English

Etymology

From adj. calidus (hot), and the suffix -arium, room or place.

Noun

1. In Roman baths, the hottest room, with a plunge-pool. It preceded the tepidarium and frigidarium.
2. In modern spas, a room with a hot floor.

A Caldarium (also called a Calidarium, Cella Caldaria or Cella Coctilium) was a room with a hot plunge bath, used in a Roman bath complex.

This was a very hot and steamy room heated by a hypocaust, an underfloor heating system. This was the hottest room in the regular sequence of bathing rooms; after the caldarium, bathers would progress back through the tepidarium to the frigidarium.

In the caldarium there would be a bath (alveus, piscina calida or solium) of hot water sunk into the floor and there was sometimes even a laconicum - a hot, dry area for inducing sweating.

The bath's patrons would use olive oil to cleanse themselves by applying it to their bodies and using a strigil to remove the excess.

In modern gyms and spas a caldarium is a room with a hot floor.

See also

• Tepidarium
• Frigidarium

External links

• Greek and Roman baths at the Perseus Project