THERMAE CONSTANTINIANAE
the last of the great baths of Rome, built
by Constantine on the Quirinal, probably before 315 (Aur. Vict. Caes. 40 :
a quo ad lavandum institutum opus ceteris haud multo dispar; Not. Reg.
VI). They suffered greatly from fire and earthquake and were restored
in 443 by the city prefect Petronius Perpenna Magnus Quadratianus
(
CIL vi. 1750), at which time it is probable that the colossal statues
of the Dioscuri and horses, now in the Piazza del Quirinale, were set
up within the thermae (
Mitt. 1898, 273-274;
1900, 309-3o0). The only
other reference to these baths in ancient literature is in Ammianus
Marcellinus (xxvii. 3. 8:
cum collecta plebs infima domum prope
Constantinianum lavacrum iniectis facibus incenderat), but they are
mentioned in Eins. (1. 10; 3.6; 7. 11).
They were built in the irregular space between the vicus Longus, the
Alta Semita, the clivus Salutis and the vicus laci Fundani, and as this
was on a side-hill, it was necessary to make an artificial level, beneath
which the ruins of houses of the second, third and fourth centuries have
been found (
BC 1876, 102-106; cf. also
DOMUS T. AVIDII QUIETI (b),
MUCIANI). Because of these peculiar conditions these thermae differed
in plan from all others in the city. Enough of the structure was standing
at the beginning of the sixteenth century to permit of plans and drawings
by the architects of that period, and these are the chief sources of our
knowledge of the building (see especially Serlio,
Architettura iii. 92;
1
Palladio, Le Terme, pl. xiv.; Duperac, Vestigii, pl. 32;
LS iii. 196-197;
Ant. van den Wyngaerde, BC 1895, pls. vi.-xiii.; HJ 439, n. 131). The
remains were almost entirely destroyed in 1605-1621, when the Palazzo
Rospigliosi was built, but some traces were found a century later (
BC 1895, 88; HJ 440, n. 133), and since 1870 (
NS 1876, 55, 99;
1877, 204,
267;
1878, 233, 340).
The baths were oriented north and south (see LF 16) with one principal
entrance in the middle of the north side. As the main structure occupied
all the space between the streets on the east and west, the ordinary
peribolus was replaced by an enclosure that extended across the front
and was bounded on the north by a curved line, an area now occupied
by the Palazzo della Consulta. The other principal entrance was on
the west side, where a magnificent flight of steps led down from the
top of the hill to the campus Martius. The frigidarium seems to have had
its longer axis north and south instead of east and west, and behind it
were tepidarium and caldarium both circular in shape. Because of the
comparative narrowness of the building, the ordinary arrangement of
the anterooms on each side of the caldarium was not carried out.
Some notable works of art have been found on the site of these
thermae, among them the bronze statues of boxer and athlete now in
the Museo delle Terme
2 (HF 1347, 1350; PT 195-197; Lanciani, Ancient
Rome, frontispiece and pp. 302-307;
NS 1885, 223; Ant. Denk. i.
pls. 4, 5); two statues of Constantine, one in the pronaos of the Lateran,
and the other in the Piazza del Campidoglio with a statue of his son
Constans (
CIL vi. 1148-1150; MD 1346; HF i. p. 411); and some
frescoes, till lately in the Palazzo Rospigliosi (Matz-Duhn 4110;
PBS
vii. 40-44;
Mitt. 1911, 149) and now in the Museo delle Terme (
BA 1925,
147-163), which belong to an earlier building, perhaps the
DOMUS
CLAUDIORUM (q.v.).
For the thermae in general, see HJ 438-441;
RhM 1894, 389-392;
Jord. ii. 526-528;
Gilb. iii. 300;
RE iv. 962-963; Reber 496-500;
Canina Ed. iv. pls. 220-222; Mem. L. 5. xvii. 534, 535.