Greek Bath

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Warm, soothing, enjoyable. Those words describe the amazing, beautiful, and absolutely relaxing experience that we like to call a bath. However, this wasn’t always such a clean, fun, and satisfying event. The Greeks originally derived the idea of public bathing, and the Roman’s took the art and tried to fine tune it.Baths were actually similar to a form of a business such a grocery store or a daily event. Many people would gather and bathe together in buildings called thermae’s, and because baths were public, they were a cesspool for disease, a place for social activity, and a huge architectural achievement. Normally the idea of a bath would seem sanitary, and the Roman’s actually thought so. However, public baths were actually one of the worst contributors to death during the time that they …show more content…

It was even a place for business meetings and much more The Scribe supports this when written, “It was not uncommon for people to meet at the baths to make social plans, or to use the baths to find an audience for political speeches” (Scribe). It was actually a very brilliant part for the business men and politicians because they could scout out people to support their businesses, and politicians could recruit people to their side. Romans also could enjoy a number of activities in these buildings which another factor to realize why baths were such a social event. There was often gyms in the bathhouses called the Palaestra, where the activities would include, “weight lifting, ball games, wrestling and boxing…gambling with dice and various board games were available for the less energetic” (The Roman Bath). Nobody really had any reason to leave when there was so much to do at the bathouse. Many times, there was also food available to buy. While there was tons available to do at these baths, it also took a lot of time and effort to build

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