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 Rome and wine Many of the techniques and principles first developed in ancient Roman times can be found in modern winemaking. Though wild grapevines have grown on the Italian peninsula since prehistory, historians are unable to determine precisely when domestic viticulture and winemaking first occurred. It is possible that the Mycenaean Greeks had some influences through early settlements in southern Italy, but the earliest recorded evidence of Greek influence dates to 800 BC. Viticulture was widely entrenched in Etruscan civilization, which was centered around the modern winemaking region of Tuscany. Because the ancient Greeks saw wine as a staple of domestic life and