What Happened Inside Ancient Rome's Public Baths?

The Romans considered their expansive bathing rituals a hallmark of civilization. Almost every Roman settlement of note throughout their vast empire boasted large public baths that townspeople could attend for the equivalent of less than a penny a day. The wealthy, meanwhile, indulged in luxurious private baths reserved for their families and friends.

“What vast mass of stone, what weight of columns rises here! How the light pours in through the high windows," wrote the first-century Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius as he described the private baths of a rich man. "The baths gleam with marble of every color… Here the weary limbs are refreshed in the warm pool, there the cold plunge shocks the body back to life.”

Public baths may have been less ornate, but these too were civic marvels. Rome had hundreds of them by the fourth century A.D., including the famed Baths of Nero near the center of the ancient city. A bather went through a series of pools with different water temperatures: a warm pool (the tepidarium) was typically followed by a hot pool (the caldarium) and then a freezing-cold pool (the frigidarium). Bathers could then be anointed with oil and scraped clean, in the Roman tradition of cleanliness.

But getting clean was only one aspect. "Pleasure was as important as cleanliness for the Roman bathing habit," says University of Georgia classicist Jordan Pickett. "The biggest Roman baths, called thermae, were like Disney Worlds for antiquity… the most technologically sophisticated buildings in the Roman world, bundling together seemingly endless supplies of flowing water from aqueducts, radiant heat from hypocausts, glass-paned windows that conserved heat, immense interiors built of brick and concrete covered with high vaults, finished in imported marble and decked out with sculpture and mosaics."

Thermae, with hot water from giant furnaces, were established in the most important Roman settlements, and the remains of dozens have been found—including the Baths of Diocletian in Rome, which were built between A.D. 298 and 306. This vast complex covered almost 13 acres and could hold up to 3,000 bathers at once. Its vaulted halls, fountains, gardens and the remains of pools can still be seen today, and parts of it are now part of a church. The monumental architecture of Roman thermae also inspired several American train stations, Pickett says, such as Union Station in Washington, D.C.

Pickett explains that the Romans got their idea of baths from the ancient Greeks, as they did with many cultural traditions. Greek baths tended to be much smaller and were often built near athletic complexes, such as the gymnasium at Delphi. A common design featured rows of unheated hip baths beneath a domed or vaulted ceiling—a form that recalled the round tholos tombs of early Greek architecture. In 2026, archaeologists also unearthed luxurious tholos-style baths in the Egyptian city of Alexandria amid the ruins of a Roman-era villa. The discovery highlights the enduring popularity of this Greek architectural form well into the Roman period.

Roman baths appeared in the second century B.C., first as smaller balnea, which typically served a neighborhood. Hundreds had been built in Rome by the time of Nero, and thousands throughout the empire. Vast thermae were established in many major Roman cities. The remains of a large third-century thermae complex were found in 2026 beneath the Dutch city of Nijmegen, showing its importance in Roman times even though it was on the northern frontier. Jewelry, hairpins and dice were also found at the site, suggesting it was a place of indulgence and play. "They were places of leisure, they were places of luxury," says archaeologist Stephan Mols of Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands. "A real Roman settlement couldn't do without."

Indeed, Roman baths offered vital social spaces where business deals might be struck and gossip exchanged. The most ostentatious citizens could be seen there with their retinue of slaves, he says. Poorer people fended for themselves. There were also shops, places to eat and services providing linen and towels.

Pickett says that many had palaestra, or open-air yards where people exercised—a feature they inherited from the Greeks. Ancient physicians recommended that people attend the baths to run or play ball so they worked up a light sweat. Other sources mention boxing, wrestling, fencing, weightlifting and lifting dumbbells. But swimming probably wasn't a typical activity: the pools were rarely more than a few feet deep.

The Roman penchant for public bathing also had a seamy side. Many early baths were for men only, but some had separate facilities for women or admitted them at segregated hours. Mixed bathing, however, became increasingly popular as the Roman Empire expanded. Several ancient writers decried the "decadence" of mixed bathing, which they associated with prostitution and casual sex. Some later Roman emperors even banned it at times. Elite women, wrote the second-century Roman satirist Juvenal, could be the most brazen: "She frequents the baths by night... she loves all the bustle of the hot bath."