n an apartment with six
doors, but the ancients, who were better seasoned than we are, were not
afraid of currents of air. While a slave takes your clothing and your
sandals, and another, the _capsarius_, relieves you of your jewels,
which he will deposit in a neighboring office, look at the apartment;
the cornice ornamented with lyres and griffins, above which are ranges
of lamps; the arched ceiling forming a semicircle divided off in white
panels edged with red, and the white mosaic of the pavement bordered
with black. Here are stone benches to sit down upon, and pins fixed in
the walls, where the slave hangs up your white woollen toga and your
tunic. Above there is a skylight formed of a single very thick pane of
glass, and, firmly inclosed within an iron frame, which turns upon two
pivots. The glass is roughened on one side to prevent inquisitive people
from peeping into the hall where we are. On each side of the window some
reliefs, now greatly damaged, represent combats of giants.

Here you are, as nude as an antique statue. Were you a true Roman, you
would now step into an adjoining cabinet which was the anointing place
(_elaethesium_), where the anointing with oil was done, and, after that,
you will go and play tennis in the court, which was reached by a
corridor now walled up. The blue vault was studded with golden stars.
But you are not a true Roman; you have come hither simply to take a hot
or a cold bath. If a cold one, pass on into the small room that opens at
the end of the hall. It is the _frigidarium_.

This _frigidarium_ or _natatio_ is a circular room, which strikes you at
the outset by its excellent state of preservation. In the middle of it
is hollowed out a spacious round basin of white marble, four yards and a
half in diameter by about four feet in depth; it might serve
to-day--nothing is wanting but the water, says Overbeck. An inside
circular series of steps enabled the Pompeians to bathe in a sitting
posture. Four niches, prepared at the places where the angles would be
if the apartment were square, contained benches where the bathers
rested. The walls were painted yellow and adorned with green branches.
The frieze and pediment were red and decorated with white bas-reliefs.
The vault, which was blue and open overhead, was in the shape of a
truncated cone. It was clear, brilliant, and gay, like the antique life
itself.

Do you prefer a warm bath? Retrace your steps and, from the
_apodyteros_,