Thermae Stabianae
About
The oldest and largest of Pompeii's public bath complexes, with an original core going back to the 2nd century BCE (some scholars trace earlier phases to the 4th century BCE); enlarged repeatedly, it only received piped aqueduct water around the turn of the 1st century CE, having previously relied on a well and roof-catchment reservoir. Buried by the 79 CE eruption. Destroyed in the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius, 38 years before this map's snapshot — included as it's an essential part of the story.
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
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 →