Baths of Titus
_Livre_des_edifices_antiques_romains_(serietitel)_Magesyn_der_Italiaense_gebouwen_(serietitel),_RP-P-1957-653-36-3.jpg) 1584 drawing by Jacques Androuet | |
   Baths of Titus Shown in ancient Rome | |
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| Alternative name | Thermae Titi |
|---|---|
| Location | Rome, Italy |
| Coordinates | 41°53′33.20″N 12°29′38.59″E / 41.8925556°N 12.4940528°E |
The Baths of Titus or Thermae Titi were
The baths sat at the base of the Esquiline Hill, an area of parkland and luxury estates which had been taken over by Nero (AD 54–68) for his Golden House or Domus Aurea. Titus' baths were built in haste, possibly by converting an existing or partly built bathing complex belonging to the reviled Domus Aurea.[2] They were not particularly extensive, and the much larger Baths of Trajan were built immediately adjacent to them at the start of the next century.[3]Description
The Baths of Titus were the first of the "imperial" baths to use what would become a standard design for public bathing complexes in Rome in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.
The frigidarium was the largest room, consisting of three bays with groin vaulted ceilings and enclosures in each corner supporting barrel vaults. These enclosures were screened by columns and contained cold plunge baths.[8] Flanking the frigidarium on the east and west sides was a palaestra for exercise and apodyteria, or changing rooms.[7] The small intermediate room, the tepidarium, was flanked by staircases on either side leading to an upper story; from the south ran a corridor separating a pair of large caldaria. According to the floorplans of Andrea Palladio, each caldarium had a small laconicum (dry sweating room) attached to it.[6] Smaller suites of hot rooms ran along the south façade on either side of the tepidarium staircases.
A broad staircase descended 18 meters (59 feet) from the terrace in front of the Baths of Titus down the south side of the Oppian to the plaza of the Colosseum, where it joined with a portico.[9] The ruins of this portico were excavated in 1895; the brick-faced concrete piers can still be seen on the north side of the Piazza del Colosseo.[8][10]
Later history
The Baths of Titus were restored during the reign of
One of the features of the baths was mural designs by the artist Famulus (or Fabullus), both al fresco and al stucco. Before the designs fell into disrepair from exposure to the elements, Nicholas Ponce copied and reproduced them as engravings in his volume "Description des bains de Titus" (Paris, 1786). The designs are now recognized as a source of the style known as "grotesque" (meaning "like a small cave, a hollow, a grotto") because the ruins of the Baths of Titus were in a hollow in the ground when they were discovered.[14]
See also
- List of Roman public baths
- Ancient Roman architecture
- Roman engineering
References
- ^ Suet. Titus 7 http://latin.packhum.org/loc/1348/1/0#229
- ISBN 0-8014-9245-9.
- ^ American Architect and Architecture. J. R. Osgood & Company. 1900. pp. 27–.
- ^ a b Sear, 1983; p. 40
- ^ J.B. Ward-Perkins (1994). Roman Imperial Architecture. Yale University Press. p. 73.
- ^ a b L. Richardson (1992). A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 396.
- ^ a b Sear, 1983; p. 145
- ^ a b Ward-Perkins, 1994; p. 73
- ^ Samuel Ball Platner & Thomas Ashby (1929). A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press. pp. 533–534.
- ^ "Thermae Titi". exhibits.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
- ^ Hist. Aug. Max. et Balb. I
- ^ CIL 6.9797
- ^ Rodolfo Lanciani (1897). The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome. Houghton Mifflin. p. 364.
- ^ Lecture 12 - The Creation of an Icon: The Colosseum and Contemporary Architecture in Rome as author at YALE HSAR 252 - Roman Architecture with Professor Diana E. E. Kleiner.
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