One example of the numerous imperial bath complexes in the city of Rome. Baths were kept inexpensive to encourage public hygiene among all urban elements. Further amenities included sporting grounds or palaestrae, massage parlors, restaurants, lecture halls, and libraries. Seneca tells what it was like to live above a bathhouse, where one could hear, for weary hours, the slap of the masseur, the grunts of the exercisers, and the shouting of participants in the various games.
Illustration depicts activities within the bath.
The Roman baths facilitated economies of scale, enabling municipalities to direct water from distant watersheds through aqueducts to supply the hygenic needs of the population. A much used facility was undoubtedly the public latrine, shown here, where human waste could be flushed by a constant flow of water running throughout the building.