Bathhouse of the Bonna vicus
About
A public bath complex served the civilian vicus rather than the garrison itself. Excavation seasons in 2021-2022, building on 19th- and early-20th-century observations of walls at the same site, exposed roughly 1,200 square meters of the complex — cold and hot rooms, plunge pools, drains, hypocaust underfloor heating, and furnace rooms, with one hypocaust found exceptionally intact, floor tiles still resting on their pilae stacks. No source pins down an exact construction year, so while a bathing establishment on this spot by 117 CE is plausible given the vicus's growth, the precise Trajanic-era date isn't independently confirmed.
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
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 →