Ostia - The nature of the evidence
So far 26 baths have been identified in Ostia, two more on the Isola Sacra between Ostia and Portus, and four in Portus. The baths in Ostia are fairly evenly distributed throughout the city (a distribution map of the majority was published in Scavi di Ostia XI). The remains are complemented by quite a few inscriptions and a few literary references.
The state of publication of the buildings in Ostia is rather uneven. As to the three largest baths: much attention has been paid to the Baths of the Forum and the Baths of the Marine gate, but - strange to say - there is no monograph about the Baths of Neptune. The remains of most of the smaller baths have not yet been recorded in detail, as has been done in an exemplary way for the Baths of the Philosopher by Hans Boersma.
A wide range of topics has been dealt with in specialized studies. Technical studies concern the fuel consumption and heating (also looking at glass panes), and the water supply and water wheels. The decoration of the baths is discussed in articles about sculpture, mosaics (also looking at athletes), marble, paintings and stucco reliefs. A few studies deal with the builders and owners. Some more general studies focus on late antiquity and the relation between baths and their surroundings (neighbourhoods and the seashore). Important researchers from the last decades are Marcello Turci and Grégoire Poccardi. The most recent discoveries are the Baths of the Skeleton and the Baths of Silenus, near the beach, by the Porta Marina project led by Massimiliano David. Piublications are listed under the keyword "Buildings - baths" in our online bibliography.
Pliny the Younger owned a villa not far to the south of Ostia, on the seashore, and he provides a wonderful description, mentioning also public baths in the nearby village called Vicus Augustanus Laurentium:
[11] Inde balinei cella frigidaria spatiosa et effusa, cuius in contrariis parietibus duo baptisteria velut eiecta sinuantur, abunde capacia si mare in proximo cogites. Adiacet unctorium, hypocauston, adiacet propnigeon balinei, mox duae cellae magis elegantes quam sumptuosae; cohaeret calida piscina mirifica, ex qua natantes mare aspiciunt,
[12] nec procul sphaeristerium quod calidissimo soli inclinato iam die occurrit. Hic turris erigitur, sub qua diaetae duae, totidem in ipsa, praeterea cenatio quae latissimum mare longissimum litus villas amoenissimas possidet.
[13] Est et alia turris; in hac cubiculum, in quo sol nascitur conditurque; lata post apotheca et horreum, sub hoc triclinium, quod turbati maris non nisi fragorem et sonum patitur, eumque iam languidum ac desinentem; hortum et gestationem videt, qua hortus includitur.
[14] Gestatio buxo aut rore marino, ubi deficit buxus, ambitur; nam buxus, qua parte defenditur tectis, abunde viret; aperto caelo apertoque vento et quamquam longinqua aspergine maris inarescit.
[15] Adiacet gestationi interiore circumitu vinea tenera et umbrosa, nudisque etiam pedibus mollis et cedens. Hortum morus et ficus frequens vestit, quarum arborum illa vel maxime ferax terra est, malignior ceteris. Hac non deteriore quam maris facie coenatio remota a mari fruitur, cingitur diaetis duabus a tergo, quarum fenestris subiacet vestibulum villae et hortus alius pinguis et rusticus.
[26] Suggerunt affatim ligna proximae silvae; ceteras copias ostiensis colonia ministrat. Frugi quidem homini sufficit etiam vicus, quem una villa discernit. In hoc balinea meritoria tria, magna commoditas, si forte balineum domi vel subitus adventus vel brevior mora calfacere dissuadeat.[11] Next to this room is the cold bath room, a spacious and wide chamber, with two curved swimming baths thrown out as it were from opposite sides of the room and facing one another. They hold plenty of water if you consider how close the sea is. Adjoining this room is the anointing room, then the sweating room, and then the heating room, from which you pass to two chambers of graceful rather than sumptuous proportions. Attached to these is a warm swimming bath which everybody admires, and from it those who are taking a swim can command a view of the sea.
[12] Close by is the ball court, which receives the warmest rays of the afternoon sun; on one side a tower has been built with two sitting rooms on the ground floor, two more on the first floor, and above them a dining-room commanding a wide expanse of sea, a long stretch of shore, and the pleasantest villas of the neighbourhood.
[13] There is also a second tower, containing a bedroom which gets the sun morning and evening, and a spacious wine cellar and store-room at the back of it. On the floor beneath is a sitting-room where, even when the sea is stormy, you hear the roar and thunder only in subdued and dying murmurs. It looks out upon the exercise ground, which runs round the garden.
[14] This exercise ground has a border of boxwood, or rosemary where the box does not grow well - for box thrives admirably when it is sheltered by buildings, but where it is fully exposed to wind and weather and to the spray of the sea, though it stands at a great distance therefrom, it is apt to shrivel.
[15] On the inside ring of the exercise ground is a pretty and shady alley of vines, which is soft and yielding even to the bare foot. The garden itself is clad with a number of mulberry and fig-trees, the soil being especially suitable for the former trees, though it is not so kindly to the others. On this side, the dining-room away from the sea commands as fine a view as that of the sea itself. It is closed in behind by two day-rooms, from the windows of which can be seen the entrance to the villa from the road and another garden as rich as the first one but not so ornamental.
[26] The neighbouring woods furnish us with abundance of fuel, and other supplies we get from the colony of Ostia. The vicus, which is separated only by one residence from my own, supplies my modest wants; it boasts of three public baths, which are a great convenience, when you do not feel inclined to heat your own bath at home, if you arrive unexpectedly or wish to save time.Plinius Minor, Epistulae II,17. Translation: J.B. Firth.
Mosaic of a villa on the seashore. Said to have been found in Ostia.
Toledo (Ohio), Toledo Museum of Art. Photo: Sotheby auction catalogue June 7 2007, lot 77.
