Thermae be applied to those magnificent edifices which grew up under the empire, in place of the simple balneae of the republic, and which comprised within their range of buildings all the appurtenances belonging to the Greek gymnasia, as well as a regular establishment appropriated for bathing. Writers, however, use these terms without distinction. Thus the baths erected by Claudius Etruscus, the freedman of the Emperor Claudius, are styled by Statius "balnea", and by Martial "Etrusci thermulae". In an epigram by "Martial"—"subice balneum thermis"—the terms are not applied to the whole building, but to two different chambers in the same edifice.
Roman Thermae (Varna) to the province of Moesia with a certain degree of local autonomy. The Roman baths of Varna were built towards the end of the 2nd century and remained in use for about a hundred years, till the late 3rd century. Coins of Roman emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193–211) have been discovered among the bath ruins. Much later, in the 14th century, the ruins of the Roman Thermae were the site of craftsmen's workshops. The ruins were first scientifically recognized as an ancient object in 1906 by the Austro-Hungarian researcher E. Kalinka. The site was further researched by Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist brothers