The Osin Baths

[Karrie]

The Osin Baths:

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Considered to be on the oldest still yet surviving places in Seano Naimi. They have been the heart of the city for millennia. It is rumored that the city was laid out then built around the site of the Baths. Over the years the city continued to grow, culminating into the current capital city.

The building which houses the Baths are from what is called the Ancestoral Period and those in the immediate vicinity are from the Classical Architectural Period. There are three Architectual Periods and they are Ancestoral, Classical and Modern. Every Baalian child learns about the three Periods when they are of school age.

The Ancestoral Architectural Period refers to the time of the Jemhau and Kymni, those from who most Baalians are descended. Some refer to the Osin Baths by its ancient Jemhau name, Thermae Arum Osin or Baths of Osin. Themeaning of Osin has regretfully been lost to the sands of time.

 

[Karrie]

The Bath had been built around three principal rooms: the caldarium (hot bath), the tepidarium (warm bath) and the frigidarium (cold bath). It also featured steam baths: the sudatorium, a moist steam bath, and the laconicum, a dry steam bath much like a sauna.

The entire building comprised of a double set of baths, one for men and the other for women. It has six different entrances from the street, one of which gives admission to the smaller women's set only. Five other entrances lead to the men's department, of which two, communicate directly with the furnaces, and the other three with the bathing apartments.

Passing through the principal entrance, which was removed from the street by a narrow footway surrounding the building and after descending three steps, a bather would walk into a small chamber on their left, which contained a water closet (latrina), and proceeded to a covered portico, which ran round three sides of an open court. These together formed the vestibule of the baths (vestibulum balnearum), in which those who worked at the baths waited.

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Then the bather would move on to the atrium, which was the exercise ground for the young men, or served as a promenade for visitors to the baths. Within this court the keeper of the baths (balneator), who exacted the quadrans paid by each visitor, was also stationed. The room, which ran back from the portico, was usually appropriated to him; but it was also often used as an oecus or exedra, for the convenience of those awaiting the return of their acquaintances from the interior. In this court, advertisements for the theatre, or other announcements of general interest, were posted up. At the sides of the entrance were seats (scholae), where a bather could sit for a moment before continuing on.