Identifier: pompeiiitslifear00maua (find matches)
Title: Pompeii, its life and art
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Mau, August, 1840-1909 Kelsey, Francis W. (Francis Willey), 1858-1927
Subjects:
Publisher: New York : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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numerical order,each bather awaiting his turn. Those who did not wishto wait, or preferred to bathe by themselves, might use indi-vidual bath tubs of bronze. Remains of such a tub, as well asof bronze benches, were found in this room. Near the bottom 194 POMPEII ,^ \ \^ of the alveus in front is an opening, through which the watercould be let out ; when it was emptied, the water ran over thewhite mosaic floor, which was thus cleaned. In the time of the Early Empire it became the fashion to bathewith very warm water. People want to be parboiled, Senecaexclaims. The construction of the alveus, however, was not welladapted to conserve the heat, and an ingenious contrivance wasdevised to remedy the difficulty, which may best be explained withthe help of our illustration, showing the arrangement of the bathbasin in room 4 (Fig. 88). A large hot air flue, U, led directlyfrom the furnace to the hollow space, C, under the alveus, A.Above this flue was a long bronze heater, B, in the form of a
Text Appearing After Image:
4- Fig. 88. — The bath basin in the womens caldarium — longitudinal and transverse sec-tions, showing the arrangement for heating the water. A. Bath basin, alveus. C. Hot air chamber under the floor. B. Bronze heater. D. Hot air flue. half cylinder, with one end opening into the end of the alveus.As the bottom of the heater was six inches lower than that ofthe alveus, the cooler water from the basin would flow downinto it and be heated again, a circulation being thus maintained. A similar arrangement (called testndo alvci by Vitruvius)probably existed for the alveus in the caldarium on the otherside; but that part of the mens baths has been destroyed.Only one other heater of this kind has been found, — and thatmuch smaller, — in a villa near Boscoreale, recently excavated ; butthe semicircular opening made for the heater above the hot airflue may be seen in the Central Baths, in a private establishmentat Pompeii, and generally in the remains of Roman baths. In the furnace room

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