Baths of Constantine (Rome)
Baths of Constantine (Latin - Thermae Constantinianae) was a public bathing complex built on the Quirinal Hill in Rome by Constantine I, probably before 315[1].
History
The last of Rome's bath complexes, they were built in the irregular space between the vicus Longus, the Alta Semita, the clivus Salutis and the vicus laci Fundani, and as this was on a side-hill, it was necessary to make an artificial level, beneath which the ruins of houses of the second, third and fourth centuries have been found [2]. Because of these peculiar conditions these thermae differed in plan from all others in the city - no anterooms were provided on either side of the caldarium, for instance, since the building was too narrow. The building was oriented north-south so as to heat it using the sun, with principal entrances on the west side, with a flight of steps down from the hill's summit to the campus Martius, and on the middle of the north side.
As the main structure occupied all the space between the streets on the east and west, the ordinary peribolus was replaced by an enclosure across the front which was bounded on the north by a curved line, an area now occupied by the Palazzo della Consulta. The frigidarium seems to have had its longer axis north and south instead of east and west, and behind it were tepidarium and caldarium both circular in shape.
The baths suffered greatly from fire and earthquake in the century after their construction and were restored in 443 by the city prefect Petronius Perpenna Magnus Quadratianus [3], at which time it is probable that the colossal statues of the Dioscuri and horses, now in the Piazza del Quirinale, were set up within them.[4] The only other reference to these baths in ancient literature is in Ammianus Marcellinus[5], though they are mentioned in Eins. 1.10; 3.6; 7.11.
Rediscovery
Enough of the structure was standing at the beginning of the sixteenth century to permit of plans and drawings by the architects of that period, and these are the chief sources of our knowledge of the building.[6] The remains were almost entirely destroyed in 1605‑1621 during the construction of the Palazzo Rospigliosi, but some traces were found a century later [7], and since 1870.[8]
Art-works
Some notable works of art have been found on the site of these thermae, among them
- the bronze statues of boxer and athlete now in the National Roman Museum
- two statues of Constantine, one now housed in the pronaos of the Lateran, and the other in the Capitoline Museums with a statue of his son Constans[9]
- some frescoes, in the Palazzo Rospigliosi until c.1929[10] and now in the Museo delle Terme - these belong to an earlier building, perhaps the Domus Claudiorum.
Sources
- For the thermae in general, see HJ 438‑441; RhM 1894, 389‑392; Jord. II.526‑528; Gilb. III.300; RE IV.962‑963; Reber 496‑500; Canina Ed. iv. pls. 220‑222; Mem. L. 5.xvii.534, 535.
- [1], from Platner's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome
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- ^ Aur. Vict. Caes. 40: a quo ad lavandum institutum opus ceteris haud multo dispar; Not. Reg. VI
- ^ BC 1876, 102‑106; cf. also Domus T. Avidii Quieti (b), Muciani
- ^ CIL VI.1750
- ^ Mitt. 1898, 273‑274; 1900, 309‑310
- ^ xxvii.3.8: cum collecta plebs infima domum prope Constantinianum lavacrum iniectis facibus incenderat
- ^ See especially Serlio, Architettura iii.92;1 Palladio, Le Terme, pl. XIV.; Dupérac, Vestigii, pl. 32; LS III.196‑197; Ant. van den Wyngaerde, BC 1895, pls. VI.-xiii.; HJ 439, n131
- ^ BC p5261895, 88; HJ 440, n133
- ^ NS 1876, 55, 99; 1877, 204, 267; 1878, 233, 340
- ^ CIL VI.1148‑1150; MD 1346; HF I. p411
- ^ Matz-Duhn 4110; PBS VII.40‑44; Mitt. 1911, 149