Thermae Thermae In ancient Rome, thermae (from Greek θερμός "thermos", "hot") and balneae (from Greek βαλανεῖον "balaneion") were facilities for bathing. "Thermae" usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while "balneae" were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout Rome. Most Roman cities had at least one, if not many, such buildings, which were centres not only for bathing, but socializing, and reading as well. Roman bath-houses were also provided for private villas, town houses, and forts. They were supplied with water from an adjacent river or stream, or more normally, by an aqueduct. The water
Thermae singular number, were the public baths. But this accuracy of diction is neglected by many of the subsequent writers, and particularly by the poets, amongst whom "balnea" is not uncommonly used in the plural number to signify the public baths, since the word "balneae" could not be introduced in a hexameter verse. Pliny also, in the same sentence, makes use of the neuter plural "balnea" for public, and of "balneum" for a private bath. "Thermae" (Greek: , "Thermai", "hot springs, hot baths", from the Greek adjective "thermos", "hot") meant properly warm springs, or baths of warm water; but came to