Before the Empire, Roman baths were for bathing. After undressing, the bather would carry his towel, oil and scraper (strigil) into the warm room (tepidarium), to adjust for the torments ahead. Then he would enter the hot room (caldarium), heated by a hypocaust: oven-heated air flowed between two floors, one half a meter or so above the other. Here he would rub himself with oil, wait a while, and scrape it off. Then he would cross to the frigidarium, plunging into cold water.

 

Under the emperors, baths came to include much more: work-out rooms, music chambers, libraries, gardens, art galleries, shops and a very public WC. The bath became a major center, perhaps the major center, of a city's life.