Public Baths and Bathing Habits in Late Antiquity

Sadi Maréchal, Ph.D. (2016), Ghent University, is post-doctoral researcher in Roman archaeology of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). He has published articles and book chapters on baths and bathing habits in the Roman Empire.

"This book will be a welcome reference resource to scholars interested in the intersection between society and the urban built environment in the Late Antique Roman world. [...] This is a work of reference which interested academics will find to be a welcome resource for understanding Late Antique built environments. Maréchal pays strict attention to space and time and casts a very wide net for the types of data catalogued in this volume. The eight urban case studies in particular offer a comprehensive view of Late Antique cities as spaces that constantly changed alongside the needs of their residents. Maréchal keeps his readers cognizant that this study covers well-trodden ground—indeed the introduction even opens with the question ‘Why Baths Again?’—but the study’s strengths lie in the meticulous manner in which the data has been collected. By assembling data from hundreds of archaeological reports, standardizing representations of their plans, supplementing them with maps and colour photographs, and summarizing their findings in English, this volume significantly increases accessibility for non-specialist scholars to all manner of evidence for one of the most defining features of life in Late Antique cities". Douglas Whalin, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, June 2021.

• ForewordList of IllustrationsAbbreviationsIntroductionWhy Baths Again?General Aims and Outline of the ResearchGeographical FrameworkChronological FrameworkMethodology and SourcesThe Structure of the BookNotes on TerminologyNotes on Abbreviations1 General Introduction to Roman Baths and Earlier Research on Late Antique BathsGeneral Introduction to Roman Baths and Bathing HabitsTechnology of the BathsThe Functioning of the Heating SystemWater Management of BathsDecorationPopularity of BathhousesEarlier Research on Late Antique Baths2 Written Evidence of BathsLate Antique LiteratureLegal DocumentsEpigraphic EvidencePapyrological Evidence3 Archaeological EvidenceIntroductionRomeOstiaCuiculThamugadiCarthageSufetulaPtolemaisScythopolisArchaeological Evidence of Early Hammams4 Continuity and Change in Late Antique Public Baths and Bathing HabitsArchitectureBath TechnologyPublic Baths and Their ContextsDecay or Continuity of Baths and Bathing HabitsEpilogue—The Transition to the HammamsGeneral Concluding Remarks and Prospects for Future ResearchAppendix 1: Late Antique Inscriptions Mentioning BathsIntroductionInscriptions from the Italian PeninsulaInscriptions from North AfricaInscriptions from PalestinaAppendix 2: Late Antique Papyri Mentioning BathsAppendix 3: Lists of Late Antique Baths, Possible Baths and Continued Use of BathsGlossaryBibliographyPrimary SourcesModern SourcesGazetteerIntroductionKey to the General PlansBaths in the Italian Peninsula, Sicily and SardiniaBaths in Roman North AfricaNew ConstructionBaths in CyrenaicaBaths in EgyptEcclesiastical BathsFortress BathsBaths in PalestinaIndexLate Antique Archaeology