ANCIENT ROMAN BATHS · Torch: U.S. · Summer 2021
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(Left) The Great Bath in Bath, Somerset, England
(Above) Piscina at the Stabian Baths with a shallow pool for swimming
To the ancient Romans, the bathhouse was far more than a place for washing. For one thing, bathhouses could serve as gathering places for people from all walks of life: the process of washing was as necessary to the rich as it was to the poor; the fee to enter the bathhouse was affordable; and washing was tedious without the luxury of modern plumbing. The bathhouse was so popular and well-loved that there were 900 bathhouses in Rome alone by the fifth century AD.
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