodyterium, featured a stunning mosaic floor meant to impress any visitor, and the baths even connected to the dining room. In addition to this opulent attribute, underwater archaeologists working at the Roman vacation site of Baiae nearby found what they think may have been Cicero’s bathhouse. It also included mosaic floors and an ancient sauna. Visitors to ancient villas like Cicero’s often arrived, bathed, and then were served dinner. Like any wealthy aristocrat, the homeowner used luxury and domestic art to impress guests and show off their taste.
The new mosaic unearthed in the eastern baths at the Roman site of Ilici in Spain (photo via the University of Alicante press release)
But art within baths wasn’t always about opulence or conspicuous consumption. Sometimes, it reflected everyday life and served a functional purpose. Bath mosaics were, as art historian Katherine Dunbabin has suggested, just one way to remind visitors to take off their shoes and have a nice wash — even if stories about stolen clothing were a common occurrence in Roman literature.
One such mosaic has recently made headlines. The newly announced late Roman mosaic depicting flip-flops was found in the extensive Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily, well-known for its tesserae depictions of life-size bikini-clad girls and stunning hunt scenes. It was found by the ArchLabs Summer School, directed by Professor Isabella Baldini, and has since gone viral. As The History Blog notes, flip-flops were ubiquitous in Ancient Rome, and a number of other mosaic depictions survive today, with perhaps the best-known example being one from the early Roman imperial bathhouse in the Roman city of Timgad that instructs visitors, “bene lava” (wash well).
The bathhouse changing room included “Pompeii red” walls, benches, and a mosaic floor (photo via the press release from the Pompeii Archaeological Park)
These depictions have captured the public imagination in part because many of us today have nice shower flip-flops, too. Indeed, Roman thong sandals were quite common, and were often worn with socks — as is the current fashion today. You can hate on this sartorial choice, but even King Tutankhamun’s tomb contained golden sandals and four pairs of socks that he took with him to the afterlife — so there is some clear evidence for the combo in the great beyond as well.
Red socks from Roman Egypt designed to be worn with sandals, wool, made via Nålebinding (c. 250–420 CE), now at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK (photo by David Jackson via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 UK)
What can all these newly discovered, lavishly decorated bathhouses tell us? They speak to the fact that bathing has always been about more than getting clean. As Forbes reported, there is currently a huge debate in New York City over the newly planned Kith Ivy/Padel 609, which will have a “seating area, boutique, gym, locker rooms, sauna, steam room, hammam, cold plunge and an Erewhon.” (If you don’t know, Erewhon is the ridiculously expensive West Coast grocery store that sells $22 smoothies and singular strawberries for almost the same price.) Whether lounging in your sandals in the thousands of bathhouses located in the Roman Empire or Instagramming your visit to a private spa in Manhattan, baths continue to be a popular place for conspicuous workouts, haute art, and the chance to see and be seen — in flip-flops and socks, of course.
