Baths, Brothels and Phallic Symbols

There were very few baths in Roman homes, the Romans went out to bathe.  The bath included a palaestra, which was an exercise court surrounded by a colonnade.  Going to the bath was a social experience, where people could relax and socialize as well as bathe in the not so clean water, one would not want to enter a bath with an open wound.

The baths were spacious, lavishly decorated and luxurious.  The women’s baths were smaller and had no architectural distinction relative to the men’s baths.  There was a pool, a dressing room with benches and niches, a warm room, a hot room with an apse which held a basin for cold water splashes and a cold room.  The cold room was a round structure with radiating alcoves, the ceiling was a dome with an oculus (round opening in the ceiling).  Pompeii had three bath complexes.

The Palaestra

The Dressing Room

The Hot Room

The Cold Room

Ceiling Decoration Detail

The Hypocaust was the heating system where the floor was raised by small pillars of tile and a furnace provided heat from underneath.

The Romans did not share our sense of privacy; bathhouses and latrines were all public and open spaces. Few houses had toilets, those that did were located off the tiny kitchens, there was no evidence of doors to the toilet room, they were only partially screened off.

The Brothel

We preceded a group of Japanese tourists into the brothel where we photographed everything.  It is a narrow space with the rooms off a small hallway and a lavatory at the back, the tourists flew through it in single file with nary a picture taken.  There are theories regarding the erotic paintings above the doors to the bedrooms, some believe it is a sort of menu, which is unlikely.  There was a lot of graffiti all over Pompeii, men were not reluctant to announce, via graffiti, that they had frequented the brothel.

Phallic Symbols

There are a few theories regarding the prevalence of phallic symbols.  Supposedly, guides will tell people that they mark the route to the brothel, which is rubbish.  The imagery can be found all over town and is often represented in wall paintings and floor mosaics in grand houses.  Therefore, it is more likely that power, status and good fortune were expressed in terms of the phallus.