What are 3 things that attracted Romans to the baths?

Answer 1

The public baths were particularly useful for the poor who lived in the upper floors of the tenements blocks which had no running water and no cooking facilities. They only had small and overcrowded rooms where people could only sleep. The poor lived their lives outdoors, ate outdoors, and went to outdoors public toilets and the public baths. For the rich, going to the baths was part of their leisured lifestyle and a place where they could meet their clients and engage in intellectual pursuits. Since most Roman houses had no baths, their baths were public and had a communal character, acting as a place for socialising. It was a place people went to after the end of the working day, which was noon (the Romans worked from dawn to noon).

From the second century BC the baths were one of the main meeting points for people. They could be big monumental complexes s with many facilities. Friends met there, rich people met their clients, and group meals could be arranged. Politicians canvassed there. Poetry readings and oratory debates were held in dedicated rooms. People sent an average of two hours at the baths. Prior to bathing, people played sports and did exercises at the gym (the palaestra). People After bathing that they washed (this was separate), they had olive oil put on their body, and had their skin scraped with special metal scrapers (the stigril). Pumice and beech ash were used to treat the skin. Afterwards they had a massage which was done with perfumed ointments such almond oil and myrrh imported from the East and Egypt. In the smaller baths they did this in the tempdarium. In the larger baths there was a separate hall for this, the main hall. The bigger baths also had a swimming pool and a library (the baths of Caracalla has to pools, one for men and one for women, and two libraries a Latin one and a Greek one). The Romans believed that good health came from eating, bathing, massage and physical and mental exercise: mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy/sound mind in a healthy body). Therefore their baths provided for all of these.