Baths of Titus

{{Short description|Ancient public baths in Rome}} {{Infobox historic site | map_overlay = Roma Plan.jpg | image = Thermen van Titus Thermae Titi Flavi Aug (titel op object) Livre des edifices antiques romains (serietitel) Magesyn der Italiaense gebouwen (serietitel), RP-P-1957-653-36-3.jpg | caption = 1584 drawing by Jacques Androuet | coordinates = {{Coord|41|53|33.20|N|12|29|38.59|E |type:landmark_region:IT |display=it}} | map dot label = Baths of Titus | map_label_position = bottom | map_type = Italy Rome Antiquity | map_caption = Shown in ancient Rome | mapframe = yes | mapframe-caption = | mapframe-zoom = 13 | mapframe-marker = monument | name = Baths of Titus | alternate_name = Thermae Titi | location = [[Rome]], Italy | built = | builder = | area = }}

The '''Baths of Titus''' or ''Thermae Titi'' were [[public baths]] (''[[Thermae]]'') built in 81 AD at [[Rome]], by Roman emperor [[Titus]].<ref>Suet. Titus 7 http://latin.packhum.org/loc/1348/1/0#229</ref> The baths sat at the base of the [[Esquiline Hill]], an area of parkland and luxury estates which had been taken over by [[Nero]] (AD 54–68) for his Golden House or ''[[Domus Aurea]]''. Titus' baths were built in haste, possibly by converting an existing or partly built bathing complex belonging to the reviled ''Domus Aurea''.<ref name="Sear1983">{{cite book |author=Frank Sear |title=Roman Architecture |url=https://archive.org/details/romanarchitectur0000sear |url-access=registration |year=1983 |publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=0-8014-9245-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/romanarchitectur0000sear/page/145 145]–}}</ref> They were not particularly extensive, and the much larger [[Baths of Trajan]] were built immediately adjacent to them at the start of the next century.<ref>{{cite book |title=American Architect and Architecture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EvQzAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA27|year=1900|publisher=J. R. Osgood & Company |pages=27–}}</ref>

==Description== [[Image:Terme di tito pianta.png|thumb|Plan of the Baths of Titus: frigidarium in blue, tediparium in purple, calidarium in red, palaestra in yellow]] The Baths of Titus were the first of the "imperial" baths to use what would become a standard design for public bathing complexes in Rome in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.<ref name="Sear, 1983; p. 40">Sear, 1983; p. 40</ref> The entire building was strictly symmetrical, and featured along its center axis from north to south the main bath chambers in a sequence: ''[[frigidarium]]'', ''[[tepidarium]]'', and ''[[caldarium]]''.<ref>{{cite book| title=Roman Imperial Architecture| author=J.B. Ward-Perkins| publisher=Yale University Press| year=1994| page=73}}</ref> As in the other ''[[thermae]]'', the ''caldarium'' was south-facing and projected forward from the main block to absorb the warmth of the sun to best effect.<ref name="Sear, 1983; p. 40"/> Preceding the building on the south side was a terrace supporting a large open area, presumably featuring gardens, which was another typical feature of the later Roman imperial baths.<ref name="Richardson">{{cite book| title=A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome| author=L. Richardson| publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press| year=1992| page=396}}</ref> The only major feature not present in the Baths of Titus is a ''[[natatio]]'', or open air swimming pool, which in the later baths of Trajan, [[Baths of Caracalla|Caracalla]], and [[Baths of Diocletian|Diocletian]] preceded the ''frigidarium'' on the north side.<ref name="Sear, 1983; p. 145">Sear, 1983; p. 145</ref>

The ''frigidarium'' was the largest room, consisting of three bays with [[groin vault]]ed ceilings and enclosures in each corner supporting [[barrel vault]]s. These enclosures were screened by columns and contained cold plunge baths.<ref name="Ward-Perkins, 1994; p. 73">Ward-Perkins, 1994; p. 73</ref> Flanking the ''frigidarium'' on the east and west sides was a ''[[palaestra]]'' for exercise and ''[[Apodyterium|apodyteria]]'', or changing rooms.<ref name="Sear, 1983; p. 145"/> The small intermediate room, the ''tepidarium'', was flanked by staircases on either side leading to an upper story; from the south ran a corridor separating a pair of large ''caldaria''. According to the floorplans of [[Andrea Palladio]], each ''caldarium'' had a small ''[[laconicum]]'' (dry sweating room) attached to it.<ref name="Richardson"/> Smaller suites of hot rooms ran along the south façade on either side of the ''tepidarium'' staircases.

A broad staircase descended 18 meters (59 feet) from the terrace in front of the Baths of Titus down the south side of the Oppian to the plaza of the [[Colosseum]], where it joined with a portico.<ref>{{cite book| title=A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome| author=Samuel Ball Platner & Thomas Ashby| publisher=Oxford University Press| year=1929| pages=533–534}}</ref> The ruins of this portico were excavated in 1895; the brick-faced concrete piers can still be seen on the north side of the Piazza del Colosseo.<ref name="Ward-Perkins, 1994; p. 73"/><ref>{{cite web| url=https://exhibits.stanford.edu/nash/feature/t|title=Thermae Titi| publisher=exhibits.stanford.edu| access-date=2020-11-25}}</ref>

==Later history== The Baths of Titus were restored during the reign of [[Hadrian]] as well as in AD 238 but no further repairs are known.<ref>Hist. Aug. Max. et Balb. I</ref><ref>CIL 6.9797</ref> It is thus likely that the entire complex underwent a process of early abandonment. [[Rodolfo Lanciani]] determined that the front part of the baths had collapsed by the late 4th century, and offices for the [[urban prefect]] were built on the site.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome| author=Rodolfo Lanciani| publisher=Houghton Mifflin| year=1897| page=364}}</ref> Large parts of the building were still standing in the 16th century when [[Andrea Palladio]] described the floor plan. The ruins were demolished shortly afterwards, their marble and building materials being reused for the building of palaces and churches such as the side chapels of the [[Church of the Gesù]] or the fountain of the [[Cortile del Belvedere]] in the Vatican.

One of the features of the baths was mural designs by the artist [[Famulus]] (or Fabullus), both al fresco and al stucco. Before the designs fell into disrepair from exposure to the elements, Nicholas Ponce copied and reproduced them as engravings in his volume "Description des bains de Titus" (Paris, 1786). The designs are now recognized as a source of the style known as "[[grotesque]]" (meaning "like a small cave, a hollow, a grotto") because the ruins of the Baths of Titus were in a hollow in the ground when they were discovered.<ref>Lecture 12 - [http://academicearth.org/lectures/colosseum-and-contemporary-roman-architecture The Creation of an Icon: The Colosseum and Contemporary Architecture in Rome] as author at YALE HSAR 252 - Roman Architecture with Professor Diana E. E. Kleiner.</ref>

==See also== * [[List of Roman public baths]] *[[Ancient Roman architecture]] *[[Roman engineering]]

==References== {{Commons category|Baths of Titus}} {{Reflist|33em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baths Of Titus}} [[Category:Ancient Roman baths in Rome|Titus]] [[Category:1st-century establishments in Italy]] [[Category:80s establishments in the Roman Empire]] [[Category:Monti (rione of Rome)]] [[Category:Titus]]