1. The Roman Baths
By Flossie rose

2. What was bathing?
In Roman times bathing was considered as a very important and almost religious thing.
Romans would visit the baths about once a day, usually in the morning.
It was very important because since the Romans lived very close together it kept disease down.

3. Who went?
Bathing was a practice upheld by the majority of Roman citizens.
You didn’t have to be rich to go to the baths, to get in all you had to do was pay a small entrance fee.
If you had the money you could pay a slave to give you a massage and some of the fancier baths would have professional masseuses.

4. Why go?
To keep clean.
It was a great place to meet friends, socialise, and to conduct business.
Most of the baths would have exercise yards, so some people would go to work out.

5. What was there?
A public bath was built around three principal rooms: the caldarium (hot bath), the tepidarium (warm bath) and the frigidarium (cold bath). Some thermae also featured steam baths: the sudatorium, a moist steam bath, and the laconicium a dry steam bath much like a modern sauna. Some of them would have a double set of baths, one for men and the other for women
An atrium was the exercise ground for the young men, or perhaps served as a promenade for visitors to the baths.