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 architecture military engineering. By late antiquity, separate stair towers were constructed adjacent to the main buildings, as in the Basilica of San Vitale. The construction of spiral stairs passed on both to Christian and Islamic architecture. Ancient Roman architecture Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans , but differed from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often considered one body of classical architecture. Roman architecture flourished in the Roman Republic and even more so under the Empire, when the great majority of surviving buildings were