Pompeii, its history, buildings, and antiquities : an account of the destruction of the city with a full description of the remains, and of the recent excavations, and also an itinerary for visitors . owkeepers, and that the figures of cows soplentifully impressed on all the articles wdiich he presentedto the baths are a sort of canting arms, to borrow an expres-sion from heraldry, as in Eome the family Toria caused abull to be stamped on their money. A doorway led from the tepidarium into the caldarium, orvapour-bath. It had on one side the laconicum, containingthe vase (c) called labrum. On
Pompeii, its history, buildings, and antiquities : an account of the destruction of the city with a full description of the remains, and of the recent excavations, and also an itinerary for visitors . owkeepers, and that the figures of cows soplentifully impressed on all the articles wdiich he presentedto the baths are a sort of canting arms, to borrow an expres-sion from heraldry, as in Eome the family Toria caused abull to be stamped on their money. A doorway led from the tepidarium into the caldarium, orvapour-bath. It had on one side the laconicum, containingthe vase (c) called labrum. On the opposite side of the roomwas the hot bath (§) called lavacrum. Here it is necessary torefer to the words of Yitruvius as explanatory of the structureof the apartments (cap. xi. lib. v.). Here should be placedthe vaulted sweating-room, twice the length of its width, whichshould have at each extremity, on one end the laconicum, madeas described above, on the other end the hot bath. This DESCRIPTION OF BATHS. 167 apartment is exactly as described, twice the length of its width,exclusively of the laconicum* at one end and the hot bath atthe other. The pavement and walls of the whole were hol-. m a * The Laconicum was so nam°d after the Lacedaemonians, who, instead ofthe warm bath, used a dry sweating bath, heated with warm air by means of astove. Strabo, iii. p. 413 ; Dion. Cass. liii. p. 515, seq. 1G8 POMPEII. lowed to admit the heat. Vitruvius never mentions the la-conicum as being separated from the vapour-bath; it maytherefore be presumed to have been always connected withit in his time, although in the Thermae constructed by thelater emperors it appears always to have formed a separateapartment. In the baths of Pompeii they are united, andadjoin the tepidarium, exactly agreeing with the descriptionsof Vitruvius. The laconicum is a large semicircular niche,seven feet wide and three feet six inches deep, in the middleof which was placed a vase or labrum. The ceiling wasfor
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