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INTRODUCTION The idea of public baths was originally Greek, and the Romans picked up on the idea around the second century B.C. The first palatial bath (Thermae) was built by Agrippa in the Campus Martius. Others were located near the pantheon in Rome, on the slopes of the Esquiline Hill, near the Colusseum, by Porta Capena and on the Quirinai Hill. These Thermae were not merely baths. Some contained art galleries and halls to …

…were used differently according to where they were situated. The evidence indicates that, as leisure centres are in today's society, the baths were a significant part of Roman society. It is, I suggest, true to say that as the baths evolved, so their purposes became more complex, moving from a simple purpose of cleansing to the more complex purposes of social and political interactions, and in the case of Aqua Sulis, a place of healing.