Herculaneum: The Suburban Baths

 Just to the right of the Balbo statue are the one of the two baths found in Herculaneum so far: the Suburban Baths, shown in the background of this first photo.

 Standing in the entry doorway to the Suburban Baths, this is the view inside. The Average Herculaneum home did not have bathing facilities, so all but the ultra wealthy used public facilities for bathing. In large cities, women and men bathed together up until about 100 AD. In smaller towns such as Herculaneum, men and women usually bathed in separate rooms of the same facility or at different times in the same facility.

 This floor plan of the Suburban Baths shows the doorway where the above picture was taken. In the first photo in this post, the doorway is directly behind the man in the black shirt. In this floor plan, the doorway is directly left of the the words "BASE DI STATUA". To the left and right of the door are unmarked cloakrooms where no doubt countless Herculaneum residents dropped their street clothes before entering the bathing rooms wearing a light wrap or towel.

 This is the Vestibule (A in the floor plan) which contained four red columns, a fountain, and a bust of Apollo. The valve that turns the fountain on and off still works with ease, just as it did 2000 years ago. One can imagine visitors gathering here for light conversation before continuing on to the bathing rooms.

 The cold plunge is at the edge of the exercise room (F on the floorplan). Other major rooms included the resting room (D) that overlooked the ocean and marina, the hot immersion bath room (C), the large swimming pool (T), and the room between C and T (labeled L?) that had large stucco warriors and marble benches.

 In many rooms the large wooden doors are still intact.

 In the hot immersion bath room (C), the volanic blast shattered a window, overturned a wash basin (shown to the right and forced it against a wall which shows the imprint of where that basin landed (shown to the right below).

What activities, besides bathing and perhaps eating a light snack in the resting room, took place in the Suburban Baths? We will likely never know for sure.

Graffiti was found written on the walls in room U whose function has not clearly been determined, but much of the graffiti was of an erotic nature. One entry has been translated to different meanings by different authors, two examples:

- "Apelles the Mouse with his brother Dexter lovingly screwed each other twice."

- "We, Apelles the Mouse and his brother Dexter, lovingly f***ed two women twice."

Personally, I don't put much weight on either of these translations being correct or of such an event happening.

I put it in the same category as the "For a good time call..." graffiti found in restrooms all over America. If modern graffiti doesn't state fact, why would an author think 2000 year old graffiti does? Maybe because it sells books.