Mayer Luigi. Aqueduct near Belgrade. 1810/Wikimedia Commons
Ancient cities were surprisingly very much like their modern counterparts in terms of comfort and convenience. While these amenities were mainly designed for the wealthy with fat wallets, even the owners of thin wallets could make themselves comfortable. One such luxury was the availability of hot water. In ancient Rome, ingenious heating systems and a vast network of public baths ensured that this comfort was within reach for many—let’s find out more!
The ancient Romans were very fond of bathing, and baths (thermae) were amongst the most popular public places in the empire. The furnaces at most baths were heated around the clock, and hot and cold pools were always available for exercise-weary guests.
Josef Theodor Hansen. Tepidarium at the Forum baths in Pompeii. 1884/Wikimedia Commons
The Romans were also very fond of wearing togas, the only garment worthy of a true citizen of Rome, a large white cloth wrapped around a tunic/shirt, which was also white. All this snow-white splendor needed to be washed regularly, and that’s why Rome had as many laundries as baths. The proud owner of a toga could live in an ordinary dwelling (called an insula, meaning ‘island’), where water (even cold water) had to be carried in jugs from a public spring. With such a water supply system, public places for washing and laundry were the only option, and the maintenance of the water pipes, baths, and laundries (as well as the public kitchens used by the inhabitants of the same insulae, where it was often impossible to cook food) was a constant concern of the authorities, whether in republican or imperial Rome.
Villa Boscoreale. 50-40 BC/Wikimedia commons
However, the wealthy owners of private homes had no such problems. They received water through special pipes, which were separately paid for, leading directly into the house. They also used boilers, similar to modern boilers, to heat the water.
This illustration shows a well-preserved boiler from the Villa della Pisanella, and it was excavated in Boscoreale.i
Boscoreale was once a thriving suburb of Pompeii. It was buried under volcanic ash during the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The boiler was first built sometime in the early Christian era and was located in a semi-basement boiler room, which the Romans called a praefurnium. Water flowed into the boiler through a pipe, and the boiler was heated by a stove. The hot water and air from the boiler were then used to warm the house through a system called a hypocaust,i A hypocaust is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room. which was like a less efficient version of modern steam heating.