Thermae would be heated by a log fire before being channelled into the hot bathing rooms. The design of baths is discussed by Vitruvius in "De Architectura". "Thermae, balneae, balineae, balneum" and "balineum" may all be translated as "bath" or "baths", though Latin sources distinguish among these terms. "Balneum" or "balineum", derived from the Greek signifies, in its primary sense, a bath or bathing-vessel, such as most persons of any consequence among the Romans possessed in their own houses, and hence the chamber which contained the bath, which is also the proper translation of the word "balnearium". The diminutive "balneolum" is
Ancient Roman pottery for centuries. Roman cooking pots therefore have to be studied on a regional basis. As well as the ordinary bowls and pans used for cooking, ceramic utensils were made for many specialised uses, such as the small cheese-press illustrated to the left of the group photograph of Roman pottery from Britain above. The two black jars to the left behind the cheese-press in the same photograph are examples of Romano-British black-burnished ware, first made in south-west England in the late Iron Age, before the Roman conquest: this ware continued to be popular throughout the Roman period, and was made in