ANCIENT ROME
The Romans adopted from the Greeks all their main achievements, including the steam baths. In the Roman version, they were called the baths. The Romans appreciated the pleasure that gives hot steam. The Roman physician Asklepiad was a follower of Hippocrates in the usefulness of soft paired treatments. His point of view was the idea that in the human body there are little bits that need to move continuously to ensure that the man felt the energy and was able to work. When there is stagnation of these particles as a result of illness or prolonged immobility — it is necessary to give the body a “jolt” in the form of visiting the steam bath, so that these life giving particles again are in motion. As the poet Horace wrote: “Throw me the ball on the marble steps and go to the bath”. No less than the famous ancient Greek poet Ovid in the “Metamorphoses” described his dream to rejuvenate and believed that this will help him a magic tub of hot water.
However, it seems that you with all the imagination can’t imagine the size of Roman baths that were built in those days. According to the testimony of the Roman historian Marcelina, baths in area of space could rival a small city. One big Terma could occupy 12 hectares, and it was far from the limit. The fact that the baths were not only bathing facilities, but also social, cultural, sporting and entertainment facilities.
To better represent the kind of autogasoline, will describe the famous device of the baths of Emperor Caracalla, which are located in Rome, near the ruins of the Colosseum. The structure is as follows: two of lobby; two gymnasiums; one room for sweating, which was called the tepidarium; pool with cold water; seven (!) dry heat steam rooms; three baths; two gyms; two playgrounds for ball games; library; cafeteria; stadium. Yes it’s just a sports town! And while such baths were about. eight hundred! That’s good. The baths were so popular among people that each came to power, the Emperor (and in those days it happened often), to appease the people, build new terms, more and richer built by his predecessor. You can also buy toys for water games, and keep the clever way the children in the bath as long as possible.
The baths of Caracalla could accommodate up to 2,500 people. But the Emperor Diocletian has outdone him, and built baths in 3,500 people. Suffice it to say that one of the pools had the shape of a square whose side was equal to one and a half kilometres and only had three swimming pools. This huge building had three thousand baths. Decoration of the Thermae was also on the verge of reality: the precious marble, porphyry, Egyptian granite, mosaic on the floor and the ceiling. Famous sculptors specifically for therm created their masterpieces and put them in bath rooms.
Luxury in some of the baths was stunning. Suffice it to say that the sinks were made of silver and of gold, the lounge chair is made of marble. Some of the sculptures survived to our time, stood in the baths. Such, for example, the sculpture of Laocoon with his sons.
As you might imagine, they were built long enough. For example, the baths of Diocletian were built 5 years, and busy work was about forty thousand people. In the quest to make the baths as comfortable as possible by rich citizens of Rome reached to the extreme. For example, a bath tub, which rested relaxed body of the patricians, could be suspended from the ceiling, resembling a bassinet that sissy aristocrat in addition to the procedure, water could still and lazily wiggle, thereby increasing the pleasure. And
the wife of the Emperor Nero Poppaea refused to swim in ordinary water and specially prepared milk bath
therefore , when the baths kept a large herd of donkeys.
And now, after a small digression into history, let us consider the ways that soared the ancient Romans, and to all of the “tricks” of Roman baths. To begin with, we, dear reader, need to clarify a question that has long been struggling scientists and which remained a mystery: the still heated the Roman baths, which served as fuel for the giant ovens. It is clear that when the scale that had at least one colossal baths, and even more when it has captured the imagination of their number would not have sufficed and the whole forest of a much larger country, which was the Roman Empire. When this mystery was disclosed, it caused General surprise. It turns out that the baths were heated with nothing more than. oil. Yes, it is this and to this day a valuable combustible material, which is a kind of “currency” in relationships and between modern countries.
It is likely that the oil served as a metabolic product and in that distant time. Generally in the history of the ancient countries we find numerous evidences of the use of this fuel product. For example, in Ancient Egypt the oil was used as the base material in the processing of mummies. In her moistened narrow ribbons of fabric that wrapped the mummy with a view to its further preservation. The Egyptians oil-heated homes, it burned in the lamps.
In Ancient Babylon crude oil moistened torches to illuminate the internal space of houses. How did they get a hold of this valuable product? Imagine the ancients knew way deep drilling that they carried out with the help of bamboo pipes and birch Boers. This method is reported in the papyri of Ancient China. Of course the exported oil is not enough for all the needs of the ancient Romans, and G. therefore, in 624 the Emperor Heraclius attempted to seize sources of oil, taking to this end, the hike to the area where the modern Baku, and at that time was located in Ancient Persia.
