Archaeologists at Pompeii have unearthed a vast and lavish private bathhouse thought to have been owned by a powerful politician who held business meetings at the site. The spa complex was found during excavations of a home on Via di Nola in Regio IX, a wealthy district of the destroyed ancient city.
According to a Pompeii statement, the complex is one of the largest intact private thermal spas to be discovered at the ancient site. “It's probably the biggest bath complex in a Pompeiian private home,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii archaeological park, told the BBC.
The bathhouse is divided into three pools: the caldarium (hot), the tepidarium (lukewarm) and the frigidarium (cold). Guests entered the caldarium first, then rubbed oil into their skin in the tepidarium and finally moved on to the frigidarium area. The latter is surrounded by frescoes of athletes and large enough to accommodate 20 to 30 people, the BBC reports. A changing room with benches and a mosaic floor also forms part of the thermal complex.
A Pompeii spokesperson confirms that the public can access the Regio IX excavation area in groups of up to 15 people. These ticketed tours are accompanied by construction site staff who explain the excavation methodology and discuss the recent findings including the private spa.
The bathhouse complex, part of a larger residence in Regio IX with a laundry and a bakery, may have been owned by Aulus Rustius Verus, an influential Pompeii politician, added Zuchtriegel. The complex is connected to a huge banqueting room with jet black walls known as the “black room”. This area of Regio IX, which is adorned with frescoes depicting characters inspired by the Trojan war, was revealed last year.
“The direct link between the thermal spaces to the large gathering room—the ‘black room’—indicates how the Roman house was a venue for lavish banquets [providing] key opportunities for the owner to secure the electoral consent of friends, promote the candidacy of friends or simply to assert his status,” says the Pompeii statement.
The 3,200 sq. m Regio IX site is one of nine neighbourhoods that make up the ancient city site, taking up an “entire block” of the doomed metropolis which was engulfed by volcanic ash in 79AD spewing from Mount Vesuvius.
The archaeologists involved in excavating Regio IX have been followed by a documentary team from the BBC and Lion TV for a series called Pompeii: The New Dig, which is currently available on BBC iPlayer.
