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Roman bath houses
#1
What was the Romans obcession with baths it seems every home had one from palaces to humble town houses they seem to be the most important room in the house why , no Roman ruin is complete without one was there some sort of relgious element to cleaness simular to the modern day muslums ? <p></p><i></i>
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#2
I could not find anything specific in Dumezil's "Archaic Roman Religion". I did find two things that seem somewhat contradictory:<br>
<br>
Romans used water to purify before religious duties, and there were temples that had fountains for this purpose. However, water and fire were two elements to be kept separate. The Vestal Virgins carried water into their compound from a well a distance away, which kept the two elements far away from each other.<br>
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I dont' remember in any Roman bath that there is any god or other statue that might convey religious significance.<br>
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<p>Legio XX <br>
Caupona Asellinae</p><i></i>
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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#3
Like Rich said, I don't believe that there was any religious significance to frequent bathing. More likely just the realities of living in a hot climate without a lot of labor-saving devices (besides slaves).<br>
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At Aquae Sulis in Britannia (modern Bath, England) the natural springs were considered sacred to the goddess Sulis Minerva<br>
(a native British deity assimilated with the Roman Minerva), and so large numbers of prayer and curse tablets have been recovered from the drains there (but drains in general were popular places to deposit such things, since it was believed that the deities of the underworld would carry out the more sinister requests...). <p></p><i></i>
Dan Diffendale
Ph.D. candidate, University of Michigan
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#4
Caractacus,<br>
Not 'humble town houses' at all! If a private house had a bath suit it belonged to a rich citizen indeed!<br>
Otherwise, big public bath houses (and there was more than one in each Roman city deserving that name) would have been totally redundant and no nastily rich mecenas would have bothered to pay for them to have his statue erected at the forum!<br>
<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>
It\'s all an accident, an accident of hands. Mine, others, all without mind, from one extreme to another, but neither works nor will ever.

Rolf Steiner
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#5
Just a random observation:<br>
<br>
It seems like people in warmer climates were more concerned about cleanliness than people in colder climates. The Romans, Egyptians, people from the modern Middle East (as well as I assume Ancient Middle East but I don't know that much about them), and the Japanese all were immaculate compared to the Vikings, Celts, or practically anywhere in Europe during the Middle Ages or the Renaissance.<br>
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Could a reason that if it's warm enough pretty much year-round to take baths, people were more likely too rather than in colder climates where it is easier just to pile on more clothes? Or if water is scarce enough like in the desert climates, you would take any chance you could at taking a bath because you never knew when your next one might be?<br>
<br>
Deb <p></p><i></i>
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Deb
Sulpicia Lepdinia
Legio XX
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#6
there was programme on the TV here in UK a couple of months back showing a carthagian town where just about every house [if not all] had its own bath area. apparently the town wasnt outstandingly weathy.<br>
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given that the Roman generally used public [or military] bath houses- is it a question of the social aspect of 'bathing' which is 'Roman' rather necessarily a link to wealth or cleaniness? <p><img src="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.martin/forum/mark.gif
" width="100" height="100" align="right">
</p><i></i>
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#7
I noticed in bath houses including under floor heating in various villas round the UK that were supposedly inhabited by British chiefs and native brits that come good and prospered under the Roman invaders but if they were why would native britons who had become used to the extremes of the UK weather still use them ?<br>
<p></p><i></i>
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#8
status?<br>
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and its still nicer to be warm <p><img src="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.martin/forum/mark.gif
" width="100" height="100" align="right">
</p><i></i>
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