Natatio

Natatio in the peristyle of the Villa di San Marco in Stabiae .

In Roman antiquity, natatio refers to a larger swimming pool that is mostly located outdoors.

Usually there is a natatio in the building context of larger thermal baths (especially the so-called Kaiserthermen ), but also in villas. Proven in

• the Baths of Diocletian in Rome
• the Baths of Caracalla in Rome
• the Stabian thermal baths in Pompeii
• the Vediusgymnasion in Ephesus
• the bath complex of Sanxay in Gaul
• the villa of Oplontis , today's Torre Annunziata
• the Villa di San Marco in Stabiae , today's Castellammare di Stabia

Apart from natatio , several terms are used synonymously by the ancient authors for larger, unheated bathing or swimming pools, without any precise distinction between them:

• natatorium (more of a place suitable for swimming, not necessarily artificially created)
• piscina (also as a name for a fish pond)
• lutron ( Greek  λουτρόν "bath", especially the bath in the palaestra was named like that)
• puteus (excavated basin, well)

The basin was encrusted with marble , as can be proven from the findings in Pompeii, and its dimensions are often relatively small for today's terms.

literature

• Christoph Höcker : Metzler Lexicon of Ancient Architecture. 2nd edition Metzler, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-02294-3 . P. 176
• Anthony Rich: Article Balnae in: William Smith: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. John Murray, London, 1875. pp. 189f. Online (LacusCurtius): [1]