Valeria, the Martyr of the Catacombs: A Tale of Early Christian Life in Rome

by W. H. Withrow

  CHAPTER XV

  AT THE BATHS.

  Nothing can give one a more striking conception of Roman life under theEmpire than the size, number, and magnificence of the public baths.Those of Caracalla are a typical example. They covered an area offifteen hundred by twelve hundred and fifty feet, the surroundinggrounds being a mile in circumference. They formed a perfect wildernessof stately halls, and corridors, and chambers, the very moulderingremains of which strike one with astonishment. Of this very structure,the poet Shelley, in the preface of his "Prometheus Unbound," remarks:"This poem was chiefly written upon the mountainous ruins of the Bathsof Caracalla, among the flowery glades and thickets of odoriferousblossoming trees, which are extended in ever-widening labyrinths uponits immense platforms, and dizzy arches suspended in the air." Piers ofsold masonry soar aloft like towers, on the summit of which good-sizedtrees are growing. Climbing one of those massive towers, the presentwriter enjoyed a glorious sunset-view of the mighty maze, of thecrumbling ruins which rose like stranded wrecks above the sea of verdureall around, and of the far spreading and desolate Campagna.

  The great hypocausts, or subterranean furnaces, can be still examined,as also the caleducts in the walls for hot air, and the metal pipes forhot and cold water. The baths were supplied by an aqueduct constructedfor that purpose, the arches of which may be seen bestriding theCampagna for a distance of fourteen miles from the city. There were hot,and cold, and tepid baths, _caldaria_, or sweating chambers,_frigidaria_, or cooling rooms, _unctoria_, or anointing rooms, and manyothers sufficient to accommodate sixteen hundred bathers at once. Therewere also a vast gymnasium for exercise, a _stadium_, or race-course,and a _pinacotheca_, or art gallery. Here were found the famous FarneseBull, the largest group of ancient statuary extant, and many _chefsd'oeuvre_ of classic sculpture and mosaics.

  The Baths of Diocletian, built by the labours of the Christians duringthe last great persecution, one authority says, were twice as large, andcould accommodate eighteen thousand bathers in a day, but that seemsincredible. One of its great halls, a hundred yards by thirty in area,and thirty yards high, was converted by Michael Angelo into a church. Ofthe remainder, part is used as a monastery, part as barracks, and partas an orphanage, a poor-house, and an asylum for the blind, and much isin ruins. At Pompeii is a public bath in perfect preservation, with theniches for the clothing, soaps, and unguents of the bathers, and eventhe _strigils_, or bronze instruments for scraping the skin--the sameafter eighteen hundred years as though used but yesterday. By thesemeans we are able to reconstruct the outward circumstances of that oldRoman life, almost as though we had shared its busy movement.

  As Ligurius Rufus drew aside the heavy matting of the doorway of theTherm[ae], of Caracalla, which then, as now, kept out the summer heat fromthe buildings of Rome, a busy scene burst upon his view. A great hall,lighted by openings in the roof, was filled with gay groups of patricianRomans, sauntering, chatting, laughing, exchanging news, betting on thenext races, and settling bets on the last. As the modern clubman goes tohis club to see the papers and learn the current gossip, so all theidlers in Rome came to the baths as to a social exchange, to learn thelatest bit of court scandal or public news.

  "Ho, Calphurnius!" said Rufus, to the now sobered son of the cityPrefect; "what's in the wind to-day? You know all the mischief that'sgoing."

  "Sorry I cannot maintain my reputation then. Things are dull as an old_strigil_. Oh, by the way," and he beckoned them into a recess behind aporphyry pillar, "there is going to be a precious row up at the palace.I tell you in confidence. The old vixen, Fausta, has got a new spiteagainst the Empress Valeria, whom all the people of the palace love. Thetermagant is not fit to carry water for her bath. She has found somemare's nest of a Christian plot,--by the way you are mixed up in it,friend Isidorus. I would advise you to have a care. In the fight ofPagan against Christian, I fear Valeria will get the worst of it, _diiavertant_."

  "The palace walls are not glass," laughed Isidorus, "nor have you aDionysius' ear. How know you all this?"

  "As if the Roman Prefect did not know what goes on, that he thinks worthknowing, in every house in Rome! He has eyes and ears in his payeverywhere; and when honest Juba, or Tubal, come with their secretintelligence, they are not above accepting double pay and letting meinto the secret, too. Besides that crafty old vulture Furca was closetedwith the Prefect for an hour by the clepshydra, and you always smellcarrion when he is hovering round."

  "What is it all about?" asked Rufus. "I am sure Valeria is as muchbeloved by the people as the old termagant Fausta is hated."

  "There's the rub--a bit of spiteful jealousy," answered Calphurnius."But when that old basilisk hates, she will find a way to sting."

  "But what have I to do with the quarrels of the palace?" asked Isidorus,a little anxiously, for he knew not how far he might be compromised bythe commission he had executed, of which he had felt not a little proud.

  "You know best yourself," answered Calphurnius with a laugh. "If youhave done a service to Valeria or the Christians, you have made an enemyof Fausta and the Pagans."

  "Is this what you spoke of last night, and promised to explain to-day?"asked the Greek.

  "Yes, I suppose so. I have no very distinct recollection of what I said.I had been supping with Rufus here, and some other roystering blades,and the Folernian was uncommonly good. Come, _amicus meus_," he went onturning to Ligurius, "don't you want revenge for those sesterces youlost last night?"

  "I don't mind if I do punish you a little," yawned the young soldier."It will kill the time for awhile, at all events."