Young Blonde Girl Strips Her Bra And Shorts In The Public Bath Area With Tulips Of Various Colors

In The Book of the Bath, Françoise de Bonneville wrote, "It is unimaginable that bathing would be considered sanitary. In fact it is completely opposite in nature." where men and women washed in basins near places of exercise, physical and intellectual. Later gymnasia had indoor basins set overhead, the open maws of marble lions offering showers, and circular pools with tiers of steps for lounging. Bathing was ritualized, becoming an art – of cleansing sands, hot water, hot air in dark vaulted "vapor baths," a cooling plunge, a rubdown with aromatic oils. Cities all over Ancient Greece honored sites where "young ephebes stood and splashed water over their bodies."
• Rome
The first public thermae of 19 BC had a rotunda 25 meters across, circled by small rooms, set in a park with artificial river and pool. By AD 300 the Baths of Diocletian would cover 1.5 million square feet (140,000 m²), its soaring granite and porphyry sheltering 3,000 bathers a day. Roman baths became "something like a cross between an aquacentre and a theme park," with pools, game rooms, gardens, even libraries and theatres. One of the most famous public bath sites is Aquae Sulis in Bath, England.
Dr.Garrett G Fagan, Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and History at The Pennsylvania State University, has named public bathing as a "social event" for the Romans in his book "Bathing in Public in the Roman World". He also states that "In Western Europe only the Finns still practice a truly public bathing habit." Dr. Fagan has done extensive research on public bathing.