Imagine arriving at a Roman fort on the edge of the Empire. Inside the walls are barracks, headquarters buildings, barracks, granaries, and rows of soldiers going about their daily duties. Just outside the defenses, however, there is often another substantial building. Smoke rises from its furnace. Water is being heated. Soldiers come and go carrying hygiene items, oil flasks, and perhaps a few coins.
It is the bathhouse.
To the Romans, bathing was about much more than washing away dirt. Baths were places to exercise, relax, socialize, conduct business, and spend time with friends. They became such an important part of Roman life that when the army established forts hundreds or even thousands of miles from Rome, bathhouses frequently followed. In Roman Britain, archaeology shows just how important they were. Military bathhouses are a common feature of Roman forts, and by the early second century, most forts in Britain had access to bathing facilities.
Bathing Was Part of Roman Life
Romans did not invent bathing, but they developed it on an enormous scale. By the first century AD, public baths were deeply established in Roman towns and cities. Pliny the Elder tells us that during Marcus Agrippa’s time as aedile in 33 BC, 170 baths were opened to the public free of charge. Rome’s water system continued to grow, eventually supplying fountains, private homes, industries, and enormous bathing complexes. The typical bathing experience involved moving through rooms of different temperatures. A bather might begin in a changing area, often called the apodyterium. From there he or she could move through cooler and warmer rooms before reaching the hot caldarium. Many bathhouses also included a cold-water plunge area or frigidarium. Designs varied considerably, especially in smaller military baths, so we should not imagine every bathhouse following exactly the same floor plan. Heat was supplied by a furnace. In many baths, hot air traveled beneath raised floors through a system we no call a hypocaust. In some buildings it could also circulate through hollow spaces or ceramic box tiles in the walls. For a visitor from a colder part of the Empire, walking into a heated Roman bathhouse during winter must have been quite an experience.
How Did Romans Actually Get Clean?
Roman bathing was not exactly like taking a modern shower. Soap existed in the ancient world, but it was not necessarily the center of the Roman bathing routine. Bathers commonly applied oil (such as olive oil) to their skin and then scraped away the oil, sweat, dirt, and dead skin using a curved metal tool called a strigil. After exercise, scraping, washing, and soaking, oil could be applied again. Ancient writers make it clear than Romans thought carefully about bathing and its effects on the body. Pliny the Elder discusses both hot and cold bathing as part of the contemporary medical practice. He also describes naturally heated mineral waters and the health benefits Romans believed could come from different types of springs. Whether all of those supposed medical benefits were real is another question. What matters is that the Romans believed bathing contributed to health, comfort, and proper daily life.
The Roman Army Wanted Baths Too
This is where bathing becomes especially interesting for Roman military living history. Bathhouses are frequently found in connection with Roman military installations. In Britain, archaeologist Louise Revell has noted that baths were a regular feature at both legionary fortresses and auxiliary forts, although their size and complexity could differ considerably. Legionary bathhouses could be especially elaborate and contained space for activities beyond simply washing. At the legionary fortress of Caerleon, ancient Isca, the construction of the fortress baths appears to have been an early priority. Archaeological evidence suggest the complex was not merely functional. Soldiers could socialize there, eat, gamble, and interact with others. The bathhouse was part hygiene facility, part recreation center, and part social gathering place. Smaller auxiliary forts had baths as well. Examples have been discovered throughout Britain, including along Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall. Archaeological investigations at places such as Duntocher have revealed bathhouses directly associated with military forts, while excavations around Carlisle have uncovered multiple phases of Roman bathing facilities. Sometimes the bathhouse stood outside the fort itself. there was a practical reason for this. A bathhouse needed large amounts of water and fuel, and its furnaces created a constant fire risk. Placing such a building beyond the main defensive enclosure could therefore make sense. At Slack in West Yorkshire, for example, archaeological work suggests that an annex associated with the fort enclosed its baths and possibly other official buildings.
Bringing Rome to the Frontier
The presence of these buildings tells us something important about the Roman army. A soldier stationed in Britain had not simply left Roman life behind. The army recreated pieces of that world wherever it established itself. Roads connected forts to the wider province. Aqueducts and water channels supplied settlements and military installations. Markets and civilian communities developed around many forts. Temples provided places to worship, and bathhouses provided something familiar. This does not mean Roman soldiers took luxurious baths every evening. Supplying and maintaining a bathhouse required enormous effort. Someone had to bring in fuel. Someone had to keep the furnace burning. Water had to be supplied and managed and buildings needed repairs. The fact that military invested those resources demonstrates how highly bathing was valued.
More Than a Place to Wash
Calling a Roman bathhouse an ancient bathroom misses most of what happened there. Baths were social spaces. A soldier could clean himself after drill or physical labor, but he could also meet friends and relax away from the barracks. Archaeological research at military baths shows that these buildings sometimes contained areas not directly connected with bathing. Finds from Caerleon, for example, point toward eating, gambling, and social activity. That makes the bathhouse surprisingly similar to several modern institutions combined into one building. Imagine a locker room, gym, community center, public pool, and social club operating together. That gets us much closer to understanding its place in Roman life.
A Sign of the Roman World
Bathhouses eventually appeared throughout the Empire from Britain and Germany to North Africa and the Middle East. They required engineering, water management, fuel, labor, and considerable organization. Their presence in distant military communities demonstrates the infrastructure that followed Roman expansion. But we should be cautious about calling bathing proof that Rome brought “civilization” to supposedly uncivilized peoples. Britons, Gauls, Germans, and other peoples encountered by Rome already possessed their own societies, technologies, traditions, and standards of cleanliness. What Rome brought was a particularly Roman idea of civilized life. To Roman eyes, cities, roads, aqueducts, public buildings, and baths were visible signs of an ordered Roman society. The bathhouse became one of the places where that identity could be experienced. That makes the humble military bathhouse much more important than it first appears. When archaeologists discover a bath beside a Roman fort in Britain, they are finding more than a place where tired soldiers washed themselves. They are finding a small piece of Rome built on the frontier.
Legio XIIII, Protinus!
