The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-11

|
| distinction and fashion at her toilet.
The addiction of the Romans of all classes
! to the luxury of the bath, commenced in the
| latter years of the republic. During the
monarchy, and the early period of the repub-
! lie the Romans were accurtomed, after a dav
! employed in labor in the fields, to wash only
the arms and legs; and only on every ninth
! day. when they came to the city to be present
! in the assemblies on state business, they
bathed the entire body. At that period, the
Tiber and its tributary streams formed their
only bathing-places. Public and private
baths had not yet been established, and vapor
and hot baths were only known to them by
name.
The situation of the 'seven-hilled city,
presented great obstacles to the conveyance of
water to its interiors and it was not until its
wealth and engineering skill had considerably
progressed that the citizens, or the authori-
ties, attempted to surmount the difficulty. 1t
was about 441 years after the foundation of
Rome that water was first brought into 1T
from Tusculum, by means of an aqueduct
constructed by the censor Appius Claudius.
After this event, and consequent on it, other
auueducts were formed and baths or hermg.
as vet characterized by the older Roman sim,
plicity, were constructed in various parts of
the city. Towards the decline of the republic
came the practice of attaching baths to the
| gymnasia, followed by the fashion among ply
! sicians of employing them in the treatment of
! disease. From Shis period these structures
| rapidly increased in number, importance, and
establishment until, in the reign of Augustus,
! the Romans began to give to them that COM
| pleteness, extent, and magniiicence which is
| stin observable in their ruins.
1t was i'll the reign of Augustus that Mece-
mas first instituted a ''cdtidG piSctnd," or
swimming bath, supplied with warm water,
of a character somewhat similar to the tepid
swimming-bath at present existing in London
and Paris.
Public baths were now established by the
liberality of the State, to promote the health
and comfort of the citizens; and of such vast
ness and grandeur as to render them alto
gether the most remarkable structures of the
Romans The founders were princes who,
in their anxiety to conciliate the goodwill of
the people, endeavOred to surpass all that
had been executed before their time. Dffe-
rent authors reckon nearly eight hundred of
these baths or "therm@" in Rome, many of
them of a vastness and magnifcance which is
utterly astonishing. The most celebrated
were those of Agrippa, Antoninus, Caracalla,
Diocletan, Domltan, Nero, and Titus. The
exterior of these buildings, as well as their
internal arrangements and decorations, were of
the most costly, elegant, and elaborate de-
| scription. Their pavements were mosaic; the
ceilings vaulted, and richly gilded and painted;
and the walls were incrusted with the rarest
marbles. Precious vases, bronzes, columns,
and statues, from the chises of the greatest
masters, contributed to enhance their beauty
and attraction. IN beholding the designs of
the bas-reliefs and pictures which adorned the
walls and ceilings, eve are astonished at the
perfection of the objects which they represent,
and at the exquisite purity Of tasts which
= then prevailed in the arts. Much more than
: | this: we find ourselves forced TO acknowledge
that all the efforts Of modern art; in the deCQra-
9 ton of our palaces museums, and churches,
g are, in general, but servile limitations of the
= wonders which the baths of Agrippa, Nero,
! Titus, etc., offered near two thousand years
= ago, to the admiration of the Roman people.''
The Farnesan bull and the famous Hercules
found i'll one OF the halls of the tberma o
. Caracalla, and the LAGOON found in the baths
E of Titus, announce the multiplicity and beauty
of the statues which once adorned these cOlos
y salstructures.
t The baths of Diocetan, we are told, wer,
D.. capable of accommodating nearly two thou
sand bathers. Besides the vast basins it con
J., tanned three thousand recesses appropriated Il
4 the different baths. But, according to anOthe
J.; authority, "suppOsing each cell Cor recess) o
:. Diocletian's baths large enough to contain si1
!. people, even at this moderate computation
n $4,000 persons might be bathing there at tn
same time.' The same writer further asserts
Fl ON his own researches, that the baths @
Antoninus Caracalla were capable of supply
n | Ing 2,ZSO,JOU CuDlc 1eet OF not water. Allow
q ing, therefore, eight cubic feet of warm waite
/ as sufficient for one man to bathe in and tina
+ water preserved at a bathing heat in tn
" labrum for half an hour, there would be a sui
,s hcpnt quantity of water for three hours, 0
% until i'll the afternoon, for no less than 81
l. sets of bathels, each numbering $4,000 pei
,e sons, or los, COO persons in ALL
m 1t is difficult to enumerate all the variou
|, uses to which the Roman baths, or hermO
"a were devoted Besides the vast basins, an
); the thousands Of cells or recesses, more pa
al ticularly appropriated to the purposes of batl
a ing there were found there theatres, temples
At amphitheatres palaces, festive halls, va
in open promenades planted with trees, schoo
70 freouented by youth, academies where learne
70 persons assembled for discussion, halls whe1
- philosophers taught and lectured odeums Il
a. | poetical defamation and music, and hbrarl'
9s to which every one might freely resort.
II short, provision was there made for ever
vt species of polite and manly exercise al
nd | amusement.
10 THE FIRST TOILET.
ma The first "toilet' of man we may, with goC
wv reason. assume consisted in mere person
or ablution or bathing, followed occasionally
an | simple adjustment of the hair with the finger
or with some eXtelnporized implement, to ke,
no IL from falling over the face, to prevent
en- mating together, or to free it when entangle
let Soon repetition and convenience would rend
ri these operations habitual, and experience al
er- taste improve on them, and suggest Others
by a more complicated character. Then car
ore the Fall the use of dress and the expulsion
air our first parents from Eden. After the plC
m tration produced by this calamity had pass