How did they clean themselves?

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Just to add, certain baths were heated well, as in constanly by slaves working the fires beneath the baths. That shoulda help with the problem of removing oil.

[Julia]

The Greeks lathered themselves with Olive Oil, then scraped it off with some kind of instrument.

 

 

I don't remember ever reading what the Romans did.

 

The Romans did the same thing. The instrument was called a strigilis.

[Trethiwr]

I spent quite a while walking round Pompeii (all day actually, I was exhausted at the end) and loved the baths there. I also had a good long look around some baths in a Roman museum town in North West France (Mayenne if I remember rightly)

 

The whole process fascinates me, and we simply don't have anything to touch it in the modern world, unless Turkish baths are similar but I've never been to one.

 

Like a lot of historical things the only way to understand it properly is to do the whole thing.

Like, iron age round houses didn't have holes in the roof to let the smoke out, but until archaeologists actually built the houses and used them they never found that out.

 

The process of Roman bathing was much more elaborate than ours.

 

As I understand it you went into a series of rooms at different temperatures, ranging from a sauna type room through steamy rooms right through the scale to a cold plunge.

I'm sure most people know how the dirt can just run off you in a sauna your pores open up and wash your skin from the inside.

 

You've got bath slaves rubbing you down and doing massages, hair styling, manicures etc its the full works. Rubbing oil onto skin and scraping it off after a sauna is going to exfoliate incredibly well, but I reckon most dirt will already have been sweated off by then anyway.

 

Also the baths were a place to discuss business just as the golf course is today. They spent WAY more time bathing than any modern westerner does, visiting the public baths daily and meeting clients and patrons etc or socialising in a convivial environment.

 

We shower as a purely functional thing and then get on with the rest of the day, they networked while they bathed.

 

What I wonder is whether the slaves got a chance afterwards.

I can't quite believe the Roman's would have wanted their house slaves stinking around the place so they must have had their opportunity at some point as well.

 

As for the Britons, yeah sure they had soap, its not nearly that hard to make functional soap as some people would have you believe. The Romans probably knew how to make soap but didn't need it as their baths were so advanced.

 

Evidence of what the Britons did or didn't do is scarce, but I bet the average Celt would have washed in a stream once a year whether they needed it or not!

[caldrail]

They? Clearly we're talking about the top half of Roman society here. Did patricians share a convivial atmosphere with the cities plebians?

[GhostOfClayton]

They? Clearly we're talking about the top half of Roman society here. Did patricians share a convivial atmosphere with the cities plebians?

 

If you imagine the larger bath complexes, surely they were built for anyone who cared to go down there, and no evidence (to my knowledge) that there was a charge. I think it would be inevitable that they shared the same space, even if they didn't interact socially with citizens of different ranks.

Edited December 13, 2010 by GhostOfClayton

[Vipsania]

I would think that oiling and scraping combined with a visit to each bath (tepidarium-->caldarium-->tepidarium-->frigidarium) would serve in ridding one of most of the dirt and foul odors. However, I doubt that ancient Romans smelled as fresh as we do today after a bath with modern soaps.

 

I am sure there was a reason that Marcus Agrippa built his thermae and provided for free access to Roman citizens, other than Augustan propaganda -- Romans no doubt smelled foul.

Edited December 13, 2010 by Vipsania

[Fulvia]

They? Clearly we're talking about the top half of Roman society here. Did patricians share a convivial atmosphere with the cities plebians?

They certainly did bath together actually. As someone has already pointed out, the large thermae provided ample room for joint bathing, though even as today, classes naturally drifted together. Think of the amphitheaters: everyone of all classes went there; granted, with specific seating arrangements. The baths would've been an excellent place for politicians and candidates to be seen, to arrange for business deals, for businessmen to advertise themselves to everyone, pick up girls etc. If you think of the baths as a society within a society then you have a good idea about what they must've,speculatively, looked like. People mingled but as with Roman society, the classes would've been obvious. The bigger the bathhouse the more social mingling. There is also some evidence in certain bathhouses mentioned in writings of the time of specific bathing times for men, women and slaves (I'm sorry I don't have the references on hand). There were always private bathhouses for those who desired such, and more elite bathhouses would've charged more automatically filtering out people of lesser means. Not all places charged.

 

I believe it is Seneca or Martial who writes about the the room in which men, and women, would go in to be strigiled. Rubbed down with oil by a slave and then scrapped by a slave who would flick all the grim off onto the floor and walls. Yes, very nasty as it all festered.

[caldrail]

Point taken, yet I still find myself feeling a little disatisified with that apparent setup. Rome was after all a very (extremely?) class concious system, and yes, seating was segregated at amphitheatres to such an extent that you could be jailed for assuming privilege if you sat in the wrong area (I understand that one chap in Pompeii suffered that fate because he approached a senior Roman on some matter, and the wealthy patron took umbrage and had him prosecuted for sitting next to him even though the intent was only to speak to him briefly).

 

This was not a society that found congregation with lower classes comfortable. Patrons kept court in their homes of a morning to receive such people. Julius Caesar was unusual as a politician and recognised as such because he went about the lower classes and spoke to them personally for support, as modern campaigners often do.

 

And yet, despite all that, they mix in the baths without raising an eyebrow? it just seems odd to me. I actually don't think all that many of the downtrodden poor bothered themselves. It may have been permissable to go there, and for all I know you're correct, but there's an ambiguity about this even from Roman sources.

 

I'm reminded of a story about Hadrian. He popped down to the baths with his associates and whilst there, observed a man rubbing his shoulders on a pillar. Hadrian asked the man why he was doing that. "I cannot afford a slave to scrub my back" the man answered. Hadrian rolled his eyes and summoned his purse, gave the man a few coins, and told him to go away and buy a slave. The next day Hadrian popped down to the baths, the entire bathhouse was full of men rubbing their backs on pillars.

 

Apart from the amusing climax and the demonstration of rOMAn greed, notice something important. A man was bathing who could not afford the services of a slave, and that seems to be a unique occurence because Hadrian is curious and doesn't initially know why this is happening. One might presume therefore that there were sections of society that did not go to the baths out of embarrasement, or perhaps even a lack of self worth, and let's be honest, the downtrodden poor of any society aren't known for their cleanliness.

[GhostOfClayton]

I'm reminded of a story about Hadrian. He popped down to the baths with his associates and whilst there, observed a man rubbing his shoulders on a pillar. Hadrian asked the man why he was doing that. "I cannot afford a slave to scrub my back" the man answered. Hadrian rolled his eyes and summoned his purse, gave the man a few coins, and told him to go away and buy a slave. The next day Hadrian popped down to the baths, the entire bathhouse was full of men rubbing their backs on pillars.

 

Yes, I've heard that one, as well (I think the man had served in the army under Hadrian.) I can't think where I heard it, though. Was there a last piece of Hadrianic wisdom tagged onto the end? Can't remember.

 

Another little Hadrianic bathing legend had Hadrian talking to a client king somewhere in Britannnia. The client King asked Hadrian, "Why do you bathe once a day?". To which Hadrian replied, "because I haven't really got time to bathe twice a day." That one was courtesy of the audio guide at Wroxeter - no sources quoted, obviously.

[Julia Casca]

well, I dunno about all this but the Romans did love their baths/thermae. A Roman once said that what is better than going once to a thermae is to go twice. They loved it. And it wasn't that far removed from todays pleasures. Let's see, one would enter this beloved building after working out in the gynnasium all sweaty and dirty (women too if available) and would be disrobed. They enter the sweat room to open pores, step out and have a slave sponge them down, removing dirt and sweat. Then to the caldarium where one slips into shoes to keep from burning feet and sweats more,then rinsed again and into the hot water for a grand soak. OUt of there into the frigidiarium to close pores and then to the waiting tepid waters of the tepidiarium to mingle with the other folk lounging there. Some places it was co-ed but usually women were granted the morning shift, men the afternoon shift and the poor whatever time was left over before cleaning the pools with vinegar is my bet.

 

Now once in the elegant tepidarium (Trier) one could have a private massage with a happy ending of course, or a simple massage where one's hair was washed with imported shampoo from Egypt that was made down the street. Hands were manacured with nails clipped and trimmed.Calouses were removed with pumic along with defoleating skin and hair that wasn't waxed. I believe they waxed hair rather than plucking it, exception stray hairs and eyebrows. The hair is rinsed with a compatible or matching fregrant rinse that blends nicely with the massage oil. Facials were also administered, both refreshing and medicinal. One could treat acne, oily skin or dry as needed. Bruises could be sucked away by leeches. Once one was so refreshed, one could peruse the boutiques and venders for new makeups, wigs, sandals made also down the street, or one could munch on tidbits offered by another vendor or one could simply enter the library for a pleasant read or reading. Never forget the stroll through the relaxing garden area nearby.

 

And one paid through the nose for this delight so only the rich enjoyed this experience or the thermae had exclusive memberships as Balbus's thermae in Herculaneum. So did they stink, sure of garlic and sweat but what a wonderful way to get rid of it.

[GhostOfClayton]

I suppose it would be a good time to plug a visit to the Roman Baths Complex at Bath (Aquae Sulis). Expensive, but extensive and a very detailed Audioguide that will last you all day if you listen to all the additional information most people don't bother with.

 

They can be found at this website.

[Trethiwr]

I suppose it would be a good time to plug a visit to the Roman Baths Complex at Bath (Aquae Sulis). Expensive, but extensive and a very detailed Audioguide that will last you all day if you listen to all the additional information most people don't bother with.

 

They can be found at this website.

 

I would consider it really cheap if I could actually sweat it out in the caldarium and take the plunge in the pool.

Even so

[GhostOfClayton]

If we're plugging Roman Baths, I would be neglecting my duties if I didn't plug the reproduction military bath-house at Segedunum (Wallsend, Newcastle). This is part of the visitor centre at the fort that marked the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall.

 

I heard that it was originally built as a working reconstruction, so that you could try out the genuine experience, though i believe it encountered technical difficulties.

 

A link can be found here.

[Curer]

I've often wondered how the roman's managed their daily lives after slathering themselves with oil, even if they tried scraping it off.  It's difficult for me to imagine ever being able to completely rid your skin of the residue.  I can only imagine their clothing and bedsheets and furniture all must have had oily stains and everything from door knobs to lamp posts just felt greasy.  The bath house laundry load must have been amazing.  I can see how a thin layer of oil would reduce parasites like lice, as a lot of people today use a dab of olive oil when removing ticks, but how did everyone not have constant, terrible break outs of acne? 

 

On that note, I found a website. 

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/12/wash-your-face-with-oili-dare-you.html

 

Apparently, it's called the OCM, Oil Cleansing Method, a modern facial regime for better skin.  You're not supposed to use just olive oil, but some mixture of other oils as well, depending on your skin type.  And if you read down in the comments, someone pointed out that unrefined oils, (such as the Romans would have had), don't clog pores even when the refined version will.  With steam and a little gentle scrubbing with water, it seems as though the author of the site actually had to cut back on the method because it made her skin too dry.  It's supposed to be better for acne than Proactive and prevents wrinkles. 

 

Now, I admit to having been curious enough about this Roman oil thing enough that several years ago, before I knew about this OCM facial treatment, I tried washing with a little olive oil.  I'm sure I did it all completely wrong and if I recall, ended up at such a loss as to how to go about it I ended up soaping it all off.  I didn't have a strigil and I tried using the edge of a pair of tweezers.  And I simply tried rinsing the tweezers directly into the bath, which made the bath oily and made it impossible for me to not get it all back on me.  If I ever get curious enough to try this again, I'll try slinging the oil off onto the floors and walls, like a true Roman, and then toweling off a bit before I hop in the tub.  But the point is that I ended up with a terrible break out, even after using the soap.  I remember that my face was all itchy for days.  Maybe I was just allergic, but seeing as the OCM website also points out that you shouldn't use olive oil by itself, it does make me wonder if they mixed something else in.  They have a lot of pine nuts in Italy.  Who knows, maybe they cut the olive oil with pine nut oil, and we do know that some fragrant essential oils were used during the bath routine.  Here's an excerpt from a website about aromatherapy.

 

"One of the oldest and crudest forms of extraction was known as enfleurage.  Raw plant material (usually stems, foliage, bark or roots) was crushed and mixed with olive oil or animal fat, although other vegetable oils were also used.

In the case of cedar, for example, the bark was stripped from the trunk and branches, ground into a powder, soaked with olive oil and placed in a wool cloth.  The cloth was then heated.  The heat pulled the essential oil out of the bark particles into the olive oil, and the wool was pressed to extract the essential oil.  Sandalwood oil was also extracted in this fashion.

Enfleurage was also used to extract essential oils from flower petals."

(http://www.doterra-aromatics.com/info/history.html)

 

So, if they were using olive oil to extract essential oils anyway, and we already know that they were using fragrant oils during some part of the bath, then it's not much of a stretch to assume that they were steeping things like flower petals and cedar bark into their bathing oil before they used it, too. 

[GhostOfClayton]

A fascinating experiment, Curer. I only have a couple of comments. Firstly, I think it would have been fairly common practice to have a slave massage the oil in. We need you to try rubbing the oil into your skin before scraping to see how much residue is left. Secondly, I would persist in finding something metallic, curved, and about the right size. Different sized strigils were used on different body areas, so size would seem to matter. Lastly, post-scrape, we need you to hop into a hot bath, then a cold one. This may have the effect of getting rid of the last oil vestiges. Please let us know how you get on.

 

The other thing is that I'm pretty certain that the whole acne/oily skin connection is a myth. Acne is caused by (typically) adolescent hormonal imbalances/excesses, and so all these facial rubs will do little more than attempt to clean out your blocked pores offering temporary relief. So I wouldn't use that as any kind of success criterium.