THERMAE NERONIANAE
the second public bathing establishment in Rome,
built by Nero near the Pantheon (Suet. Nero 12; Aur. Vict. Ep. 5;
Eutrop. vii. 15). According to the Chronica (Hier. a. Abr. 2079; Cassiod.
Chron. min. ii. 138) they were erected in 64 A.D., but if they are to be
identified with Nero's
GYMNASIUM (q.v.), which was built in 62, their
construction also must be assigned to that year (HJ 590). They were
among the notable monuments of the city (
Mart. ii. 48. 8;
iii. 25. 4;
vii. 34. 5, 9; Philostr. vit.
Apoll. iv. 42; Stat.
Silv. i. 5. 62), and evidently
became a very popular resort (for incidental references,
Mart. ii. 14. 13;
xii. 83. 5;
CIL vi. 8676, 9797, 5 =AL 29. 5).
A hypocaust was found in the courtyard of Palazzo Madama in
1871 with the brick-stamps
CIL xv. 481 (123 A.D.) ; and in 1907 in another
hypocaust were found ib. 164 (Severus), 364 (Hadrian), 371 b (Severus),
404 (Severus) on the site of S. Salvatore in Thermis. Pipes were found in
the walls of the time of Nero at the corner between the Piazza and the
Salita dei Crescenzi (
CIL xv. 7271).
In 227 these thermae were rebuilt by Alexander Severus and thenceforth called officially thermae Alexandrinae (Hist. Aug. Alex. Sev. 24,
25, 42;
Eutrop. vii. 15; Chron. 147; Hier. a. Abr. 2243; Cassiod. ad 64
and 227, chron. min. ii. 138, 146; Not. Reg. IX), although there are
indications of the survival of the original name (
CIL vi. 3052; Sid.
Apoll. Carm. 23. 495; Cassiod.
Varia ii. 39. 5: piscina Neroniana).
A coin of Alexander Severus (Cohen, Alex. Sev. 17; Gnecchi,
Med. ii.
101. 6) probably represents them.
1 They were wrongly called templum
Alexandrini in 946 (
MGH iii. 716; HCh 200), but still retained their
correct name in 998-IOII (cf. Reg. Farf. passim, cited by HCh 212:
aecclesia S. Benedicti, quae est aedificata in thermis Alexandrinis, and
S. Maria de Thermis, ib. 326-327).
These baths
2 occupied a rectangular area extending from the north-west
corner of the Pantheon to the stadium of Domitian (Piazza Navona),
an area of about 190 by 120 metres, and fronted north. Nothing now
remains above ground except portions of walls built into the Palazzo
Madama, but in the sixteenth century the foundations of the caldarium
were still visible, extending out from the middle of the south side (Palladio,
ed. Vicenza 1787, pis. 3, 6; cf. Antonio da Sangallo the younger,
Uffizi 949,
3 1634; cod. Barb. Lat. 4333, if. 13, 14, 28, 29; Giovannoli,
Roma antica iii. pls. 8, 9; the latter is reproduced in Ill. 55; for a
reconstruction, Canina Ed. iv. p. 201). The concrete, wherever visible,
belongs to the time of Nero (
AJA 1912, 406). The frigidarium was in the
middle of the north side, the tepidarium between it and the caldarium;
there were large colonnaded courts on the east and west sides of the
central hall, and four dressing and lounging rooms on each side of the
caldarium (see plan in LF 15). Excavations made at various times
have brought to light architectural remains of great beauty, among them
four columns of red granite, two of which were used by Alexander VII
in 1666 to restore the left corner of the pronaos of the Pantheon-white
marble capitals, and fragments of columns of porphyry, pavonazzetto
and grey granite, as well as an enormous basin for a fountain 6.70 metres
in diameter, cut from a single block of red granite, with pieces of several
others (
NS 1881, 270-273;
1882, 412-413;
1883, 81, 130;
1892, 265;
1907, 529;
BC 1907, 330; LR 501;
JRS 1919, 83-184; for the thermae
in general, see HJ 590-592;
Gilb. iii. 298; and for the mediaeval churches
of S. Andrea de Fordivoliis (near S. Luigi dei Francesi), S. Iacobus de
Thermis and S. Salvator de Thermis, Arm. 370, 438-440; HCh 183, 184,
268-269, 455). See also Mem.
L. xvii. 517.
