| Description The right side of this group formed part of a slab edge; a clamp hole survives along the lower right edge. A faint guideline runs from left to right across the upper two fragments, through the center of two rooms. Several walls are depicted; all are given particularly thick, outlined and recessed dimensions. By contrast, the size of the rooms they enclose is relatively small. At right, covering parts of all three fragments, is a rectangular room whose right wall curves out in the beginning of a shallow apse, just visible on the small fragment, 10w. This room's bottom wall, visible on the bottom fragment, 10y, is slightly curved outward at the center. At the bottom left corner of this room is a small doorway into another rectangular room at bottom left, this one with walls rendered with single lines. The long, very thick left wall of the central rectangular room is interruped at the middle by a doorway. This passage is almost entirely occupied by an outlined, recessed area in the shape of two semicircular lobes joined by a short, narrow leg. The architectural result within the central rectangular room is to create an apse with two doorways in it and a rectangular niche between them. Within the room on the left, the architectural result is a straight wall with two doorways in it. This left room, with a guideline running through its central axis, is bounded above and below by walls depicted as single lines. Above and beyond these walls lie outlined and recessed blocks, with additional square features added on. Parts of additional rectangular spaces are visible along the left edge of the fragment group.
Identification: Thermae Traiani L. Cozza was the first to identify these fragments as part of the central bathing block of the Baths of Trajan (Cozza 1968, pp. 20-21 and figs. 5-8). The thickness of the slab, veining of the marble, characteristics of the carving and of the features depicted persuaded him that this group belonged to the same slab as frs. 10a-s, slab VIII-3, and to this monument. The fragments' slab edge and highly visible guideline that traverses the entire bath complex (see frs. 10lm) provided evidence for the exact placement within the slab. (Comparison with the clamp holes on the wall itself could not be done in this case, because a modern window was punched through the brickwork at the critical point.) The location within slab VIII-3 allowed Cozza to identify the central rectangular room as the caldarium of the Baths, known only from 16th c. drawings, made when more of the building survived. The smaller room to the left is identified as the tepidarium. Other parts of the Baths are depicted in frs.
10i (missing),
10lm,
10opqr,
10s,
10z,
12
13q,
13r,
13s
(see AG 1980, pl. 8), and fr. 565 (see Rodríguez-Almeida 1994b).
This enormous bath complex was built between 104 and 109 CE by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus (Cassius Dio 69.4.1) on a great platform at the top of the Oppian Hill in Regio III (LTUR V, p. 67). Standing and excavated remains, combined with Renaissance drawings and the fragments of the FUR, tell us of their internal design (see LTUR V, figs. 42-43 for Piranesi's drawing of the remains and for a reconstruction that includes the actual remains). Like all the imperial thermae of Rome from at least the Baths of Titus onward (fr. 110), these were designed as a central bathing block within a large open space (ca. 300 x 216 m.) surrounded by a precinct wall that included additional rooms and architectural features. The bathing block proper was placed against the center of the NE precinct wall to give maximum sun exposure to the hot rooms, which were situated in a row along the SW side of the building (partly visible on fr. 10xwy)(LTUR V, p. 68). The bathing rooms were symmetrically duplicated on either side of a central axis, the line of which is faintly visible in the guideline on this fragment and on fr. 10lm. This central axis began at the monumental entrance in the NE wall and led directly into the natatio, depicted as a large, colonnaded square at the bottom right of fr. 10i. From there, this axis extended through a great central cruciform hall, not visible on the surviving fragments of the Plan, and finally into the tepidarium and the caldarium, seen on this fragment. Visitors could move off this central axis into suites of small rooms near the entrance, perhaps dressing rooms (see fr. 10i). Two elaborately built rotundae with curving walls that were interrupted at each corner by triple niches, probably filled with statuary (frs. 10i and 10z), may have been frigidaria. There were rectangular palaestrae as well, not visible on the surviving Plan fragments, and numerous smaller rooms throughout. Along the SW side of the bathing block, on either side of the caldarium, is a row of sunrooms, placed to take maximum advantage of the sun. The visitor might also turn left or right from the monumental entrance along a colonnaded passageway which led to a suite of rooms within the NE precinct wall and ultimately to the great hemicycles at the far ends. The northernmost hemicycle is depicted in frs. 10r, 10s, and 12. Fr. 10i depicts the southern hemicycle. These hemicycles are thought to have been monumental display fountains; they looked out onto the large open area that enclosed the bathing block on three sides. In these gardens were meeting rooms and libraries, the latter perhaps in the semicircular exedrae near the S and W corners of the outer wall, one of which survives to this day with two storeys of niches (LTUR V, p. 68). At the far end of this open area, at the center of the SW wall of the precinct, a vast hemicycle opened outward (frs. 13q and 13r). Seats around its curve suggest that this was a space for performances or athletic contests (Richardson 1992, p. 397). Staircases along the SW precinct wall and other minor entrances gave access to the Baths from multiple directions.
The Baths of Trajan were built on a massive platform supported by a series of vaulted tunnels; they covered much of the filled-in Esquiline wing of Nero's Golden House (domus Aurea), damaged in a fire in 104 CE and no longer in use. Some later sources refer to the emperor Domitian as the builder, but this is contradicted by the Trajanic brickstamps found in the complex, the building's unified design, and the epigraphic and textual evidence of the Baths' dedication in 109 CE (LTUR V, p. 67). The immense water supply needed was provided in part if not entirely by the aqua Traiana and distributed to the Baths from the huge nearby cistern, divided into nine long chambers and known as the Sette Sale (LTUR V, pp. 68-69; this is not depicted on the surviving fragments of the Plan). The Baths remained in use into the 4th and 5th c. CE; they may have been experiencing gradual abandonment even before their decisive ending in 537 CE when the aqueducts were cut by Vitigis' Ostrogothic army. In the 16th c. and later, the surviving remains on the Oppian were referred to indiscriminately as the Baths of Trajan and the Baths of Titus until R. Lanciani (BullCom 1895, pp. 110-115) disentangled this conflation (LTUR V, p. 67). Only one fragment of the Plan, fr. 110, has been associated thus far with the adjacent Baths of Titus.
Significance Along with the other fragments that depict the Baths of Trajan, this group is key to our knowledge of the architecture of this monument of which little remains; in addition, it gives us insight into the work of their architect, Apollodorus of Damascus (Cassius Dio 69.4.1) who also designed Trajan's Forum. Comparison to other imperial thermae on the Marble Plan (Baths of Agrippa in fr. 38 and Baths of Titus in fr. 110) shows great consistency in the rendering of the architecture of such buildings: Rooms are symmetrically arranged around the center axis; great hemicycles add variety to the otherwise rectilinear design, and the walls of the central bathing building proper are rendered with thick, recessed lines on the FUR. Whether these thick lines represent the thickness of the actual walls, or are merely symbolic renderings, is uncertain. The symmetrical and rectilinear architecture of these thermae forms a stark contrast to the small, irregular neighborhood baths, the balnea, usually hidden in crowded insulae. The difference must lie with the organic growth of small baths within already existing neighborhoods, as opposed to architecture designed for a blank space where preexisting buildings had been removed to give the imperial architects free reigns to design these gargantuan structures.
The Baths of Trajan fragments are also invaluable in clarifying the role complexes such as these played in the social life of Rome. Women as well as men used these Baths (LTUR V, p. 67 with reference), and the complex included not only the great central bathing block, but also gardens, probably libraries, a large semicircular area with seating that would have provided room to watch sports or performances, clubrooms and informal meeting rooms.
|
Prev
