Terme dei Sette Sapienti

Panel 74 - Location

The building, probably of the Hadrianic period (AD 117-138), takes its name from a painting of the Seven Sages decorating a room that may originally have been used as a tavern and was later incorporated into the baths as a changing room.

Panel 74 - Figure 2Detail of the fresco of the Seven Sages (B)

As we know from the placement of the entrances, the baths were used not only by the residents of the adjacent buildings, but also by those of the surrounding district.

Panel 73 - Figure 1Axonometric reconstruction of the building
(I. Gismondi)

They had a circular frigidarium (room for cold baths) with a domed roof (C), paved with a mosaic with hunting scenes and plant motifs; other fine mosaics decorated the walls of some niches.

Panel 74 - Figure 3Drawing of one of the polychrome wall mosaics in the frigidarium (C)
(M. Giammiti)

A second frigidarium (D) preserves a painting of Venus being born from the waters (Anadyomene), dating to the early 3rd century like the other paintings that survive in the adjacent rooms.

Finally, in the south part of the complex were the tepidaria and calidaria (warm and hot rooms) (E-H).

See also:

The Residential Districts of the Upper-Middle Class