Source: CNN
Elite ancient Romans would treat their guests to relaxing thermal baths when they came to enjoy the merriment of a large feast, a new discovery at the archaeological site of Pompeii has shown.
Inside a residential house, archaeologists have uncovered one of the largest and most intricate thermal spa complexes yet found at the world-renowned site, according to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.
The luxurious bath spaces are connected to the black-painted, fresco-covered banquet hall found in April, suggesting that the private house was an immense setting for celebrations, the park said in a press release Friday.
The house must have belonged to an important member of local society, the park added, with the bath complex lending itself to important occasions for the owner to secure an electoral consensus, promote the candidacy of family or friends, or merely display their social status.
It echoes a scene from Gaius Petronius Arbiter’s ancient Roman classic “Satyricon,” in which, at the start of a dinner party, the wealthy host Trimalchio and his companions bathed, lounged in a sauna and then dove into cold water.
The Pompeii spa, which could accommodate 30 people, features a hot room, a warm room and cold room for cooling off, as well as a changing room with benches, according to the release.
The cold room consists of a peristyle or porticoed court that is 10 meters (33 feet) long and 10 meters wide, with a large pool at the center.
“Everything was functional to the staging of a ‘show’ at the center of which was the owner himself,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the archaeological site’s director, in the release.
“Just as the black hall was meant to transport guests to a Greek palace, so the peristyle with the large pool in the center and the adjacent spa complex had the function of creating a Greek gymnasium setting, which was further accentuated by the athletic scenes added later,” he added.
“And so the audience, grateful and hungry, would have applauded with sincere admiration the show orchestrated by the host and after an evening in his ‘gymnasium’ would have talked about it for a long time,” he continued.
The ancient Roman city of Pompeii was buried under ash and volcanic glass during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and, since the 1700s, archaeologists have been unearthing the city that’s been frozen in time in a large, ongoing excavation.
This discovery is part of a dig in Region IX of the buried city where a bakery, a home renovation and rooms decorated with elaborate drawings have also been found.