Terme Taurine
| File:CivitavecchiaTermeTaurineParteImperialeCaldiarium2.jpg | |
| Location | Civitavecchia, Italy |
|---|---|
| Type | Bathhouse |
| Site notes | |
| Public access | Open |
Terme Taurine, also known as the Taurine Baths, is a large elaborate ancient Roman baths complex located about 4 km east of the city of Civitavecchia.[1][2] The baths were known as the Taurine Baths in reference to the nearby Ancient Roman village of Aquae Tauri.[3]
They are also known as the Baths of Trajan as they may form part of Trajan's villa of Centumcellae nearby,[4] due to their enormous size relative to the town and to their elaborate marble decoration.
The baths are now in an archaeological park.[2]
Contents
History
Terme Taurine was first established on a hill overlooking Civitavecchia during the Roman Republican era in 86 BC.[3] They were built over thermal sulphurous springs and were near to the Roman colony of Castrum Novum and the port of Centumcellae. They were also near to the earlier baths of the settlement of Aquae Tauri.
The complex was greatly expanded by Roman emperor Hadrian (117 - 138 AD) from 123 to 136 AD.[5] The baths became a popular stop-over site for visitors to the nearby port.[6][2]
Local legend held that the hot spring that the baths were fed by was created when a bull stamped his hoof on ground, causing hot water to spring forth.[7] More likely is that it was named after Titus Statilius Taurus, prefect of Rome and builder of the first amphitheatre there, who fought with Augustus at Actium and had a patron role.[8]
Rutilius Namatianus wrote in 416:[9]
There the wells are not spoiled by a brackish flavour, nor is the water coloured and hot with fuming sulphur: the pure smell and delicate taste make the bather hesitate for what purpose the waters should better be used
Terme Taurine remained in use until the mid 6th century, and Gregory the Great writes of them in 593.[10] The wars between the Goths and Byzantine Empire resulted in them being looted. Much of the marble walling of the baths was stripped off, and the baths fell into disuse. In 1770 the Papal States began to excavate parts of the site and built an Italian-style garden nearby, which can still be seen.[2]
The baths reopened to the public in 2020 after a brief period of restoration.[11] Local notables have proposed Terme Taurine be nominated as a UNESCO world heritage site.[12]
Notable visitors
During the reign of the Emperor Commodus, Aelius Lampridius recorded that the emperor, upon finding his bathwater lukewarm, had an attendant thrown into an oven while visiting Terme Taurine.[6][13] Roman Poet Rutilius Claudius Namatianus visited the baths in 416[14] and described them in his travelogue.[3]
The Site
The site has two separate large baths areas: the republican and the later imperial baths. The baths featured changing rooms, and hot and cold pools. Several of these pools and the mosaics adorning them can still be visited.
Republican baths
The republican baths were entered through an atrium with a mosaic floor depicting stars and diamonds. This led to the large exedra (semicircular hall) probably for changing and exercise, with the ‘small exedra’ adjacent to it. The oldest room of the baths was the adjacent domed round bath of the 2nd century BC originally fed by hot thermal water. Under Hadrian the bath was converted into a laconicum or sudatorium (dry heat bath) by supporting a new marble floor on brick columns for heating from below.[15]
These baths had a large additional suite of rooms which surrounded a peristyle garden with octagonal columns. On the west of the peristyle are many rooms paved with mosaic floors for various activities such as social and business meetings and therapeutic treatments.
The baths also once held a shrine to water nymphs, who were believed by the Romans to be the guardian spirits of underground springs.[2]
The caldarium was unusually divided with two rows of columns resembling a basilica, with a large, central, hot bath and with three smaller baths on the sides. Under Hadrian the columns were replaced and strengthened by embedded half-pillars to support a coffered vaulted roof.
Imperial baths
The adjacent imperial baths were even larger than the republican baths.
At the south side was a large suite of rooms for leisure and business activities and services. Between these and the baths was a library, a large room decorated with several kinds of marble and a porphyry floor. Marble columns separated niches in the walls containing shelves for the library scrolls and papers. Two side rooms were probably used as reading rooms with couches in the alcoves at the back.
There were also shops in the building.[3]
References
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- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Informational panel located at the Terme Taurine site, produced by the Universita Di Roma Departmento De Biologia and the Commune of Civitavecchia.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Anna Maria Reggiani, la Villa Pulcherimma, di Traiano a Centumcellae, doi: 10.1387/veleia.19438 p 138
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- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Heinz, W. (1986). Die ''Terme Taurine'' von Civitavecchia – ein römisches Heilbad. Antike Welt, 17(4), 22-43.
- ↑ Rutilius Namatianus, A Voyage Home to Gaul
- ↑ Anna Maria Reggiani, la VILLA PULCHERRIMA, di traiano a CENTUMCELLAE, doi: 10.1387/veleia.19438
- ↑ https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Rutilius_Namatianus/text*.html#ref48
- ↑ Gregory the Great, "Dialogues", Rome, AD 593/594
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- ↑ Historia Augusta. C 1, 9. - Historia Augusta Bd. 1, eingeleitet und übersetzt von E. Hohl, bearbeitet und übersetzt von E. Merten (1976) 138. - E. Mer-ten, Bäder und Badegepflogenheiten in der Darstel-lung der Historia Augusta (Antiquitas. Reihe 4, Bd. 16. 1983) 123.
- ↑ Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, De reditu suo 1.40 -42 and 237-248
- ↑ Luca Seidenari, The Terme Taurine near Civitavecchia https://www.romanports.org/en/articles/ports-in-focus/149-the-terme-taurine-nearby-civitavecchia.html#artikelen
