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Baths of Diocletian

 
Baths of Diocletian

 
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The Baths of Diocletian (Thermae Diocletiani) in Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 were the grandest of the public baths, or thermae
Thermae

The terms balnea or thermae were the words the Ancient Rome used for the buildings housing their public baths.Most Roman cities had at least one, if not many, such buildings, which were centers of public bathing and socialization....
 built by successive emperors.






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Santa Maria Degli Angeli E Dei Martiri
San Bernardo Alle Terme Facciata
The Baths of Diocletian (Thermae Diocletiani) in Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 were the grandest of the public baths, or thermae
Thermae

The terms balnea or thermae were the words the Ancient Rome used for the buildings housing their public baths.Most Roman cities had at least one, if not many, such buildings, which were centers of public bathing and socialization....
 built by successive emperors. Diocletian
Diocletian

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from November 20, 284 to May 1, 305....
's Baths, dedicated in 306
306

Events...
, were the largest and most sumptuous of the imperial baths and remained in use until the aqueducts that fed them were cut by the Goths
Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
 in 537
537

Events...
. Similar in size and plan to those
Baths of Caracalla

The Baths of Caracalla were Ancient Rome public baths, or thermae, built in Rome between AD 212 and 216, during the reign of the Caracalla....
 of Caracalla
Caracalla

Caracalla , born Lucius Septimius Bassianus and later called Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus, was the eldest son of Septimius Severus and Roman Emperor from 211 – 217....
 and oriented to the southwest so that solar energy heated the caldarium
Caldarium

A Caldarium was a room with a hot plunge bath, used in a Roman bath complex.This was a very hot and steamy room heated by a hypocaust, an underfloor heating system....
 without affecting the frigidarium
Frigidarium

A frigidarium is a large cold pool to drop into after enjoying a hot Thermae. The Caldarium and the Tepidarium opened the pores of the skin. The cold water would close the pores....
, they are well preserved because various parts later were converted to ecclesiastical or other use, including:

  • Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri
    Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

    The Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs is a titular basilica churches of Rome, built inside the frigidarium of the Baths of Diocletian....
     (in the tepidarium
    Tepidarium

    The tepidarium was the warm bathroom of the thermae heated by a hypocaust or underfloor heating system.The specialty of a tepidarium is the pleasant feeling of constant radiant heat which directly affects the human body from the walls and floor....
    ), whose three soaring transept vaults provide one of the few glimpses of the original splendor of Roman building
  • the church of San Bernardo alle Terme
    San Bernardo alle Terme

    San Bernardo alle Terme is a basilica churches of Rome Rome.The church was built in 1598 in one of the tower-shape spheristerium of the external perimeter of the Baths of Diocletian....
     (in one of the two circular rooms)
  • in the main hall, part of the Museo Nazionale Romano
    National Museum of Rome

    The National Museum of Rome is a set of museums in Rome, Italy, split between various branches across the city. It was founded in 1889 and inaugurated in 1890, during the Risorgimento, with the aim of collecting antiquities from between the 5th century BC to the 3rd century AD....
     (National Roman Museum)
  • the 'octagonal aula', also now part of the National Roman Museum.


Other remains of the baths are visible several streets away.

Compared to the Baths of Caracalla

The Baths of Diocletian accommodated 3,000 bathers, almost twice as many as the Baths of Caracalla, being approximately twice its size.

See also

  • Baths of Caracalla
    Baths of Caracalla

    The Baths of Caracalla were Ancient Rome public baths, or thermae, built in Rome between AD 212 and 216, during the reign of the Caracalla....
  • Baths of Titus
    Baths of Titus

    The Baths of Titus were public baths built in Rome in 81 by Emperor Titus.The baths sat in the base of the Esquiline hill, an area of parkland and luxury gardens which had been taken over by Nero for his Golden House or Domus Aurea....
  • Baths of Trajan
    Baths of Trajan

    The Baths of Trajan, begun in AD 104 and dedicated during the Kalends of July in 109, were a massive Ancient Rome thermae and leisure complex, built in Rome....
  • List of Roman domes
    List of Roman domes

    This is a List of Roman domes. The Ancient Rome were the first builder in the history of architecture to relise the potential of domes for the creation of large and well-defined interior spaces....
  • Diocletian window
    Diocletian window

    Diocletian windows, also called thermal windows, are large semicircular windows which are usually divided into three lights by two vertical mullions....
     (Thermal window)


External links

  • at Encyclopaedia Romana
  • , article in Platner's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome
  • of the baths.