Thank you for posting that. The work of the Romans is still impressive.
I cannot help but think that “baths” does not mean what we think it means, however. This seems consistent to me in archeology, that we do not understand what our ancestors were up to.
The Roman baths, which they built all over the empire, were communal bathing facilities, Hot and cold pools to suit. Don’t know what else you think “baths” might mean. The Romans were great builders and engineers, writers and record keepers, and we do know pretty well what they were up to.
“Thank you for posting that. The work of the :Romans is still impressive.”
^
Not far from Lisbon stands a fantastic, multi-layered aquaduct. It’s so big and tall, it’s hard to get all of it into a frame...!
My pleasure.
The baths were there to try to keep Roman B.O. down to a tolerable level, also were places to relax and chat. There were urinals throughout the city that were maintained and collected from by the fullers, as urine was (still is?) used for wool processing. Posh houses had their own lavatories and baths.
The big public baths include the monumental Baths of Caracalla, one of the emperors from the Severan dynasty, which capped off the earlier imperial period. Right after that there was the Crisis of the Third Century. Imperial order was restored, finally, by Diocletian, who also built a large Roman public bath complex (it sez here) and both continued to operate until the 6th century, when the city water supply was cut by the Ostrogoths (who didn’t use baths, figures).