1 DeLaine, J., “Recent research in Roman baths”, JRA 1 (1988) 11–32 Google Scholar.

2 For the conference proceedings/including G. Fagan, “Interpreting the evidence: Did slaves bathe at the baths”, see DeLaine, J. and Johnston, D. E. (edd.), Roman baths and bathing (JRA Suppl. 37, 1999) 25–34 Google Scholar.

3 See, e.g., Nielsen, I., Thermae et balnea: the architecture and cultural history of Roman public baths (2 vols., 2nd edn. Århus 1993)Google Scholar; Yegül, F., Baths and bathing in classical antiquity (Cambridge, MA 1992)Google Scholar; DeLaine, J., The Baths of Caracolla (JRA Suppl. 25, 1997)Google Scholar; Busch, S., ‘Versus balnearum’: die antike Dichtung über Bäder und Baden im römischen Reich (Stuttgart 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Papi, E., “Ad delenimenta vitiorum (Tac, Agr. 21)Google Scholar. Il balneum nelle dimore di Roma dall'età repubblicana al I secolo d.C,” MEFRA 111 (1999) 695–728 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Manderscheid, H., “The water management of Greek and Roman baths,” in Wikander, Ö. (ed.), Handbook of ancient water technology (Leiden 2000) 467–535 Google Scholar.

4 What about public baths in rural surroundings; did they exist? I have always been puzzled by the huge remains of the bath at Massaciuccoli in Tuscany, not far from Lucca; see Bruun, C., “Private munificence in Italy and the evidence from lead pipe stamps,” in Solin, H. et al. (edd.), Acta Colloquii Epigraphici Latini (1991) (Helsinki 1995) esp. 48 Google Scholar. It seems to have been for public use, as also stated by Garbrecht, G. and Manderscheid, H., Die Wasserbewirtschaftung römischer Thermen- Archäologische und hydrotechni¬sche Untersuchungen. A. Forschungsbericht (Mitt. Leichtweißinstitut 118A, Braunschweig 1994) 83 Google Scholar, but not everyone agrees. Fagan lists Massaciuccoli in his appendix (355) without discussion.

5 See now Busch (supra n.3) for a rich treatment of both literary and epigraphical material (usually with translations) on Roman bathing from both East and West. In many regards the book by Busch covers the same topics as Fagan, and is worth a thorough review of its own (cf. de Haan, N., Mnemosyne 54 [2001] 748 ff.Google Scholar; Lorenz, S., CR 50 [2000] 67 f.Google Scholar).

6 There is no doubt that the material from the East would have added much interesting information (but clearly its inclusion would have necessitated an altogether different structure of the book); see, e.g., Pap. Euphrates 1 from A.D. 245, recording a petition to the prefect of Mesopotamia: ‘In the consulship of … at Antioch, colony and metropolis, in the Baths of Hadrian: To Julius Priscus, perfectissimus prefect of Mesopotamia, …” (transl. Ando, C., Imperial ideology and provincial loyalty in the Roman Empire [Berkeley 2000] 73)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 There is more comparative material throughout the book: mediaeval German “Badmädchen” on 36; several references to Jewish sources, etc.

8 Brödner, E., Die römische Thermen und das antike Badewesen (2nd edn., Darmstadt 1992) esp. 276–79Google Scholar for the quote of von Moltke. Brödner's work was not used by Fagan. See also Brödner 268-70 for the Jewish ‘miqve’, a ritual bath that seems to me to have been public; Brödner includes visitors' accounts and points to archaeological remains from mediaeval Germany.

9 As for 27 n.37, in my mind there is nothing in Cic., Cael. 62 that would indicate that women frequented public baths: Clodia gave instructions to her associates before they entered the balneae Saeniae. Regarding women as attendants in public baths, what seems to be the first (epigraphically) attested balneatrix has recently been published: Longo, P., “Iscrizioni inedite urbane e veienti viste a Terracina,” Terra dei Volsci 1 (1998) esp. 97 Google Scholar regarding one Cutia M. I. Aucta balneatrix, a freedwoman from Rome or its surroundings, dated to the Early Imperial period, who either worked in public baths or perhaps was the contractor who operated them.

10 It is uncertain how common such a blunt view in fact is; among those quoted, Stambaugh, J., The ancient Roman city (Baltimore 1988) 205 Google Scholar, actually says something different (my italics): “The towel-draped nudity of the bathers must have contributed to the perception of social leveling, although a rich man could find ways to show off his wealth This sentence in content amounts to something very similar to what Fagan is arguing; as does the comment of Yegül (supra n.3) 32: “The baths were, indeed, the ideal institution with which to create the illusion of a classless society”.

11 The two attendants in the famous mosaic from Piazza Armerina may not both have been slaves (199). The vocatives Tite and Cassi refer to people called Titus and Cassius; the latter name is, strictly-speaking, a nomen gentile and not recorded as ever being used as a cognomen by Kajanto, I., The Latin cognomina (Helsinki 1965)Google Scholar. He might have been a free citizen. (Similar names occur as cognomina, though, such as Cassio.)

12 A problem with the Pompeian evidence is that it does not show the steady growth of public bathing that one might expect. The author attempts to explain this in various ways (63 f.); perhaps the best explanation is the fact, now established in C. Ohlig's groundbreaking study of the water-supply of Pompeii, that after Augustus there was less water for Pompeii than before (since the city had to share an aqueduct with the other communities all along to coast to Misenum).

13 There is also much new material to consider: e.g., Cicerchia, P. and Marinucci, A., Le Terme del Foro o di Gavio Massimo (Scavi di Ostia 11, 1992)Google Scholar, and on the Claudian Terme delle Provincie (now under the Via dei Vigili) and the Domitianic phase of the Terme di Nettuno: Zevi, F., FA 18–19 (1963–1964) no. 7429 Google Scholar; id., FA 22 (1967) no. 5002; id. and A. Granelli, “Le Terme di Nettuno: stratigrafia e fasi edilizie pre-adrianee,” MedNedInstRom 58 (1999) 80-82 (these references should be added to p.355). After Fagan's book there appeared Geremia, R., “Le Terme del Faro di Ostia: nuovi dati provenienti dallo studio delle fistidae ,” ArchCl 51 (1999–2000) 383–409 Google Scholar, on the owners (and perhaps benefactors) of the public Terme del Faro. In addition, there is ongoing work on the decorations of the Ostian public baths; see now Valeri, C., “Arredi scultorei dagli edifici termali di Ostia” (with previous bibliography) in Bruun, C. and Zevi, A. Gallina (edd.), Ostia e Portus nelle loro relazioni con Roma (Acta Inst. Rom. Fini. 27, 2002)Google Scholar.

14 The author does not claim completeness, which would be futile and unnecessary. Cic. Vat. 31 could be added; it once again shows the visiting of a public bath as a very natural occurrence.

15 Fagan has previously made a good case for taking Pliny's mention of 170 balinea gratuita as indicating free bathing opportunities, not bath buildings: see his “Pliny's Naturalis Historia 36.121 and the number of balnea in Early Augustan Rome,” CPh 88 (1993) 333–35Google Scholar.

16 The question is admittedly not a very important one for his topic. Yet it does not serve much purpose (and certainly does not serve the non-specialist reader) to take issue with Forbes, R. J., Studies in ancient technology I (2nd edn., Leiden 1964)Google Scholar, or to point out minor inconsistencies in the work of A. T. Hodge or F. Yegül, when no clear picture based on modern scholarship is presented. There is only one way out of the conundrum, namely to use Frontinus, inscriptions, and archaeological evidence together; see Bruun, C., The water supply of ancient Rome. A study of Roman imperial administration (Helsinki 1991) 97–104 Google Scholar, on the amount of aqueduct water available in Rome; 385-89, on the impossibility of reaching an exact value for the ancient quinaria measure (Fagan 69 n.96 should have pointed out that 40 cubic metres per day for the quinaria is nothing but an optimistic estimate); 245-56, on water for the castra praetoria distributed nomine Caesaris; and 72-76, on water for baths and opera publica.

17 There is a reference to Heinz, W., “Antike Balneologie in späthellenistischer und römischer Zeit: Zur medizinischen Wirkung römischer Bäder,” ANRW II.37.3 (1996) 2411–32Google Scholar.

18 In this context the distinction between public bathing and bathing in general is not upheld.

19 Asclepiades' activities bring up the question of the introduction of the balineae pensiles, which is supposed to have taken place in his days (Plin., NH 26.16). The enterprising Sergius Orata is credited with having introduced them, but there is a debate about what he actually did; see 98 n.60. Wikander, Ö., “Senators and équités VI. Caius Sergius Orata and the invention of the hypocaust,” OpRom 20 (1996) 177–82Google Scholar, seems to me more convincing, and his argument that Orata did promote the hypocaust bath during the last decades of the 2nd c. B.C. actually fits Fagan's case better than an earlier study by Fagan himself.

20 In the 1960s, every letter I wrote opened with the same phrase: “Hur mår du? Jag mår bra!”, even though I could not care less. Some letters I write still contain that phrase, and admittedly there is now often a real feeling behind the conventional phrase.

21 See, e.g., Manderscheid, H., “Untersuchungen zur Wasserbewirtschaftung römischer Thermen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Caracallathermen,” Akten XIII. Int. Kongr. Klass. Arch. (1988) (Mainz 1990) 537 f.Google Scholar; id., “La gestione idrica delle Terme di Caracalla: alcune osservazioni,” in Les thermes romains (CollEFR 142, 1991) esp. 54; Garbrecht and Manderscheid (supra n.4), 74. These works should all be added to the Bibliography. See now in general Manderscheid (supra n.3), 507-10.

22 The negative view on bathing is certainly not restricted to Seneca. The belief that it softens a strong people can be found in Tac., Agr. 21.2: paulatimque discessum ad delenimenta vitiorum, porticus et halima et conviviorum elegantiam. Idque apud imperitos hitmanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset (not mentioned in the book); and as late as Cass. Dio 27.94.2.

23 Here the author follows Blundrett, N. G. R. and Simpson, C. J., “Innovation and the Baths of Agrippa,” Athenaeum 85 (1997) esp. 220–23Google Scholar.

24 See Masson, O. and Christol, M. (edd.), Actes X^e Congr. int. d'épig. grecque et latine (1992) (Paris 1997)Google Scholar, with the relevant contributions concerning the Roman West, to be added to Fagan's bibliography.

25 A random addition: Thermae Constantini(an)ae are mentioned in one inscription found at Aquileia in the 1980s and perhaps referred to as being repaired in another text found in 1970; the situation has now been thoroughly analyzed by Rieß, W., “Konstantin und seine Söhne in Aquileia,” ZPE 135 (2001) 267–83Google Scholar.

26 Many benefactions did apparently only concern the erection of a statue or some other minor refurbishing of baths.

27 P. Veyne, “The Roman Empire,” in id., A history of private life from pagan Rome to Byzantium (Cambridge, MA 1987) esp. 113-15.

28 A rare oversight on 285: in arcem “to the height/citadel/stronghold”, not “to the arch” (the famous inscription by Betilienus Vaarus from Aletrium, CIL I² 1529 = CIL X 5807 = ILS 5348). For this text, one should consult Galli, L. and Gregori, G. L., “Aletrium,” Suppl Ital. n.s. 16 (1998) 36–38 Google Scholar, for a thorough discussion and bibliography (not cited by Fagan). This is one of the earliest examples of public munificence comprising baths.

29 The enormous and lavishly-equipped bathing complex at Baiae was certainly in operation by the Flavian period, as lead pipes mentioning Domitian confirm. Were these baths private property of the imperial family, as many have thought, or were they open to the public? The question should have been addressed, as should the argument of F. Yegül, “The thermo-mineral complex at Baiae and De Balneis Puteolanis,” ArtB 78 (1996) 137–61Google Scholar, that they were in fact public. So have I too argued: “Imperial water pipes in Roman cities,” in Koloski-Ostrow, A. O. (ed.), Water use and hydraulics in the Roman city (Dubuque 2001) esp. 55 Google Scholar.

30 See the contributions by Zevi and by Zevi and Granelli (supra n.13).

31 For the Balneum Caenidianum (p. 364) our only source is a vilicus balin(ei) Caenidiani in a text published in MAAR 10 (1932) 73 Google Scholar; the text was “rediscovered” and triggered a discussion: see AE 1989.211 and Solin, H., Analecta Epigraphica 1970-1997 (Acta Inst. Rom. Finl. 21, 1998) 322 Google Scholar. Strictly speaking the location is unknown, as Fagan states, but Antonia Caenis, Vespasian's concubine, after whom the bath very probably was named, had water-rights for a property just outside the (later) Aurelian Wall, near Porta Pia. Her property is not listed in the LTUR because it lies outside the Wall, as noted by the reviewer in JRA 10 (1997) 397 Google ScholarPubMed.

32 Sutyla, C. M., The Finnish sauna in Manitoba (Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies 24, 1977)Google Scholar, is arguably a first-rate source for its professed subject, but I would be more sceptical when Sutyla offers second-hand information for Finland, which in Fagan's work becomes third-hand evidence. Among other material, some rather curious figures borrowed from Sutyla (who took them from a British publication of 1974) are cited on p. 2 for the frequency of baths, showers, and piped water in Finland. For those whose national pride was injured, I am happy to report that the figures are wrong: see Katko, T., Water! Evolution of water supply and sanitation in Finland from the mid-1800s to 2000 (Tampere 1997)Google Scholar, a study by the foremost expert on the history of water-supply in Finland.

33 Cf. Cooper, J. F., On the Finland watch. An American diplomat in Finland during the Cold War (Claremont, CA 2000) 223 f.Google Scholar, on the sauna in his Helsinki house: “Before, during and after my day, many a Finnish politician, newspaperman, diplomat and, simply, friend, has spent some time, eaten some makkara [Finnish sausage] and drunk some vodka and beer in that lovely sauna!”