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Sardis Roman Gymnasium and Bath Complex
About
A vast bath-gymnasium covering over 5.5 acres, its famous Marble Court raised under Lucius Verus around 165 CE and lavishly rebuilt for the imperial cult in 211-213 CE under Julia Domna's patronage. In 117 CE none of this stood yet; only bare ground and perhaps early foundation work occupied the site decades before the emperors whose names it would later honor were even born. Coordinates are approximate.
What happened here
The furnaces are lit before dawn and the water is hot by the eighth hour, which is when the town arrives. The circuit is a habit: undress and hand your clothes to an attendant who may or may not be watching them, exercise in the courtyard, sweat in the hot room, scrape the oil and dirt off with a curved bronze strigil, then the warm pool and the cold plunge. Entry costs a coin small enough that almost nobody is priced out, and on a benefactor's birthday it is free. There is food, drink, ball games, gambling, hair-plucking, business and shouting; a writer complaining about the noise from the flat above is complaining about all of it. Men and women bathe at different hours, or in separate wings.
Sources
Nearby
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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →