The Sarno Bath Complex: Architecture in Pompeii's Last Years.

Abstract

The ancient cities of Vesuvius are deteriorating at an alarming rate. It is thus imperative to rescue from oblivion unpublished or ill-published buildings. This study presents the much neglected Sarno bath complex of Pompeii (VIII. 2. 17-21), three levels of private apartments over an elaborate small bathing establishment which occupied the two lowest levels. The complex has considerable significance both for the social history of Pompeii (one of few privately owned baths run for profit for the rich) and for the history of Roman architecture (its unorthodox plan, its use of natural terrain to organize more than one hundred rooms, and its use of building materials of gradually lighter weight from the bottom of the complex to the top). The first chapter surveys the excavation and publication of the complex. The contents of the Giornali di Lavoro, h and -written field notes, and of the Librette Inventarie, inventories of small finds, are reviewed to underst and the condition of the complex in A.D. 79. Nineteenth century excavation is reconstructed from these sources and from Noack and Lehmann-Hartleben (1936), the last major publication of the building. Chapter 2 examines the architecture and architectural history of the complex. It begins with a full description of the surviving remains and with a presentation of new plans which correct and update all previous efforts. Unpublished graffiti and the contents of a wax tablet from the so-called Palaestra bathing establishment (VIII. 2. 23) are discussed for the light they may shed on the question of occupants and visitors. The third chapter discusses the wall decoration and pavements from the complex. Although the Sarno paintings are fragmentary, they raise a number of issues related to the dating of Pompeian walls in general, the methods of Pompeian wall painters, the identification of workshops, and the interpretation of decorative schemes within given contexts, especially the small city bath or balneum. Chapter 4 considers the complex within the broad framework of Roman architecture and explores the two architectural types, the insula and the balneum, of which the structure is comprised in its final phase. Ancient sources and comparative insulae and balnea from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Ostia are utilized for interpreting the function of different parts of the building and for highlighting its special architectural details.