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WATER AND BATHING:
THE STABIAN BATHS
P
ublic bathing was a daily leisure activity for many Pompeians, and the baths
were a place for exercise, pampering, and social gatherings with friends.
The Stabian Baths, the oldest of five public bath complexes in the city, were
built sometime after 125 b.c. and occupied a prime location at the intersec-
tion of two main thoroughfares. Around the turn of the first century a.d.,
the baths were supplied for the first time with running water from the public
aqueduct. Water had previously come from a well that supplied a reservoir on
the complex’s roof. “This caused a major revolution in bathing culture,” says
archaeologist Monika Trümper of the Free University of Berlin, who leads
ongoing excavations of the baths. Renovations of the Stabian Baths at the time
introduced amenities such as a cold-water pool, a hot bath, running fountains,
and heated walls and floors in the complex’s warm and hot rooms.
Rebuilding efforts undertaken after the earthquake that struck Pompeii in
a.d. 62 made the Stabian Baths an even more luxurious space. In addition to
necessary repairs, Trümper explains, the complex was again completely remod-
eled, enlarged, and embellished with new decoration to match the state-of-the-
art standards set by the Central Baths, which were under construction nearby.
A swimming pool and decorative fountains were added, along with new shops
on the building’s street front. “The earthquake was the chance to rebuild the
city,” Trümper says, “and to modernize bathing facilities in grand style.”Women’s hot bath, Stabian BathsWater tower