![]() It was roofed by three cross vaults supported on eight huge columns arranged along the walls. This functioned as the central hall of the entire building, where two different axes of rooms and open courts intersected. The largest chamber of all came next, the frigidarium (cold room). Then came a small tepidarium (warm room), acting as a buffer between the larger cold and hot rooms. The rooms which flanked it on either side contained lesser hot rooms. This rectangular room had an apse in each wall and projected forward from the main block to best absorb the hot afternoon sun. Īfter proceeding through the side rooms, the true baths began with the caldarium (hot room) on the southwest side of the building. Next came either one of the identical flanking wings, where there was a rotunda each (possibly frigidaria) followed by rectangular palaestrae, open courts used for wrestling and athletic exercises. The visitor would have entered through a vestibule on the northeast side, and proceeded straight to the natatio, a large open-air swimming pool surrounded by colonnades on all four sides. The main chambers were arranged in a sequence along a central axis from northeast to southwest ( natatio– frigidarium– tepidarium– caldarium), and were flanked on either side by a network of rooms and open courts which were strictly symmetrical with one another. The Baths of Titus, however, covered an area less than a third the size of those of Trajan. The plan of the baths broadly followed the prototype laid out in the neighbouring Baths of Titus, constructed 29 years earlier, and would be replicated in the great Imperial baths of the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The exedra in the southwest corner, with its two stories of niches, still survives. There were also exedrae in the southwest and northwest corners of the enclosure wall, which may have housed libraries. These are thought to have contained monumental fountains. There were two smaller apses set within the corners of the northeast perimeter wall, flanking the bath block. A huge apse projected out from the southwestern side of the platform, lined with seating, suggesting the area was used for athletic contests and performances. The baths including the open area (which surrounded it on three sides) were enclosed by a perimeter wall, which joined with the bath block on the northeast side, where the main entrance was located. The bath complex was immense by ancient Roman standards, covering an area of approximately 330 by 340 metres. It is suggested that this unorthodox orientation was chosen by the architects to reduce the bathers' exposure to the wind, while also maximising exposure to the sun. This was off axis by about 30° with the Domus Aurea and the Baths of Titus, both of which rested along the meridian line on a north–south axis. The complex rested on a northeast–southwest axis. The Domus Aurea was used as a cryptoporticus to level the ground and support a platform built over it upon which the Baths were built. After Nero's death, the residence on the Oppian remained in use by Emperors of the Flavian dynasty, until it was destroyed in a fire in 104 AD. The lower slopes had been occupied by the Esquiline Wing of the Domus Aurea, an ornate residence belonging to Nero. The baths were erected on the Oppian Hill, a southern extension of the Esquiline Hill. Plan of the Baths of Trajan, including those of Titus and the Domus Aurea The baths were thus no longer in use at the time of the siege of Rome by the Ostrogoths in 537 with the destruction of the Roman aqueducts, all thermae were abandoned, as was the whole of the now-waterless Mons Oppius. The complex seems to have been deserted soon afterwards as a cemetery dated to the 5th century (which remained in use until the 7th century) has been found in front of the northeastern exedra. The baths were utilised mainly as a recreational and social centre by Roman citizens, both men and women, as late as the early 5th century. Early Christian writers were thought to have misnamed the remains the "Baths of Domitian" but this was shown to be a correct attribution for the emperor who began the project, even if Trajan completed the work. The architect of the complex is said to be Apollodorus of Damascus. The Baths of Trajan ( Italian: Terme di Traiano) were a massive thermae, a bathing and leisure complex, built in ancient Rome and dedicated under Trajan during the kalendae of July 109, shortly after the Aqua Traiana was dedicated.Ĭommissioned by Emperor Domitian starting from around 96 AD, the complex of baths occupied space on the southern side of the Oppian Hill on the outskirts of what was then the main developed area of the city, although still inside the boundary of the Servian Wall.
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