ABSTRACT
As with so many Roman ‘institutions’ of the imperial period, the practice of bathing for hygiene, exercise, socializing and healing – the cleansing of body, mind and spirit – owed a debt to the Greeks and, as this chapter will argue, to other peoples in Italy. For this experience, Roman imperial baths (thermae) offered a sumptuous and grandiose setting, but graffiti and epitaphs also reveal a range of activities occurring at bathing establishments, from light meals to sexual encounters. 1 Such evidence suggests that bathing in the great imperial thermae was strictly a secular pursuit. We must recall, however, that water – especially the ‘living’ water of springs, rivers and lakes – was regarded as sacred and as possessing a power to cleanse or heal unlike any other natural substance. Therefore water is inseparable from the concept of infirmitas. 2 Thus the predominantly secular character of Roman bathing in the imperial period is inconsistent with this widespread ancient belief about the sanctity of water and its supernatural and therapeutic powers.
