Cogitatio, inventio e natura loci. I progetti dei balnea in età tardoantica nel paesaggio urbano di Roma e Ostia

Abstract

From the Cataloghi Regionari we know that at the beginning of the 4th century, in addition to the public thermae, there were hundreds of balnea in the city of Rome. Privately owned baths, identifiable by dimensions, accessibility and other indicators, were either used privately by the élite in their domus, or open to the public in the case of so the called balnea meritoria, or even used by collegia. During recent investigations, more than forty ‘private’ baths of Rome and Ostia built or still in use in Late Antiquity (late 3rd-6th century) had been studied in detail and classified by their location, date, dimensions, accessibility and buildings techniques as well as ornamental features (Giovanetti 2015-2016). Stemming from published contexts, as well as archival research, surveys and written sources, this paper focuses on the design of late antique balnea found in both cities. Architectural koinè and the common language that shaped and characterized the design of ‘private’ baths in the 4th century will be highlighted. In addition to the recycling of materials and the re-use of buildings, in fact repeated elements like the sizes of rooms, design of bathtubs or entire bath plans are an indication that they were constructed by the same workers or that building plans must have circulated. From the 5th century onwards, thermae and balnea are increasingly abandoned. Although a few smaller new baths continued to be built in ecclesiastical spaces, they are characterised by different features and built in an altered socio-economic frame.