Changes

As aqueducts and water supply technologies, such as <i>qanats</i> , became more elaborate, public baths developed in more places. The Romans were well known for create creating large and elaborate bath houses that sometimes took advantage of natural springs, including hot springs or geothermal springs, as well as supplying water to specific sites using water transport technologies. The Romans probably built the most elaborate bath houses, where bathing was seen as an important aspect of religious worship as well as cleanliness. Bathing was so important to the Romans that there were social expectations that all classes participate in bathing. This led to the practice of the Roman government often commissioning large public baths, which were found in most Roman towns and cities. Rome, itself, had 952 baths of varying size, with the largest public bath from the ancient world being the Baths of Diocletian built in 306 AD (Figure 2). Sometimes baths were associated with temples and religious practice, such as the Roman Baths in modern Bath, UK, where the main temple was dedicated to Minerva/Suliswhich was adjoined to a large bath. With this emphasis, baths became not only public but also spaces used to socialize, from meeting potential business partners, to buy and sell products, but also demonstrate one's status in society. In other cases, baths were also sometimes associated with prostitution or just casual sex between different sexes. For the Romans, this was not often seen as a negative social aspect, thus laws did not discourage the use of baths in this way. Baths, therefore, were often used for relaxation and hedonistic pleasure.<ref>For more on the history and social development in relation to public baths in the Roman period, see: Fagan, G. G. (1999). <i>Bathing in public in the Roman world</i>. Ann Arbor [Great Britain]: University of Michigan Press. </ref>

Romans often built baths as one of the first things in a town they conquered or built. People would also exercise, often to help built a sweat so that it is easier to remove skin and dirt, while they would also be massaged. Oil treatments, often of varying quality, would be made available to people. There were also two main types of baths, one hot (<i>calidarium</i>) and the other cold (<i>frigidarium</i>). The hot baths were also used to make saunas as water was thrown into the heated rooms, where underground heated bricks would heat the floors and walls. Effectively, Roman baths began to become similar to our concept of spas, where people go to receive massages, skin treatments, relax, and bathe. Roman baths have most likely shaped our concepts of spa treatments and other cultures' bath baths that followed in the Medieval period. Bath houses continue to spread in many regions, including in Central Asia and China, by at least 200 BC, where these regions began having public bath houses. The spread of public baths could have happened through travelers and merchants that began to connect Eurasia during the Old World. Probably by around 1 AD, bath houses could be found anywhere between Britain and Japan.<ref>For more on the development of bath houses in the Old World and their structure, see: Yegül, F. K. (1995). <i>Baths and bathing in classical antiquity</i> (Paperback ed). New York: The Architectural History Foundation [u.a.]. </ref>