OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation - A Day at the Baths

Apodyterium

• Changing room

• Bathers would take off their clothes and store them in alcoves in the walls

• Wealthy visitors took slaves to guard their belongings in here

Palaestra

• Exercise ground

• Before bathing, visitors often spent time here

• Ball games e.g. trigon played here

• Weight lifting, wrestling, discus

• Mosaics show that exercise was popular with both men and women

Tepidarium

• Warm room

• Contained pools where people would relax and acclimatise

• Heated by a hypocaust system

• You may massage yourself with olive oil

Caldarium

• Hot room

• Designed to sweat out any dirt

• Bathers cleaned their skin here

• Scented olive oil used, then scraped off with a strigil

• Floor very hot, so bathers wore wooden clogs to protect their feet

Frigidarium

• Cold room

• Plunge pool designed to be refreshing after heat of the caldarium

• Water pumped from aqueduct system - extremely cold fresh water

After the baths

Bathers could then:

• Swim in an outdoor pool

• Get a snack at a bar

• Go to a library

• Play board games

• Meet up with friends