Baths, nymphaea, bars
The House of the Dioscures was equipped with elaborate private baths. The maintenance of public baths in the city does not come as a surprise in view of the luxurious nature of the late domus and similar buildings. In the Imperial Baths of Neptune, for example, a bit of work is documented in the first quarter of the fourth century. Much more substantial were activities in the Baths of the Forum. These had been erected in the mid-third century by a Praetorian Prefect, Marcus Gavius Maximus. Considerable renovations are documented in the early and late fourth century by two Praefecti Annonae, Flavius Octavius Victor and Ragonius Vincentius Celsus: the entrance was modified and apsidal basins were added. One inscription from the building particularly appeals to the imagination. It speaks of "baths that drive away sorrow" (in Greek: loutron alexiponon). Now after the death of his mother Monica in Ostia, Augustinus visited baths "because I had heard baths were called balnea from the greek balaneion, which means driving away care from the mind" (Confessiones 9,12,32). Had he seen the inscription?
In the years 385-389 AD Ragonius Vincentius Celsus erected a statue, presumably of Roma, in front of the theatre. The inscribed base can still be seen there. In 389 AD he was honoured by the ordo and the city:
VI[n]CENTI
RAGONIO VINCENTIO V(iro) C(larissimo)
ORATORI FORI VRBAN[ae] PR[a]E
FECTVR[a]E QV[a]ESTORI PR[a]E
TORI TRIV[m]PHALI CONSVLI PR[a]E
FECTO ANNON[a]E QVI IN PRIMIS
ANNIS A SE PETENS OMNIA ORNA
MENTA VIRTVTVM NIHIL SIBI DE
GENERIS SVI NOBILITATE BLAN
DITVS QVANTVM VIRTVTVM SPEI
PROMITTAT PROCEDENTIS [a]ETATIS
EXCELLENTIVM FACTORVM VBER
TATE PERDOCVIT HINC DENIQUE
FACTVM EST VT ORDO NOSTER CON
SENSV TOTIVS C[ivi]TATIS VT ME
R[u]IT P[at]RONVM SIBI PERPETVVM LIBEN
TER OPTARET[Statue of] Vincentius.
To Ragonius Vincentius, most illustrious man,
advocate at the court of the prefecture
of the City, quaestor, praetor
triumphalis, consul,
prefect of the annona, who from his early
years pursued all the ornaments
of the virtues, never flattering himself
with the nobility of his birth,
but whatever virtue the hope
of greater age might promise,
through an abundance of excellent deeds
he showed extensively. Because of this
it finally happened that our council,
with the consent of the whole city, as he
deserved, glady opted for him as their
perpetual patron.EDR111537; LSA1653. In the first quarter of the fourth century extensive work was carried out in the Baths of Mithras, located somewhat to the west of the House of Cupid and Psyche. In the years 390-425 AD the so-called Byzantine Baths were built to the south of the House of the Columns.
The city was now characterized by a number of small clusters of luxurious buildings. The clusters were surrounded by collapsed or decrepit buildings in which a population lived and worked that had sunk into anonimity. Such neighbourhoods were hidden from view by creating masonry facades, to which a semblance of prosperity was given by nymphaea. The fountains faced the main streets leading to the city gates. A bit to the east of the forum, on the Decumanus, is nymphaeum I,II,1 from the first quarter of the fourth century. It can be seen as an addition to three nymphaea in front of and to the west of the theatre, from the second century (II,VII,6 and 7, and II,IX,1). Further to the east is the large nymphaeum II,VI,2 from the third quarter of the century. It is atypical, because it turns its back to the Decumanus.
From one of these fountain houses might come an inscription set up by Flavius Octavius, the Prefect of the Annona who worked in the Baths of the Forum. It is a marble slab with text on both sides. On one side are a few poetic lines about the Nereid Glauce. The first part of this text can be reconstructed as "A horse, traversing the calm sea by swimming, carries Glauce". Much of the second part is lost. We could read "because she has no ability at all of being propelled by oars" or "because no prosperity at all results from ...".[1] It must have accompanied a statue of the Nereid on a sea-horse, the kind of statue that must once have been in the niches of the nymphaea.
Side a:
CLAVCE[n v]ECTAT
EQV(u)S TRA[mi]TTENS
AEQVORA [n]ANDO
QVIPPE v[ehi remis ?]
COPIA NV[lla datur ?]
FL(avius) OCTABI[us]
V(ir) C(larissimus) PRAEF(ectus) A[nn(onae)]
CVRAVI[t]
Side b:
FL(avius) OC[t]AVIVS
V(ir) C(larissimus)
[praef(ectus) a]NN(onae)
[cura]VITInscription on both sides of a marble slab, found near the Grandi Horrea.
Set up by Flavius Octavius, praefectus annonae, in the later fourth century.
NSc 1919, 77-80; CIL XIV Suppl., 4714; EDR106927. Image: NSc 1919, page 77.
Statue of a Nereid on a sea-horse. Uffizi, Florence. Photo: Wikimedia, Yair Haklai.In the third quarter of the fourth century the monumental nymphaeum I,XIV,1 was built at the intersection of the Decumanus and Via della Foce. Two statues of an amorino riding a dolphin, found nearby, may have been standing in its niches. Further down the road, on Via della Foce, in the porticus in front of the Baths of the Trinacria, is nymphaeum III,XVI,6. This one has not been dated accurately, it is from the later third or fourth century.
Statue of an amorino on a sea-lion. Found in the tomb of Julia Procula, Isola Sacra necropolis.
Museo Ostiense. Photo: Wikimedia, Sailko.in the last quarter of the fourth century nymphaeum IV,IV,5 was restored. In one of its niches a cast of a statue of Venus has been placed. At the same time the adjacent public latrine IV,IV,4 was built. For the seats the front of marble sarcophagi, with reliefs, and funerary inscriptions were re-used. Quite impressive is the Nymphaeum of the Erotes, a bit to the south. It was built in the first quarter of the fifth century. It is a marble room, with a marble basin in the centre and niches for statues of erotes holding a bow and Venus. The erotes can be seen in the museum. Another structure suggesting great prosperity is exedra I,XII,3, built in the middle of the fourth century. But note that it is on top of a demolished bakery and completely blocks a main road.
Some bars on main roads may also be assigned to the later third or fourth century. It is impossible to date them accurately, but a late date can be deduced from the re-use of marble for the bar counters. This re-use is also seen frequently in the buildings described so far. New imports were not required. Fine examples of the bars can be seen in the Baths of the Lighthouse and the House of Hercules.
A marble-clad bar-counter in the Baths of the Lighthouse. Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.
(1) The addition remis is hypothetical (E. Lommatzsch, Anthologia latina - Carmina latina epigraphica supplementum, Leipzig 1926, nr. 2049). We could also read velis or ventis, "by sails" or "by the wind".
