The finding, in 1727, of the gilded bronze head of the Roman goddess Minerva during the construction of the famous Stall Street led to the discovery of the Roman temple and of the baths. Since then archaeologists have discovered more and more about the Roman city of Aquae Sulis. In this new edition of a work first published almost thirty years ago, Professor Cunliffe brings the story right up to date. He deals in detail with the temple and its precinct and with the 'curse tablets' which have been deciphered to reveal the thoughts of Roman visitors. He then explains just how the bathing establishment was organized and explores the relationship between the spa and the town. We learn what life was like for the local inhabitants as well as for the visitors. Finally, he charts the process of decline and decay during the 300 years after the Roman period.
The Romans developed sophisticated methods for managing hygiene, including aqueducts for moving water from one place to another, sewers for removing used water from baths and runoff from walkways and roads, and public and private latrines. Through the archeological record, graffiti, sanitation-related paintings, and literature, Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow explores this little-known world of bathrooms and sewers, offering unique insights into Roman sanitation, engineering, urban planning and development, hygiene, and public health. Focusing on the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia, and Rome, Koloski-Ostrow's work challenges common perceptions of Romans' social customs, beliefs about health, tolerance for filth in their cities, and attitudes toward privacy. In charting the complex history of sanitary customs from the late republic to the early empire, Koloski-Ostrow reveals the origins of waste removal technologies and their implications for urban health, past and present.
In Gardens of the Roman Empire, the pioneering archaeologist Wilhelmina F. Jashemski sets out to examine the role of ancient Roman gardens in daily life throughout the empire. This study, therefore, includes for the first time, archaeological, literary, and artistic evidence about ancient Roman gardens across the entire Roman Empire from Britain to Arabia. Through well-illustrated essays by leading scholars in the field, various types of gardens are examined, from how Romans actually created their gardens to the experience of gardens as revealed in literature and art. Demonstrating the central role and value of gardens in Roman civilization, Jashemski and a distinguished, international team of contributors have created a landmark reference work that will serve as the foundation for future scholarship on this topic. An accompanying digital catalogue will be made available at: www.gardensoftheromanempire.org.
This ambitious book investigates a major yet underexplored nexus of themes in Roman cultural history: the evolving tropes of enclosure, retreat and compressed space within an expanding, potentially borderless empire. In Roman writers' exploration of real and symbolic enclosures - caves, corners, villas, bathhouses, the 'prison' of the human body itself - we see the aesthetic, philosophical and political intersecting in fascinating ways, as the machine of empire is recast in tighter and tighter shapes. Victoria Rimell brings ideas and methods from literary theory, cultural studies and philosophy to bear on an extraordinary range of ancient texts rarely studied in juxtaposition, from Horace's Odes, Virgil's Aeneid and Ovid's Ibis, to Seneca's Letters, Statius' Achilleid and Tacitus' Annals. A series of epilogues puts these texts in conceptual dialogue with our own contemporary art world, and emphasizes the role Rome's imagination has played in the history of Western thinking about space, security and dwelling.
This volume is the outcome of the first conference to take place on the topic of Greek baths and bathing culture, a central but hitherto neglected area in the field of ancient studies. Fifteen papers by an international group of archaeologists, art historians and ancient historians discuss Greek bathing culture from a socio-historical and cultural-anthropological perspective, resulting in a comprehensive reassessment that elucidates the sophistication of both the architecture and the culture of bathing throughout the Greek world. Individual papers examine bathing in the context of science, medicine and the cultural discourses coded in images on vases, while the majority focus on the archaeological evidence itself, as the crucial component in this reassessment that removes Greek baths from the traditional category of 'primitive predecessors' to Roman baths. From Greece and Egypt in the east, to Sicily, southern Italy and France in the west, new information from recent excavations is brought to bear on a wide range of related issues, including urban contexts, regional variations in experimental design and construction, innovations in technology, and the social meaning of the rise of bathing culture in the Hellenistic period. This better understanding of Greek baths adds a crucial element to the much debated question of the relationship between Greek and Roman bathing culture. This book also provides the first comprehensive catalog of all known Greek public baths (balaneia), including descriptions, plans and bibliographies, as a major reference tool for future comparative research on ancient bathing culture and beyond. catalog and papers combined make this a rich study of a topic of newly recognized significance in the ancient world.
Aromatherapy, the centuries-old practice of using botanical scents and oils for physical and psychic benefit, reached its peak of popularity in the early 2000s. Roberta Wilson's essential resource for aromatherapy offers hundreds of healing recipes for compresses, baths, inhalants, air fresheners, and skin-care products specifically designed to assuage common disorders and complaints. Organized in a handy A-to-Z format, Aromatherapy is the most trusted sourcebook for this gentle healing art. First published in 1995, Wilson’s guide is here revised and expanded to cover a wider selection of essential oils, more health conditions, and more ways of incorporating aromatherapy into your life.
In this gorgeous, full-color illustrated guide, “fashion’s favorite healer” (Vogue) teaches you how to use baths to relieve stress and depression and soothe common aches and pains. Ritual Baths shows you how to use common crystals, herbs, and flowers in your bathtub to achieve inner peace and spiritual wellness. A blend of ancient traditions and contemporary self-care methods, this indispensable handbook, packed with more than 250 color photographs, provides helpful advice and sixty bath recipes, organized by aura color, including: Awareness Wolf Bath Empath Bath Hope Bath I am Nature Bath Be My Own Healer Bath Love of My Life Bath Ally Bath Healthy Boundaries Bath Warrior Bath Find My Purpose Bath My Gut Bath Confidence Bath Deborah Hanekamp leaves no crystal unturned and no restorative plant unused. She teaches you about auras, touches on phases of the moon, explains crystal and herbal magic, and provides an encyclopedia of ingredients that addresses each element’s healing properties. We all want to achieve wellness and live our best lives. Ideal for anyone interested in natural healing and alternative medicine, as well as everyone looking to integrate beautiful and accessible self-care practices into their daily routine, Ritual Baths shows you how to create your own medicine and transform your bathroom into a unique healing space.
A classic, practical guide to the history, science, and art of aromatherapy, updated throughout with recent research and developments • Details more than 70 essential oils classified by botanical family, with discussions of their specific actions and energetic and spiritual properties • Provides specific formulas for common disorders such as digestive and circulatory ailments, headaches, insomnia, and menstrual and sexual problems • Explains techniques for using plant essences for beautifying, cleansing, and healing and addresses the controversy surrounding some methods of application Updated throughout with recent research and the latest developments in the use of essential oils, this 30th-anniversary edition of Marcel Lavabre’s classic Aromatherapy Workbook provides the most comprehensive practical guide to the history, folklore, science, and art of aromatherapy available today. Examining the origins and applications of aromatics, from the mythical Queen of Sheba to René-Maurice Gatefossé, the author traces the medical, alchemical, and spiritual development of this healing art from classical civilizations up to the present. He explains the mysteries of the olfactory system and how this most ancient sensory system affects our moods, our emotions, and our sexuality. Illustrating the biochemistry of essential oils and how they work on the physical, energetic, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels, he explores more than 70 essential oils classified by botanical family, with detailed discussions of their specific actions. He shows how to use appropriate plant essences for beautifying, cleansing, and healing the body, as well as in massage, aromatic baths, ritual, and spiritual practice. He also addresses the controversy surrounding different methods of administration and explores in depth the risks, benefits, and safety guidelines for each technique. Addressing the fundamental issues of purity and quality, the author discusses the various methods of extraction in detail and includes a special section devoted to the art of blending. He offers specific formulas for common disorders such as digestive and circulatory ailments, headaches, insomnia, and menstrual and sexual problems. Lavabre also includes extensive reference tables to provide the reader with concise information on each essential oil and its therapeutic uses. This revised edition offers a perfect step-by-step guide for beginners as well as an ongoing reference for practicing aromatherapists.
The Silver Pigs is Lindsey Davis' classic novel, which introduced readers around the world to Marcus Didius Falco, a private informer with a knack for trouble, a tendency for bad luck, and a frequently inconvenient drive for justice. When Marcus Didius Falco, a Roman "informer" who has a nose for trouble that's sharper than most, encounters Sosia Camillina in the Forum, he senses immediately all is not right with the pretty girl. She confesses to him that she is fleeing for her life, and Falco makes the rash decision to rescue her—a decision he will come to regret. For Sosia bears a heavy burden: as heavy as a pile of stolen Imperial ingots, in fact. Matters just get more complicated when Falco meets Helena Justina, a Senator's daughter who is connected to the very same traitors he has sworn to expose. Soon Falco finds himself swept from the perilous back alleys of Ancient Rome to the silver mines of distant Britain—and up against a cabal of traitors with blood on their hands and no compunction whatsoever to do away with a snooping plebe like Falco....
