Archaeologists have uncovered the largest private bath complex ever found at Pompeii, which includes a spa in a private villa, providing new insights into life in the ancient Roman city devastated by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago.
The thermal bath complex was found during excavations of a house on Via di Nola in Regio IX, a district of Pompeii that was destroyed in 79 CE. Believed to belong to one of Pompeii's elite, the house indicates that the area was inhabited by wealthy members of the elite.
The spa complex was equipped to accommodate up to thirty people, with facilities including a caldarium (hot room), tepidarium (warm room), frigidarium (cold room), and apodyterium (changing room). The cold room of the thermal baths features a peristyle—a porticoed courtyard measuring 10 by 10 meters—with a large central pool and frescoes depicting athletes.
The bath complex includes all the important elements of a Roman bath, featuring large wall paintings and a huge swimming pool. Anadolu Ajansı reports that this spa is a testament to the grandeur of private residences in ancient Pompeii.
Access to the thermal baths was through a small hallway from a banquet hall known as the salone nero (black hall), which features black walls and elaborate paintings, indicating the Roman house's suitability for sumptuous banquets, according to Anadolu Ajansı. The thermal baths are directly connected to the large dining hall, suggesting that the homeowner likely invited guests to bathe and then entertained them afterward.
Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, stated that the owner of the residence was likely a member of Pompeii's elite who designed the bath as a space to entertain wealthy guests and confirm his social status. "Everything was functional to the staging of a 'show', at the center of which was the owner himself," said Zuchtriegel, according to ANSA.
Experts explained that the thermal complex discovered in Regio IX is one of the largest ever found in Pompeii, indicating that it was used by wealthy members of the elite. RMF24 highlighted the significance of this find in understanding the social dynamics of the time.
The walls decorated in the Pompeian Second and Third Styles, to which the most outstanding paintings of the Roman city belong, demonstrate that the domus had a history behind it. ANSA reported that these intricate decorations reflect the wealth and high social status of the house's owner.
In August, archaeologists reported the discovery of two skeletons in the house, revealing the experiences of Pompeii's inhabitants during the eruption of 79 CE. Archaeologists observed that the room where the two skeletons were found was chosen for shelter, as they waited for the end of the pumice fall that filled the open spaces of their house.
One skeleton belonged to a woman aged between 35 and 50 years, who was carrying jewelry and gold coins when the eruption surprised her, and the other to a younger man aged between 20 and 30 years, who died due to the collapse of a wall and was carrying keys, as reported by EL PAÍS.
The owner may have used the residence to promote his candidacy in local senate elections, using banquets as occasions to ensure electoral consensus among guests. These social gatherings were crucial for securing political support. Zuchtriegel explained, "In the society of that time, they had a function not limited to what we would today define as 'private' in the strict sense. On the contrary, they were precious occasions for the owner to secure the electoral consent of their guests, to promote the candidacy of friends or relatives, or simply to affirm their own social status."
The discovery aligns with descriptions in the Satyricon, where the rich freedman Trimalchio celebrates a lavish dinner in a Campanian city of the 1st century CE, culturally not far from Pompeii before the eruption of 79 CE.
"The paintings of the Third Style with subjects of the Trojan War, the athletes in the peristyle—everything had to give the spaces an atmosphere of Greekness, that is, of culture, erudition, and also of leisure," said Zuchtriegel, according to EL PAÍS. This cultural ambiance was integral to the owner's intent to impress and entertain guests.
Few other examples of baths of such size are present in Pompeii, including those of the Praedia of Julia Felix, the House of the Labyrinth, and the Villa of Diomedes, as noted by Terra. The opulence of the thermal complex underscores the wealth and status of its owner.
"The excavation of the rooms in question occurred thanks to an innovative execution method, which allowed reaching the level of the floor, avoiding the dismantling of the unstable architectural elements of the colonnade," said Anna Onesti.
This discovery shows how some Roman houses in Pompeii served not only as private residences but also as venues for public gatherings, with the owner staging spectacles to gain votes or win the sympathy of guests.
Pompeii is a UNESCO World Heritage site, located between Naples and the Amalfi Coast, and is one of the most visited tourist areas in Italy, attracting thousands of tourists each year with its extraordinary discoveries. As Anadolu Ajansı notes, the ongoing findings in Pompeii offer invaluable insights into the lives of its ancient inhabitants and continue to captivate the world.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq