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The two baths

by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti

A long time passed before someone succeeded to explain why Hadrian felt the necessity to build two large Termae one beside the other. Baths were considered very important for ancient Romans and many were built not only by the emperors but also by privates who so invested their money and made people pay a ticket for using them. Rome had many of these establishments, of course they were not condensed in one place but stood scattered around the town. It was for this reason that the double Termae which stood side by side in the center of Hadrian’s complex aroused the interest of many scholars and each of them tried to explain it: unfortunately not one of them understood the problem.
The first one to advance a hypothesis was Agostino Penna (1830) who in his Viaggio pittorico in Villa Adriana suggested that one, the Grandi Terme, were “i Bagni freddi” (tne cold baths) and the others, le Piccole Terme,“i Bagni Caldi” (the hot baths). Unhappily Penna seems not to notice that both Baths had their Praefurnia, their Tepidaria and their Calidaria; besides establisments for cold baths didn’t exist. In ancient Rome you could take cold baths only in the frigidaria and both Termae had these basins.
In the twentieth century the problem attracted some more scholars and among them G. Nispi Landi e H. Kähler who thought that the Little Baths were to be used by the women and the Great Baths by men. There were other ideas like baths for summer and barhs for winter; baths to be used when at Villa Adriana there were many people; and baths to be used when there were few of them and so on. Aurigemma and Lanciani lists these hypothesis but don’t accept any of them. On the other hand they don’t offer any solution.
Thus the time passed, and still up to the 1970 there was no explanation for the two adjoining Termae. Luckily at this time all the area between the two baths was excavated and it was possible to begin to understand something. At the same moment the author of this article begun to study the functionality of the different parts of Villa Adriana basing herself on the different itineraries which led to them. In this case the solution was solved by the studies of the upper part of the Great Entrance Hall and of its underground galleries. She had accurately studied and surveyed the upper part of the Grand Entrance Hall and studied and surveyed also its undergrounds. She entered them by the road serving the Cento Camerelle, the place were most of the servants lived and in the galleries she found the steps leading to the praefurnia of both the Small and the Large baths which were tended by the lower class of slaves: it was immediately clear that this part was a servant area and that it was reserved to them. Then on its east side there was a wide staircase leading up. Now that everything had been excavated, one could see that the staircase came out in a large courtyard circled by high walls. On its south side a door led to the large baths’s peristyle, while on the eastern side a large gallery connected this place with the Palace working area..
The courtyard and the large gallery were the only mean to enter the “Grandi Terme” and as they were servants’s area it was evident that these Baths were designed for them. There came all the Cento Camerelle people, planned for 1500 among slaves and workmen, and always following this road from their barracks set under the Venus of Cnidus’ terrace came the soldiers, while also the upper class of servants lodged in the so called “Caserma dei Vigili” went to the same Baths through the gallery connecting the courtyard with the kitchen area of the Palace.
It was now evident that the Grandi Terme with their poor flooring of simple white mosaic, the one usually employed in the Roman houses for kitchen and other service area: simple white mosaic on the floor and only little marble employed on the frigidarium walls were the lower class Baths: large and spacious rooms for at least 2000 users and this explain why the “Grandi Terme” were so large: as we do also now in Roman times public establishments were calculated by x square meters for each user.
Then there was the problem of the “Piccole Terme” and to whom they were destined, but this was soon solved using again the system of finding the ways which led to them. These were only deployed on the surface and went through pleasant flower beds. People came there from the Pecile, or from the Great Entrance Hall’ gardens and from the Canopo’s guest house. They were not many people. Lets say around 200, but for them there was more space and luxury. In the “Piccole Terme” no more white mosaic on the floor. Here some of the most beautiful opus sectile ever seen in these times covered the soil and marble lined every room. Here you could sweat nearly alone in one of the 7 tepidaria of the establishment while in the “Grandi Terme” you had to accomodate yourself with a lot of other users in one of the three which were there.
Thus the mistery of the two adjoining Baths was solved: one for the servants and one for their masters. The only mistery remaining was why didn’t any of the archaeologists, who by their studies might have be trained to observe such things as floorings, marble linings and so on, didn’t notice how luxurious the “Piccole Terme” were and how service like the “Grandi Terme”? And why they let such a long time pass while they were offering unaccetable proposals?


Bibliography

- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI - Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, L’Erma di Bretschneider, Rome, 2001.
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI - Criptoportici e gallerie sotterranee di Villa Adriana in Melanges de l'École Française de Rome, 14, Rome 1973, pp. 237-294, figg; 4-7, Tavv. I-XII.
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI - Lavacra pro sexibus separavit in Rendiconti della Pontificia Romana Accademia di Archeologia, Vol.LXIV, 1993-1994, pp.77 - 110., Vol.LXIV, 1993-1994, pp.77 - 110.
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI - Villa Adriana nei suoi limiti e nella sua funzionalitá in Mem. Pont. Acc. Rom. di Arch., Vol. XIV, Rome 1982, pp. 25-55, Plates. I-IX