THERMAE AGRIPPAE
* (Agrippianae, Not.; Greg. Magn.):
the earliest of the
great baths of Rome. According to Cassius Dio (liii. 27. I) Agrippa
built a hot-air bath (
τὸ πυριατήριον τὸ Λακωνικόν)
1 in 25 B.C. at the same
time as the
PANTHEON (q.v.); and at his death in 12 he left to the
Roman people, for their free use, a
βαλανεῖον (liv. 29. 4; Sid. Apoll.
carm. 23. 496:
balnea.. quae Agrippa dedit). As the
AQUA VIRGO
(q.v.), which supplied these baths with water, was not completed until
19 B.C., it is probable that the laconicum was the original part of what
afterwards became a complete establishment for bathing, which was
then regularly called thermae. Agrippa adorned these baths with
works of art, among which are mentioned paintings (Plin.
NH xxxv. 26),
and the Apoxyomenos of Lysippus, which was set up in front of them
(id. xxxiv. 62). The hot rooms he is said to have finished with fresco
on tiles (id. xxxvi. 189).
The thermae were burned in 80 A.D. (Cass.
Dio lxvi. 24:
βαλανεῖον),
but must have been restored by Titus or Domitian, for they are mentioned
by Martial (iii. 20. 15, 36. 6) as much frequented. Another restoration
was carried out by Hadrian (Hist. Aug. Hadr. 19:
Romae instauravit
lavacrum Agrippae; cf. also a reference in
CIL vi. 9797=AL 294).
An inscription
(vi. 1165) of 344/5 A.D. recording a restoration by Constantius and Constans of '
termas vetustate labefactas' was found near
the church of S. Maria in Monterone close' to the west side of the baths
of Agrippa, and therefore probably refers to them. They are mentioned
in the Regionary Catalogue (
Reg. IX), by Sid. Apollinaris (loc. cit.),
and in the sixth century (Greg. Magn.
Reg. vi. 42;
ix. 137;
Kehr i. 98).
By the seventh century the destruction of the building was well under
way, and that its marble was burned into lime is shown by the name
Calcararium, applied to the immediate vicinity somewhat later (Mirabilia
23;
Jord. ii. 439;
LS i. 25). They are, however, mentioned as Thermae
Commodianae in Eins. 1. 4; 2. 4; 4. 8; 8. 6.
The general plan of these thermae is known from a fragment of the
Marble Plan found in 1900 (
NS 1900, 633-634;
BC 1901, 3-19;
LS ii. 209;
Mitt. 1905, 75); from drawings and plans of the sixteenth century
(
NS 1882, 347-351) when much of the structure was still standing-three
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in particular, one of Baldassare Peruzzi (Uffizi 456
2; Geymiuller, Documents inedits sur les thermes d'Agrippa, Lausanne 1883; NS 1882,
pl. xxi.), a second of Palladio in the Devonshire collection (port. ix.f. 14; Rossi's edition of the Terme dei Romani, Vicenza 1797, pl. ii.; BC 1901, pi. ii.), and a third of S. Peruzzi (Uffizi 642); and from the
meagre results of excavations (cf.
NS 1881, 276-281;
1882, 351-359).
From this evidence it appears that the building of Agrippa was oriented
of the north and south on the axis of the Pantheon, and covered an area measuring about 100-120 metres north and south and 80-100 east and
same west, extending from the modern Via di Tor Argentina on the west to the east side of the Via dei Cestari, and having its southern limit a little north of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Just north of the centre of the building was a circular hall about 25 metres in diameter, belonging to a later reconstruction in a period not earlier than Alexander Severus(RA 127, 128; 175, 176), with the earliest known example of meridian
ribs in its dome, the arco della Ciambella, by which name it was known as early as 1505 (
BC 1901, 16), shown in sketches of the seventeenth century (e.g. that of Giovannoli, BC 1901, pl. iv.) when it was still complete. It is now only partially preserved and is visible behind the houses in the Via dell' Arco della Ciambella. It was probably a sort of general
assembly hall, the social centre of the baths. The arrangement of the other rooms is uncertain, but the caldarium was probably directly west of the circular hall. On the west side of the thermae was an artificial pool or
STAGNUM (q.v.). The plan is very like that of the larger thermae(the so-called palace) at Treves (Trier), as the restoration by Williams shows (ASA 100).
The original structure of Agrippa was afterwards extended north by Hadrian, and connected with the Pantheon by a series of halls, of which only small sections have been found (
NS 1877, 271;
1878, 93;
1881, 278;1886, 159;
BC 1886, 219;
LS ii. 236;
Mel. 1885, 3 ff., pi. i), except in the case of that directly adjoining the Pantheon. This hall is wrongly called Laconicum by Lanciani, for there are no traces of heating arrangements. Its real purpose is uncertain; Hulsen conjectures that it is to be identified with the library which Julius Africanus erected for the emperor Alexander Severus. But the passage in Oxyrhynchus Papyri (iii. p. 39)
3 which he cites, .though it is certainly ambiguous, would seem
to refer rather to the
THERMAE ALEXANDRINAE (NERONIANAE), q.v.,
the which were close by--
ἐν ῾Ρώμῃ πρὸς ταῖς ᾿Αλεξάνδρου θερμαῖς ἐν τῇ ἐν Πανθείῳ βιβλιοθήκῃ τῇ καλη? ἣν αὐτὸς ἠρχιτεκτόνησα τῷ Σεβαστῷ. From the brickstamps cited by Hulsen, it would seem that the hall itself must also belong to the period of Hadrian, as he maintains; and this is borne
out by the character of the frieze and cornice. Cf.
Toeb. i. 67-72.
The hall, now cut through by the Via della Palombella, was rectangular
in shape, 45 metres long and 19 wide, with an apse 9 metres in diameter
in the north wall. Along each of the longer sides stood four columns
of pavonazzetto and red granite. Between the first and second and the
third and fourth columns on each side were three niches, two rectangular
and one semi-circular. Round the hall ran a remarkably well executed
frieze and cornice, some of which is in situ (Durm, fig. 437; D'Esp.
Fr. i. 78). The walls are 1.75 metre thick. The cross-walls between
the north wall of this hall and the drum of the Pantheon date from 126
or later (
AJA 1912, 421), and as they are not connected with either
structure but simply abut against them, it is clear that they were
intended to serve as buttresses, perhaps in order that a heavy roof might
be put over the hall.
For the thermae, see HJ 576-580;
RE i. 899; and especially Hulsen,
Die Thermen des Agrippa, Rome 1910, which contains reproductions of
the plans cited above as well as others, and a definite discussion of the
whole structure.
