The Baths of Trajan were built. on Esquiline hill ridge (Oppian) near the Baths of Titus, with a magnificent view of the. Colosseum. Remarkably, Trajan’s baths set a new standard for size and scale, comprising an area of 250 X 210 meters (followed by the Baths of Caracalla and Diocletian), and were built atop the remains of the Esquiline wing of Nero’s Golden House (Domus Aurea). Today, a few sections of the Baths of Trajan survive in a large. public park, which we can explore. The massive halls, libraries, and fountains disperse through the huge park give an idea of Trajan’s Baths, attributed to Apollodorus of Damascus. Behind it was the Sette Sale cistern (closed to the public).
THERMAE TRAIANI, built for Trajan by the Greek architect Apollodorus (Paus. v. 12. 6:ἀξιολογώτατά ἐστι λουτρὰ ἐπώνυμα αὐτοῦ καὶ θέατρον etc.; Kaibel, IGI 1055; Cass. Dio lxix. 4. 1:᾿Απολλόδωρον τὸν ἀρχιτέκτονα τὸν τὴνἀγορὰν καὶ τὸ ᾠδεῖον τό τε γυμνάσιον τὰ τοῦ Τραιανοῦ ποιήματα ἐντῇ ῾ρώμῃ κατασκευάσαντα, where γυμνάσιον probably refers to the thermae). These baths were immediately north-cast of the thermae Titi, and in the chronicle of S. Jerome (a. Abr. 2105) the thermae Titianae et Traianae are assigned to the reign of Domitian, which may perhaps indicate that the latter were planned by that emperor. Because of this statement these baths are mentioned in early church writings as thermae Domitianae (cf. LP xxxiv. 33; liii. 9; Mel. 1886, 3-4; BC 1886, 245; Mon. L. i. 484-485). In Trajan’s time they were used by women (Chron. 146:hoc imperatore mulieres in thermis Traianislaverunt); little images (sigillaria) were exposed for sale in the porticus of the thermae in the last days of the Saturnalia (which were sometimes called Sigillaria from this practice; see SIGILLARIA) (Schol. ad Iuv. 6. 154); they are mentioned incidentally in inscriptions (vi. 9797=AL 29. 4; 8677, 8678); and in the fourth or fifth century they were adorned with statues by Iulius Felix Campanianus, prefect of the city (CIL vi. 1670). The correct name was attached to the gradually diminishing ruins until about the sixteenth century, when it was displaced by the incorrect name, thermae Titianae.
Part of these baths is represented on a fragment of the Marble Plan (109; cf. Lanciani quoted by Gatti, BC 1886, 272-274), and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries drawings and plans were made of the existing ruins-the most important being those in the Destailleur collection in Berlin1 (cf. Mitt. 1892, 302-304; HJ 313, n. 72). By the end of the eighteenth century most of these ruins had been destroyed, and the principal remains now visible belong to the exedrae at the north-east and south-west corners of the east palestra. These baths were in Region III (Not.), on the Esquiline, just south-east of the present church of S. Pietro in Vincoli. They were within the precinct of the domus Aurea, a considerable part of which was destroyed or buried beneath them. From information at hand it is possible to reconstruct their plan in its main features (see LF pls. 23, 30; LR, fig. 138 (text fig. 7)). These thermae marked an intermediate stage between the earlier and later type, in that the central complex of buildings was partly surrounded, on the east, west, and south sides, by a peribolus which contained reading rooms, gymnasia, and exedrae at the four corners. On the north side there was no enclosure, but the facade of the building with the main entrance in the middle. The frigidarium, central hall, tepidarium, and caldarium 2 were arranged in the usual order from north to south in the centre of the main structure, with apodyteria or dressing-rooms, open courts or palaestrae surrounded with colonnades in the middle of the east and west sides, and the usual number of small baths and rooms for various purposes. From the middle of the peribolus on the south side, a very large exedra projected outward which served as a theatre. This exedra was built over part of the domus Aurea, and in order to provide sufficiently strong foundations for the cavea of the theatre, additional walls were built through the chambers of the domus, some corresponding with the walls of these chambers, and others with the orientation of the baths themselves. The axis of the domus runs north and south, while that of the thermae runs north-east and south-west at an angle of 30 degrees from the meridian. The extreme measurements of the baths are 340 metres in width and 330 in depth, or, excluding the exedral projections, 280 by 210 metres.
Presumably Trajan adorned his baths with works of art, and many traces have been found in this precinct and its immediate vicinity, but their exact provenience is difficult to ascertain. The Laokoon group was found in 1506 in a hall3 between the thermae and the Sette Sale (probably in the domus Aurea, which in Pliny’s time was called the house of Titus; see DOMUS TITI). It may have been set up in the thermae by Trajan, but it seems far more likely that it was actually found in the domus Aurea (for excavations and discussions, see LS ii. 222-228; LR 368; NS 1885, 474; Weege in Jahrb. d. Inst. 1913, 201-239; for the thermae in general, HJ 310-314; LR 367-369; Gilb. iii. 297; ZA 133-144; 4for restorations, D’Esp. Mon. ii. 155-159; for the decoration of the exedrae, RA 117; and for the mediaeval churches in or near the thermae, see AD TAURUM).
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Cite this page as: Darius Arya, The American Institute for Roman Culture, “Baths of Trajan” Ancient Rome Live. Last modified 02/21/2020. https://ancientromelive.org/baths-of-trajan/
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