244 Deliyannis
aqueducts at Rome and Naples were cut during the Gothic Wars; at Naples he
says that the Neapolitans didn’t mind as they had wells inside the walls.61
In the letter to the landowners of Ravenna, Cassiodorus includes a state-
ment explaining the importance of having running water in a city:62
Then there will be a suitable maintenance of the baths, then the pools
will swell with glass-like waves, then the water will cleanse, not stain, and
it will not be always necessary to rewash things... if sweet water for
drinking shall flow in, all that is used in our food will be better, since no
food seems pleasing to human life where clear sweet water is lacking.While we know little about washing and cooking in Ostrogothic Italy, we do
have some evidence for bathing.63 As usual we can start with the Variae, which
mention public baths at several cities. At Ravenna, as we have just seen, a
proper water supply allowed the baths to be maintained. At Spoleto Theoderic
subsidized the admission fees to the public baths for the people’s health.64 At
Abano, where there were natural hot springs, he sent money to pay for the
repair of the baths built around them.65 The mirabilis magnitudo thermarum
is noted as an example of the glory of Rome,66 so at least some of them must
have been still functioning in the 5th and 6th centuries, and indeed tiles with
Theoderic’s name were used to repair the Baths of Caracalla.67 The Anonymus
Valesianus tells us that Theoderic built baths at Verona and Pavia.68 And finally,
we know that the Porta Marina baths in Ostia were restored under Theoderic,
because excavations there found brick stamps containing his name.69
61 BG 5.8 (Naples) and 5.19 (Rome). See Coates-Stephens, “ Walls and Aqueducts”, especially
pp. 171–3.
62 Variae 5.38: “Tunc erit exhibitio decora thermarum, tunc piscinae vitreis fontibus fluc-
tuabunt: tunc erit quae diluat aqua, non inquinet, post quam lavari continuo non sit
necesse.... si ad potandum unda suavis influxerit, omnia nostro victui redduntur accepta,
quando humanae vitae nullus cibus gratus efficitur, ubi aquarum dulcium perspicuitas
non habetur.”
63 Variae 6.6 also notes that Rome’s aqueducts feed the baths.
64 Variae 2.37; he mentions these baths again in another letter about the city (4.24).
65 Variae 2.39; later (9.6) Athalaric sends an official on vacation to the hot baths at Baiae and
Theodahad (10.29) sends another to the hot springs of Bormio.
66 Variae 11.29.
67 Pani Ermini, “Forma urbis e renovatio murorum”, pp. 220–2; Arnold, Theoderic, p. 223.
68 Anonymus Valesianus 71.
69 Boin, Ostia in Late Antiquity, pp. 48–50.