The Suburban Baths (Italian: ''Terme Suburbane'') are a building in

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

, Italy, a town in the Italian region of

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

that was buried by the eruption of

Mount Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius ( ) is a Somma volcano, somma–stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuv ...

in 79 AD, which consequently preserved it. The Suburban Baths were publicly owned, as were also the Stabian, Forum, and Central baths in the city. They were built in the early empire, possibly under the Emperor

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

(14–37 AD), much later than the others and thus were built outside the city walls near the Porta Marina, one of the city gates. By this time, land was more easily available outside the city as the walls had lost their defensive role after the town became a Roman colony. The baths also benefitted from the increased supply of running water after the connection of the city to the Aqua Augusta aqueduct in 30–20 BC. The bathhouse was renovated after the earthquake of 62 AD, when a ''piscina calida'', a heated swimming pool, was added to the north of the complex. The baths were discovered in 1958, much later than the rest of the city, though a systematic excavation had to wait until 1985–1987. Although publicly owned, these baths seem to have been reserved for a private clientele unlike the other public baths. The building is notable for its surviving erotic wall paintings, the only set of such art found in a public Roman bath house.

Structure

The building was a two-storey structure: the upper floor, as in the Palaestra/Sarno baths, was divided into three apartments for rent, with views towards the port and the

Bay of Naples A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

through the large glass windows. These rooms may also have provided space for the selling of sexual services. This upper floor was either accessed by a staircase from the floor below or via a door on the Via Marina. The baths were built to a higher standard of luxury and thermal effectiveness than the earlier baths in the town and have many hallmarks of the "newer" bath architecture of the first century AD: "single-axis row" type (with rooms in a linear increasingly warm arrangement promoting a particular route through the baths and bordering a ''

palaestra A palaestra ( or ; also (chiefly British) palestra; ) was any site of a Greek wrestling school in antiquity. Events requiring little space, such as boxing and wrestling, occurred there. ''Palaistrai'' functioned both independently and as a part ...

''), large windows facing southwest, and an outdoor pool with a fountain. Construction was first limited to the

apodyterium In ancient Rome, the ''apodyterium'' (from , "undressing room") was the primary entry in the public baths, composed of a large changing room with cubicles or shelves where citizens could store clothing and other belongings while bathing.PBS https: ...

(dressing room),

frigidarium A ''frigidarium'' is one of the three main bath chambers of a Roman bath or ''thermae'', namely the cold room. It often contains a swimming pool. The succession of bathing activities in the ''thermae'' is not known with certainty, but it is tho ...

(cold room),

tepidarium The ''tepidarium'' was the warm (''tepidus'') bathroom of the thermae, Roman baths heated by a hypocaust or underfloor heating system. The speciality of a ''tepidarium'' is the pleasant feeling of constant radiant heat, which directly affects the ...

(warm room),

laconicum The ''laconicum'' (i.e. Spartan, ''sc.'' ''balneum'', "bath") was the dry sweating room of the Roman ''thermae'', sometimes contiguous to the ''caldarium'' or hot room. The name was given to it (Laconia: Sparta) since it was the only form of warm ...

(hot dry room) and

caldarium image:Caldarium.JPG, 230px, ''Caldarium'' from the Roman baths at Bath, Somerset, Bath, England. The floor has been removed to reveal the empty space where the hot air flowed through to heat the floor. A (also called a ''calidarium'', ''cella ca ...

(hot room); the ''

natatio In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout ...

'' was added later as three rooms, including a

nymphaeum A ''nymphaeum'' (Latin : ''nymphaea'') or ''nymphaion'' (), in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs. These monuments were originally natural grottoes, which tradition assigned as habit ...

with a water cascade, providing an alternative route to the existing one of the

followed by the

. The entrance to the bathhouse is through a long corridor that leads into the

. The bathers would also have had access to a latrine, seating between six and eight people. The ''piscina calida'' (hot pool) used an innovative heating system called a ''samovar'', a domed metal plate which was part of the pool floor above the furnace to heat the pool water directly. Only one apodyterium or dressing room has led to speculation by archaeologists that both men and women shared these baths, or that it was male-only or time-shared with females bathing at one time and males bathing at a different time. If it had been time shared the dressing room that contains the erotic wall paintings would have been used by everyone when they attended.

Erotic art in the Suburban Baths

A room that is thought to be a dressing room in the suburban baths has on a wall inside it seven wall paintings of sexual scenes and one wall painting of a figure with an enlarged scrotum. These wall paintings were found in 1986 when the room was first excavated. The paintings are dated to 62 to 79 CE. The erotic wall paintings in the Suburban Baths are the only set of such art found in a public

Roman bath house In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughou ...

. Explicit

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

scenes of group sex and oral sex are depicted in these paintings and these scenes cannot be easily found in collections of erotic

Roman art The art of Ancient Rome, and the territories of its Republic and later Empire, includes architecture, painting, sculpture and mosaic work. Luxury objects in metal-work, gem engraving, ivory carvings, and glass are sometimes considered to be m ...

. As the sexual acts portrayed are all considered "debased" according to the customs of

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, it is possible that the intention behind their reproduction was to provide a source of humour to visitors of the building. Composite image - Scenes I to VIII in Room 7 of the Suburban Baths - Pompeii

Composite image - Scenes I to VIII in Room 7 of the Suburban Baths - Pompeii

Each wall painting of a sexual scene has a painting just below it of a box with a number on it. It is thought that there were actual boxes that were placed under these paintings of boxes.` These boxes would have been placed on a wooden shelf. This wooden shelf would have run along two walls of this dressing room just underneath where the paintings of numbered boxes are.` There are some holes in the rear and right wall where brackets that held the selves could have been.` It is thought that these boxes that were sitting on this wooden shelf under these paintings would have been where people attending the baths would have put their clothes after they had undressed in this room. The only remains of the boxes themselves are metal straps. In the wall paintings of the boxes you can see an "X" shape at the front of the boxes that indicates where the straps were. The wall painting also shows the wooden shelf underneath the boxes. One idea that has been speculated is that spintria tokens were used as locker tokens in this dressing room. These tokens have on one side an image of a sexual scene and on the reverse side a numeral between I - XVI. It is speculated that the sexual scenes and numerals on the tokens related to the wall paintings of sexual scenes and numerals. When the token was given to a person it then gave them access to a place to put their clothing. Possibly they may have put their clothing inside the box that was sitting on the wooden shelf in the dressing room. It is also speculated that the paintings possibly served as way for the bathers to remember the location of their box (in lieu of numbering). The presence of these paintings in a public bathhouse shared by men and women gives some insight into

Roman culture The culture of ancient Rome existed throughout the almost 1,200-year history of the civilization of Ancient Rome. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, which at its peak covered an area from present-day L ...

and suggests that people would not have found this offensive, and possibly humorous. It has been commented that "Graffiti from Pompeii, Herculaneum and 2nd century Ostia Antica, often refer to group sex, although none describe the pose of scene VI rom inside the dressing room of the suburban baths that shows sex between a female and two males". Terme di porta marina, affreschi a tema erotico nello spogliatoio, 10.jpg, Fresco showing a

cowgirl position A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

. A ferret is on the knee of one of the figures. Suburban baths, Pompeii. 62 to 79 CE File:Terme di porta marina, affreschi a tema erotico nello spogliatoio, 09.jpg, An erotic scene on a bed. Wall painting. Suburban baths, Pompeii. 62 to 79 CE File:Terme di porta marina, affreschi a tema erotico nello spogliatoio, 08.jpg, Fellatio. Wall painting. Suburban baths, Pompeii. 62 to 79 CE File:Terme di porta marina, affreschi a tema erotico nello spogliatoio, 07.jpg, Fresco depicting

cunnilingus Cunnilingus is an oral sex act consisting of the stimulation of a vulva by using the tongue and lips. The clitoris is the most sexually sensitive part of the vulva, and its stimulation may result in a woman becoming sexually aroused or achievi ...

. Suburban baths, Pompeii. 62 to 79 CE File:Terme di porta marina, affreschi a tema erotico nello spogliatoio, 06.jpg, Lesbian sex scene. The patches of dark green color are remains of the repainting of the wall. Suburban baths, Pompeii. 62 to 79 CE File:Terme di porta marina, affreschi a tema erotico nello spogliatoio, 05.jpg, Sex between a female and two males. Wall painting. Suburban baths, Pompeii. 62 to 79 CE File:Terme di porta marina, affreschi a tema erotico nello spogliatoio, 04.jpg, Cunnilingus, fellatio and anal sex between two females and two males. Wall painting, Suburban baths. Pompeii. 62 to 79 CE File:Terme di porta marina, affreschi a tema erotico nello spogliatoio, 03.jpg, A nude male with an enlarged scrotum holding a scroll. Wall painting. Suburban baths, Pompeii. 62 to 79 CE

Notes

References

* Berry, J. (2007) ''The Complete Pompeii'', London: Thames & Hudson Ltd. * Fagan, G. G. (1999) ''Bathing in Public in the Roman World'', United States of America: The University of Michigan Press. * Garret G. Fagan, "The Genesis of the Roman Public Bath: Recent Approaches and Future Directions", ''American Journal of Archaeology'', Vol. 105, No. 3. (July 2001), pp. 403–426. * Jacobelli (1995). ''Le pitture erotiche delle Terme Suburbane di Pompei''. Rome: 'L'Erma' di Bretschneider. . (See review by John R. Clarke's in: ''The American Journal of Archaeology'', Vol. 100, No. 2 (April 1996), pp. 431–432.) * Koloski-Ostrow, A. O. (2007) ‘The city baths of Pompeii and Herculaneum’, in ''The World of Pompeii'', ed. by J. J. Dobbins and P. W. Foss (Abingdon: Routledge), pp. 224–256. * Roger Ling, Review: "Le pitture erotiche delle Terma Suburbane de Pompeii" by L. Jacobelli, ''The Classical Review'', New Ser., Vol. 46, No. 2 (1996), pp. 390–391. * Ling, R. (2011) ''Pompeii: History, Life and Afterlife'', Stroud: The History Press. * Manderscheid, H. (2000) ‘The Water Management of Greek and Roman Baths’, in ''Handbook of Ancient Water Technology'', ed. by O. Wikander (Leiden: Brill), pp. 467–538. * Inge Nielsen (1990). ''The Architecture and Cultural History of Roman Public Baths'', Aarhus University Press. * Roy Bowen Ward, "Women in Roman Baths", ''The Harvard Theological Review'', Vol. 85, No. 2. (April 1992), pp. 125–147. {{authority control 1st-century establishments in the Roman Empire Buildings and structures completed in the 1st century 1958 archaeological discoveries Pompeii (ancient city) Ancient Roman baths in Italy Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD Tiberius

Structure

Erotic art in the Suburban Baths

See also

Notes

References