page_title: Thermae
section_title: Location
hierarchical_section_title: Thermae / Location
caption_attribution_description: Historical Reconstruction of the Roman Baths in Weißenburg, Germany, using data from laser scan technology. These baths are a major remnant of the local Roman garrison, vicus Biriciana, whose duty was to protect the northern border of the province Rhaetia (Upper Germanic Rhaetian Limes). The baths that served the garrison, dating from 90 BCE to 259 CE, are located at the edge of the modern city of Weißenburg in Bavaria. Discovered in 1977, they are among the very few such Roman archaeological remains to be preserved on German soil. This historic restoration is based on what the Roman Baths of Weißenburg would have looked like in their final phase of functionality. Smoke rises where slaves fanned the fires from small pits in front of the air shafts, using wood and charcoal, and the hot air escaped into the two lukewarm baths. The baths were heated day and night, as it would have taken several days to reheat a bath once it had cooled down.
context_page_description: In ancient Rome, thermae and balneae were facilities for bathing. Thermae usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while balneae were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout Rome.
  Most Roman cities had at least one – if not many – such buildings, which were centres not only for bathing, but socializing and reading as well. Bath-houses were also provided for wealthy private villas, town houses, and for forts. They were supplied with water from an adjacent river or stream, or within cities by aqueduct. The water would be heated by fire then channelled into the caldarium. The design of baths is discussed by Vitruvius in De architectura.
context_section_description: Baths sprang up all over the empire. Where natural hot springs existed (as in Bath, England; Băile Herculane, Romania or Aquae Calidae near Burgas and Serdica, Bulgaria) thermae were built around them. Alternatively, a system of hypocausta (from hypo "below" and kaio "to burn") were utilised to heat the piped water from a furnace (praefurnium).
caption: Virtual historical reconstruction of the Roman Baths in Weißenburg, Germany, using data from laser scan technology
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