History of Sanitation

52 HISTORY OF SANITATION slaves to the baths for the purpose, a fact which is eluci- dated by a curious story related by Spartianus. The Emperor while bathing one day, observing an old soldier, whom he had formerly known among the legions, rubbing his back as the cattle do against the marble walls of the chamber, asked him why he converted the walls into a strigil, and learning that he was too poor to keep a slave he gave him one, and money for his maintenance. On the following day, upon his return to the bath, he found a whole row of old men rubbing themselves in the same manner against the wall, in the hope of experiencing the same good fortune from the prince’s liberality; but instead of taking the hint, he had them all called up and told them to scrub one another. The strigil was by no means a blunt instrument, conse- quently its edge was softened by the appli- cation of oil which was dropped on it from a small vessel. Coppers for Heating Water. From an old woodcut This vessel had a nar- row neck, so as to dis- Augustus is related charge its contents drop by drop. to have suffered from an over violent use of this instrument. Invalids and persons of delicate habit made use of sponges, which Pliny says answered for towels as well as strigils. They were finally dried with towels and anointed. The common people were supplied with these neces- saries in the baths, but the more wealthy carried their own with them. After the operation of scraping and rubbing dry, they retired into or remained in the tepidarium until they thought it prudent to encounter the open air. But it does not appear to have been customary to bathe in the water,