sight
So many people stand out in this small room’s floor mosaic! However, not all of them have the same importance: one in particular seems to attract our attention because of their muscular build. They certainly devoted a lot of time to their self care through constant training and massages. The room, which seems to be a passageway to the warmer areas of the baths due to its size, must have been used to massage clients in search of well-being. The man, whose face is unfortunately not visible, could have been the dominus of the villa! The people surrounding him are young servants, almost all equipped with specific objects used for massaging: a bucket containing the cream, a cruet for the ointment and the strigil.
hearing
Upon entering this place, the way in which sounds were perceived was very different from that in other parts of the baths. Imagine … the persistent chatter and laughter that filled the large space of the frigidarium fell away to a state of complete relaxation, interrupted only by the slow rubbing of servants’ hands as they massaged the athletic body of the main character with oils and creams.
smell
You can still smell the scent of the aromatic ointments in the round cruciferous ampoule and of lomentum, the ointment made from macerated lupins and honey used for massages. The massages were also carried out using cedar oil from Lebanon, to which olive oil, lavender and rosemary were added. When entering the massage room, you would be pervaded by a multitude of scents emanating from natural products that were also used by men, who were just as interested in body care as women.
