ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses part of the polychrome stone decoration of the best preserved of the imperial thermae, the Baths of Caracalla. Abundant archaeological, art historical, epigraphical, and literary evidence discovered throughout the Roman Empire attests to both the omnipresence of public baths in antiquity, as well as the significance of those baths to people's daily routines and interpersonal relationships. The Historiae Augustae, a collection of imperial biographies, refers to the Baths of Caracalla as being "most splendid" or "most magnificent". In addition to the gray granite and porphyry used in the monolithic columns, Proconnesian marble was used for entablature blocks, column bases, and column capitals throughout the frigidarium. The porphyry, gray granite, and Proconnesian marble used throughout the frigidarium for various columns, bases, capitals, and entablature blocks represent decorative materials imported to Rome from modern Egypt and Turkey. Polychrome stones were employed as both aniconic architectural elements and as figural furnishings as part of a united decorative program.
