Games, Exercise & Baths Flashcards
1
Q
Women were allowed to join in outdoor sports with men.
A
False
2
Q
What ground did the Campus Maritus include? (3)
A
All the level ground between the Tiber and the Capitoline and Quirinal Hills.
3
Q
What were the sports on the Campus Maritus grouped together as?
A
Track and field athletics.
4
Q
How do we know the sports played at the Campus Maritus are much the same as they are today?
A
From Vergil’s description in the Aeneid.
5
Q
The sports played at the Campus Maritus are much the same as they are today, except for which ones?
A
The ball games.
6
Q
What was the basest of all Roman ball games?
A
Throwing and catching.
7
Q
What three things were the balls usually filled with?
A
Hair, feathers or air.
8
Q
Describe the rules of the Roman game resembling modern day handball.
A
A ball was struck with the open hand against a wall, and after it had bounced on the ground, was again struck on the wall.
9
Q
What was the aim of the game resembling handball?
A
To keep the ball in motion longer than your opponent.
10
Q
How would you play a game called trigon?
A
Played by three people, each standing at one angle of an equilateral triangle. Two balls were used, and a player tried to throw his ball at the opponent least likely to catch it.
11
Q
Why were games of chance forbidden by law?
A
Because of all the gambling involved.
12
Q
When was gambling unrestricted?
A
During the Saturnalia in December.
13
Q
Public opinion allowed whom to gamble any time of the year?
A
Old men
14
Q
What was the most common form of gambling?
A
“Heads or Tails”
15
Q
Another common Roman game of chance was much like our “Odd or Even”. How did they play it?
A
Each player guessed whether the number of counters held by another was odd or even. The stake was usually the contents of the hand.
16
Q
What are ‘tali’?
A
Knucklebones
17
Q
What two animals were knucklebones made of?
A
Sheep and goat.
18
Q
What three materials made up knucklebones imitations?
A
Stone, bronze and ivory
19
Q
Who were knucklebones used by? (2)
A
By men in gambling and by children as toys.
20
Q
What game did children play with tali?
A
A game like jackstones: they’d throw five tali in the air at once and catch as many as they could on the back of their hands.
21
Q
How were tali used in gambling?
A
Four tali were thrown from a hand or a dicebox and the side on which the bone rested was the one that counted.
22
Q
If the tali were numbered, how were they numbered?
A
With 1, 3, 4 and 6.
23
Q
Which numbers never showed up on a tali?
A
2 and 5
24
Q
How many tali throws were counted?
A
Thirty-five
25
What was the lowest possible tali throw?
Four aces (Vulture)
26
What was the highest possible tali throw?
When all the tali lay differently (Venus)
27
What is dice in Latin?
Tesserae
28
What were dice made of? (3)
Ivory, stone, or close-grained wood
29
When playing with dice, what side counted?
The side that came up.
30
What was the aim of every player in ordinary gambling?
To throw a higher number than his opponent.
31
What was the simple bathhouse of earlier times and the bath itself called?
balneum or balnea
32
The more complex bathing establishments of later times were called what?
balneae
33
The very largest of the bathhouse were called what?
thermae.
34
When were public baths first heard of?
After the Second Punic War
35
How many baths were operating in Rome in the year 33 BC?
At least 170
36
In the later years of Rome, how many baths were in operation?
Over 800
37
Public baths were free to the population.
False. Free baths did not exist.
38
In the year 33 BC, ________ kept _______ public baths in Rome free of charge.
...Agrippa...170
39
Why were some of the first public baths opened and by whom were they opened? (2)
They were opened by individuals for speculative purposes or built by wealthy men as gifts to their native towns.
40
Who managed the public baths?
The town authorities kept the buildings in repair and the baths open.
41
The regular fee at a public bath for men in Rome was how much on average?
quadrans (a quarter of a cent).
42
What was the bather responsible to bring?
Their own towels, oil and anything else they wanted.
43
How much did women pay in public baths?
More, perhaps twice as much as men.
44
How much did children pay for public baths.
Nothing. 'Twas free.
45
What four things were necessary for a luxurious bath?
A warm anteroom, a hot bath, a cold bath, and rubbing and anointing with oil.
46
How many rooms were often set aside for bathing?
At least three rooms, often five or six.
47
What was the changing room?
apodyterium
48
Describe the apodyterium. (3)
Usually unheated, furnished with benches and compartments for clothes.
49
What was the warm anteroom?
tepidarium
50
What happened in the tepidarium?
Bathers waited until they started sweating, to avoid the danger of passing to suddenly into the hotter caldarium.
51
What was the hot room?
caldarium
52
What was the cold room?
frigidarium
53
What was the room for rubbing and anointing oils called?
unctorium
54
What was an additional hot room without water for a sweat bath called?
laconicum
55
What was a scraper?
strigilis
56
If a separate dressing room was omitted, where might a bather change?
In the cold or warm room, according to the weather.
57
How were bathhouses heated in early times?
Charcoal stoves.
58
What system was used to heat both rooms and water in a bathhouse?
Hypocaust
59
Which rooms in the bathhouse would be closest to the furnace? (3)
The laconicum, caldarium and tepidarium.
60
Which rooms would be furthest from the furnace? (2)
The frigidarium and apodyterium, as they had no need for heat.
61
Describe the first floor of a bathhouse.
The first was even with the top of the firebox.
62
Describe the second floor of a bathhouse.
The second was even with the top of the furnace.
63
How many feet were in between the two floors of a bathhouse?
About two feet, through which hot air passed.
64
Why would the caldarium not work as well as the laconicum as a sweat bath?
The air in the caldarium was very moist, while the air in the laconicum was really dry, so the effect would not be the same.
65
What did the frigidarium usually only contain?
A cold plunge bath.
66
The bather was often treated ______ in the unctorium. When were these times?
They were often treated twice, before the warm bath and after the cold.
67
Which of the treatments in the unctorium might be omitted?
The first one
68
What was the unctorium furnished with?
Benches and couches
69
What would a bather bring to the unctorium? (3)
His own strigilis, towels and an oil flask.
70
When there was no unctorium in the bathhouse, where would a bather get scraped down? (2)
In the apodyterium or tepidarium.
71
When were baths usually taken?
Right before dinner (the eighth hour- two or three o'clock)
72
When were managers of bathhouses bound by their contracts to have everything open and ready?
About the eighth hour (2 or 3 pm).
73
Until when were baths usually open?
Until sunset
74
Would baths in small towns or baths in cities be open later? Why?
Baths in small towns, as there would be fewer than in cities.
75
In cities, where did women bathe?
There were baths that served only women.
76
In towns, where did women bathe?
Rooms in the public baths were set aside for them.
77
In villages, where did women bathe?
In the same place as men, but at different hours.
78
When do we read about men and women bathing together?
Late in the Empire.
79
Women who bathed with men had no claim to respectability.
True
80
What made public baths so popular in Rome? (2)
Their varied features and social atmosphere.
81
When was the private bathhouse in Caerwent, England thought to have been made? How big was it?
Around the time of Constantine (AD 307-337), and about 34x31 feet.
82
Why was the Pompeian thermae so erratically and wastefully planned out?
The baths were built at various times with all sorts of alterations and additions.
83
When were the Baths of Diocletian dedicated?
AD 305
84
Where were the Baths of Diocletian?
The northeastern part of Rome.
85
The Baths of Diocletian were second only to what in magnificence?
The Baths of Carcalla
86
In the ________ century, __________ restored the ________ of the Baths of Diocletian as the Church of __________ (St. Mary of the Angels).
...sixteenth...Michelangelo....tepidarium....S. Maria degli Angeli...
87
When were Romans able to enjoy public baths free of cost?
When a magistrate, public citizen, or candidate for office paid the charges for a definite time, or rich men could provide free baths in their will for a limited time
88
What rooms were located on the east side of the exercise court of the Stabian baths?
The baths themselves
89
How was a frigidarium used?
The primary function was for a cold plunge bath, and it could also be used as a dressing room.
90
What shape was the caldarium in private baths?
Rectangular
91
Where was the cold water basin placed in the caldarium of a public bath?
In the rounded end of the room
92
What room was located next to the laconicum in the public baths?
The caldarium and then the tepidarium beside that
93
Where was the playground of Rome located?
In the Campus Maritus
94
What game did men often play before dinner for exercise?
Ball
95
Where did younger men prefer to bathe besides the baths?
In the river
96
What types of public baths existed? [5]
Plain, plunge, hot, and cold, as well as massage by trained men, almost always slaves.
97
How many tali were used at once in gambling?
Four
98
Where were the hot water tanks located in a Roman bath?
Over the furnace, just above the level of the upper floor
99
Onto which area of the Stabian baths did the main entrance open?
The exercise ground
100
What two physical activities did men participate in the country?
Hunting and fishing
101
What room would be used for rubbing and anointing oils if there was no unctorium?
The tepidarium or apodyterium
102
At what time of day did the old men go to the Campus Maritus to exercise
After lunch and siesta, before visiting the baths and dining
103
Where did the early Romans bathe?
At home in a primitive washroom near the kitchen
104
What track and field sports were played at the Campus Maritus?
Foot racing, jumping, throwing the discus, archery, wrestling and boxing
105
In which city were the Stabian baths located?
Pompeii
106
What throw in a game of tali designated the master of revels in a drinking party?
Venus
107
What room, rare to a Roman bath, was found at the private baths in Caerwent, England?
A laconicum
108
What names for Roman baths were used interchangeably?
Thermae and balnae
109
Why was a cold room located in the women's apodyterium in the Stabian baths?
Because women had no separate cold room
110
Why was the entrance fee to some baths higher than others?
Some baths were more elaborately furnished, luxurious and exclusive
111
Describe the hypocaust system.
Hot air from a furnace circulated under the floors and in the walls, and the temperature of the rooms depended on its proximity to the furnace
112
After which war were public baths first heard of?
The Second Punic War
113
Why was there a cold bath in the warm room in a public bath in Pompeii?
Perhaps it was for invalids who found even the swimming pool too cold
114
What sports did men practice as useful training to be a soldier?
Riding, fencing, wrestling, throwing the discus, and swimming
115
How many balls were used in a Roman game of trigon?
Two
116
What type of bath was located in an exercise ground of a large bathhouse?
A pool was located at one side of the exercise ground for a cold plunge
117
Where on the Campus Maritus was the old drill ground for soldiers located?
On the northeastern portion of the plain, bounded on two sides by the river
118
What was located on the west side of the exercise court at the Stabian baths?
A bowling alley
119
What amenities dd baths provide? [5]
Exercise grounds, gymnastic apparatus, courts for games, rooms for reading and conversation and libraries.
120
During which time period were bath extremely symmetrical?
During the late Empire
121
What shape was the water heater found in the hot pool in the caldarium?
Semi-cylindrical
122
Where were baths often built?
Near hot or mineral springs
123
How often did Romans bathe in the last century of the Republic?
Every day
124
What item did the warm room of the Stabian baths have that was abnormal?
A cold bath
125
In the Stabian baths at Pompeii, what were the rooms opening onto surrounding streets used for?
They were shops and stores independent from the baths
126
What did a Roman tesserae look like?
Like a modern dice, each marked with dots one to six in number
127
How is the general construction and arrangement of ancient Roman baths made known to modern people? [3]
By the ruins that have been excavated, what Vitruvius wrote about their construction, and by the countless allusions in Latin literature.
128
Describe the balls used in Roman ball games.
They were different sizes, filled with hair, feathers or air.
129
Where did gambling often take place?
Gambling resorts and private houses
130
What type of bath did a bather have after being scraped by the strigil?
A cold bath
131
Where was the cold water basin placed in the caldarium of a private bathhouse?
In the corner
132
What lay behind the bowling alley of the Stabian baths?
A pool open to the sun
133
Was there a laconicum in the Stabian baths?
No
134
Which specific Roman men of high position often exercised on the Campus?
Caesar, Maecenas, and Augustus
135
How often did the early Romans bathe?
They bathed fully once a week, and washed their arms and legs every day.
136
How many dressing rooms were on the men's side of the Stabian baths?
two
137
What was located near the top of the hot pool in the caldarium?
An overflow pipe, could be opened to allow water to run on the floor for scrubbing
138
To which Roman Emperor can one date the private baths found in Caerwent, England?
Constantine
139
Where were the hot water tanks located in a Roman bath?
Over the furnace, just above the level of the upper floor.
