Cleaning with oil and strigil

[Kegluneq]

I think Mary Beard made quite a lot of the potentially barf-enducing qualities of Roman baths (no plugholes, so somebody's got to bale out the water once it gets too filthy... gah!)

Then again, modern swimming pools may contain chlorine, but also a lot of... other substances. Future generations may well turn their noses up at our own bathing practices...

Given that Romans probably used old urine to clean their clothes and dined on rotten fish, they probably had far lower standards for aromatic comfort than we do. With that said, peeing in the pool was probably frowned upon to a far greater degree - although at least it would keep people moving through the bath house!

(Spartan bathing doesn't sound too bad now...)

[Epictetus]

Martial talks a lot about baths, but I haven't found anything to help in regards to the oil / immersion question. I did find this, though.

ZOILUS, why do you defile the bath by immersing your latter end ? To make it dirtier, Zoilus, plunge in your head.

Martial, Epigrams, II, XLII

This is a translation from the age of prude Victorians, so I imagine the actual language Martial used was quite a bit more colourful than "latter end".

[Lyceum]

Nah that's a pretty straight forward translation I'd say:

Zoile, quid solium subluto podice perdis?
Spurcius ut fiat, Zoile, merge caput.

Zoilus, why defile the bath by washing your arse (in it)?
So that it may be more foul, submerge your head.

I mean, podex can be associated with the anus specifically and even the piles around it (!!) and spurcius is a shocker, spurcus is a very strong word so seeing it in a comparative form is funny. Basically, its just that the English doesn't adequately express the terse style or the particular register that well. This is actually one of the less prudishly translated ones.