Caldarium
1.
The hot chamber of Roman baths. (See
Balneae.)
2.
The boiler (
χαλκεῖον) used in heating the water for the
baths.
3.
A portable cooking-stove. In this sense the word
caldarium occurs only
in late authors, though the thing itself is well known through numerous specimens found at
Pompeii, and now in the Naples Museum. The classical term for it is probably
focus. In Seneca's time, Roman epicurism brought these stoves into the dining-room
(
cenatio), that the dishes might be served to perfection.
The
caldarium here figured has been described
 |
|
Caldarium. ( Museo Borbonico , xii. pl. 46.)
|
by Rich. The sides, which are hollow, contained water; and a small cock projects
from one of them (seen in the engraving), by which it was drawn off. The four towers at the
angles are provided with movable lids; the centre received the lighted charcoal, and cooking
vessels might be placed on it or suspended over it. Another contrivance (see
Authepsa) seems to combine the two purposes of
supplying hot water and keeping dishes hot. It has the cylinder with a place in the centre
for a charcoal fire, which is the characteristic of an
authepsa; and it
is also furnished with a shallow, oblong tray, into which the hot water from the cylinder was
drawn by a cock, and on which dishes may have been placed.
These
caldaria might be shaped like a mile-stone (as in a specimen
figured
Mus. Borbon. iv. pl. 59, also by Saglio) or in more eccentric designs
(
dracones et miliaria et complures formas,
Nat. Quaest.
iii. 24.2). The same passage describes boiler-tubes, not unlike those of the modern
steam-engine. These contrivances show great skill in the economy of fuel and the conveniences
of life.
