THERMAE TITI
built by Titus in great haste at the time of the dedication
of the Colosseum, and opened with magnificent games (Suet. Tit. 7:
amphitheatro dedicato thermisque iuxta celeriter extructis munus
edidit apparatissimum; Cass.
Dio lxvi. 25. I:
τό τε βαλανεῖον τὸ ἐπώνυμον αὐτοῦ; Chron. 146; Hier. a. Abr. 2105). These baths were in
Region III
(Not.), near the Colosseum and within the precinct of Nero's DOMUS
AUREA (q.v.) (Mart. Spect. 2:
hic ubi miramur velocia munera thermas
abstulerat miseris tecta superbus ager), but no actual buildings of the
domus seem to have been removed to make room for them. In 238 A.D.
some restoration was evidently contemplated (Hist. Aug. Max. et Balb. I),
and incidental references to them occur in Martial (iii. 20. 15; 36. 6) and
in later inscriptions (
CIL vi. 9797 =AL 29. 4;
IG xiv. 956 B 15 :
παρὰ τὰς Τιτιανάς).
Early in the sixteenth century Julius II brought to the Vatican a
large granite basin, which had been seen on the site of these thermae
in 1450; it was buried in 1565 by Pius IV, but dug up again by Paul V,
1
and still stands in the Cortile di Belvedere (
PBS ii. 26; HJ 308; Jahrb.
d.
Inst. 1890, 59). Later on, a basin of porphyry was found here and
given by Ascanio Colonna to Julius III. It is now in the Sala Rotonda
of the Vatican. In the same century Palladio made a plan of the ruins
then existing (Devonshire coll. portf. v.;
BC 1895, 110-113). These
ruins were afterwards almost entirely destroyed, although some meagre
remains have recently been found (
BC 1895, 113-115; cf.
LS iii. 248),
and until 1895 the name was generally applied to the thermae of Trajan,
though the truth was detected by De Romanis and Piale in the 'twenties
of last century (see
DOMUS AUREA). The thermae were situated just
west of the later thermae Traianae on the edge of the slope overhanging
the Colosseum, with the same orientation as the domus Aurea, and
occupied a nearly rectangular area, about 105 by 120 metres. The
facade and principal entrance were on the north side. On the south side
a wide flight of steps led down to the paved area around the Colosseum,
18 metres below, where there are traces of a porticus which may have
belonged to the approach to the thermae or have surrounded a large
part of the Colosseum area (
BC 1895, 118-121;
NS 1895, 201, 226). The
arrangement of apartments seems to have been somewhat like that of
the
THERMAE NERONIANAE (q.v.), with the main hall (the earliest
example) in the centre of the north side flanked by colonnaded courts,
and a caldarium projecting out from the south side (HJ 309-310; LR
365-367, fig. 138; ZA 132-133; RA 97-101; Mem. L. 5. xvii. 520).
2
