The Importance of the Baths to Roman Society, Essay Example
The Importance of the Baths to Roman Society,
The Uses and who used them
How important were the baths in the Roman world? A modern scholar Fikret Yegül sums up the significance of Roman baths in the following way "The universal acceptance of bathing as a central event in daily life belongs to the Roman world and it is hardly an exaggeration to say that at the height of the empire, the baths embodied the ideal Roman way of urban life. Apart from their normal hygienic functions, they provided facilities for sports and recreation. Their public nature created the proper environmentmuch like a city club or community centerfor social intercourse varying from neighborhood gossip to business discussions. There was even a cultural and intellectual side to the baths since the truly grand establishments, the thermae, incorporated libraries, lecture halls, colonnades, and promenades and assumed a character like the Greek gymnasium." (Baths and Bathing in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: MIT, 1992)
Just by the amount of baths there was in the Roman empire it is safe to say very important but what were the uses and who could use them? Roman baths had many uses in the Roman world. Obviously they were used for bathing but they had many other uses, for example the social use of the baths was very important to the Romans. The baths were very important to Roman society, this we can tell purely on the amount of baths there was in the Roman Empire and the grand scale of the baths that the emperors built for example the Diocletian baths, built by the emperor Diocletian and completed in A.D. 305 covered an area of 130,000 sq. yards. But where the baths important in other ways to the Romans and not just for bathing, for example were the baths used for Romanization?
Bathing was a social phenomenon in ancient Rome. W. R. Inge in Society in Rome Under the Caesars (London 1888) argued that bathing has to be classed as an amusement because the average citizen spent so much of
The Uses and who used them
How important were the baths in the Roman world? A modern scholar Fikret Yegül sums up the significance of Roman baths in the following way "The universal acceptance of bathing as a central event in daily life belongs to the Roman world and it is hardly an exaggeration to say that at the height of the empire, the baths embodied the ideal Roman way of urban life. Apart from their normal hygienic functions, they provided facilities for sports and recreation. Their public nature created the proper environmentmuch like a city club or community centerfor social intercourse varying from neighborhood gossip to business discussions. There was even a cultural and intellectual side to the baths since the truly grand establishments, the thermae, incorporated libraries, lecture halls, colonnades, and promenades and assumed a character like the Greek gymnasium." (Baths and Bathing in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: MIT, 1992)
Just by the amount of baths there was in the Roman empire it is safe to say very important but what were the uses and who could use them? Roman baths had many uses in the Roman world. Obviously they were used for bathing but they had many other uses, for example the social use of the baths was very important to the Romans. The baths were very important to Roman society, this we can tell purely on the amount of baths there was in the Roman Empire and the grand scale of the baths that the emperors built for example the Diocletian baths, built by the emperor Diocletian and completed in A.D. 305 covered an area of 130,000 sq. yards. But where the baths important in other ways to the Romans and not just for bathing, for example were the baths used for Romanization?
Bathing was a social phenomenon in ancient Rome. W. R. Inge in Society in Rome Under the Caesars (London 1888) argued that bathing has to be classed as an amusement because the average citizen spent so much of