THERMAE TRAIANI
built for Trajan by the Greek architect Apollodorus
(
Paus. v. 12. 6:
ἀξιολογώτατά ἐστι λουτρὰ ἐπώνυμα αὐτοῦ καὶ θέατρον etc.; Kaibel, IGI 1055; Cass.
Dio lxix. 4. 1:
᾿Απολλόδωρον τὸν ἀρχιτέκτονα τὸν τὴν ἀγορὰν καὶ τὸ ᾠδεῖον τό τε γυμνάσιον τὰ τοῦ Τραιανοῦ ποιήματα ἐν τῇ ῾ρώμῃ κατασκευάσαντα, where
γυμνάσιον probably refers to the thermae). These baths were immediately
north-cast of the thermae Titi, and in the chronicle of S. Jerome
(a. Abr. 2105) the thermae Titianae et Traianae are assigned to
the reign of Domitian, which may perhaps indicate that the latter
were planned by that emperor. Because of this statement these
baths are mentioned in early church writings as thermae Domitianae
(cf.
LP xxxiv. 33;
liii. 9;
Mel. 1886, 3-4;
BC 1886, 245; Mon.
L. i.
484-485). In Trajan's time they were used by women (Chron. 146:
hoc imperatore mulieres in thermis Traianis laverunt); little images
(sigillaria) were exposed for sale in the porticus of the thermae in the
last days of the Saturnalia (which were sometimes called Sigillaria from
this practice; see
SIGILLARIA) (Schol. ad Iuv. 6. 154); they are mentioned
incidentally in inscriptions (vi. 9797=AL 29. 4; 8677, 8678); and in
the fourth or fifth century they were adorned with statues by Iulius
Felix Campanianus, prefect of the city (
CIL vi. 1670). The correct
name was attached to the gradually diminishing ruins until about the
sixteenth century, when it was displaced by the incorrect name, thermae
Titianae.
Part of these baths is represented on a fragment of the Marble
Plan (109; cf. Lanciani quoted by Gatti,
BC 1886, 272-274), and in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries drawings and plans were made of
the existing ruins-the most important being those in the Destailleur
collection in Berlin
1 (cf.
Mitt. 1892, 302-304; HJ 313, n. 72). By the
end of the eighteenth century most of these ruins had been destroyed,
and the principal remains now visible belong to the exedrae at the
north-east and south-west corners of the east palestra. These baths
were in
Region III (Not.), on the Esquiline, just south-east of the present
church of S. Pietro in Vincoli. They were within the precinct of the
domus Aurea, a considerable part of which was destroyed or buried
beneath them. From information at hand it is possible to reconstruct
their plan in its main features (see LF pls. 23, 30; LR, fig. 138 (text fig. 7)).
These thermae marked an intermediate stage between the earlier and
later type, in that the central complex of buildings was partly surrounded,
on the east, west, and south sides, by a peribolus which contained reading
rooms, gymnasia, and exedrae at the four corners. On the north side
there was no enclosure, but the facade of the building with the main
entrance in the middle. The frigidarium, central hall, tepidarium, and
caldarium
2 were arranged in the usual order from north to south in the
centre of the main structure, with apodyteria or dressing-rooms, open
courts or palaestrae surrounded with colonnades in the middle of the
east and west sides, and the usual number of small baths and rooms for
various purposes. From the middle of the peribolus on the south side, a
very large exedra projected outward which served as a theatre. This
exedra was built over part of the domus Aurea, and in order to provide
sufficiently strong foundations for the cavea of the theatre, additional
walls were built through the chambers of the domus, some corresponding
with the walls of these chambers, and others with the orientation of the
baths themselves. The axis of the domus runs north and south, while
that of the thermae runs north-east and south-west at an angle of
30 degrees from the meridian. The extreme measurements of the baths
are 340 metres in width and 330 in depth, or, excluding the exedral
projections, 280 by 210 metres.
Presumably Trajan adorned his baths with works of art, and many
traces have been found in this precinct and its immediate vicinity, but
their exact provenience is difficult to ascertain. The Laokoon group
was found in 1506 in a hall
3 between the thermae and the Sette Sale
(probably in the domus Aurea, which in Pliny's time was called the house
of Titus; see
DOMUS TITI). It may have been set up in the thermae
by Trajan, but it seems far more likely that it was actually found in the
domus Aurea (for excavations and discussions, see
LS ii. 222-228; LR
368;
NS 1885, 474; Weege in Jahrb. d.
Inst. 1913, 201-239; for the
thermae in general, HJ 310-314; LR 367-369;
Gilb. iii. 297; ZA
133-144;
4 for restorations, D'Esp.
Mon. ii. 155-159; for the decoration
of the exedrae, RA 117; and for the mediaeval churches in or near the
thermae, see
AD TAURUM).
