Caldarium

Exedra like these lined the perimeter of the caldarium.

The caldarium contained the hottest baths and was the last stop in the sequence of bathing rooms. Several recessed exedra, usually semicircular, punctuated the perimeter of the room. These provided space for socializing, reading, or even musical performances.¹

In later centuries, the caldarium collapsed along with much of the rest of the southwest part of the Baths due to mining for local volcanic sand in the subsoil.²

CCS

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1. Fikret K. Yegül, Bathing in the Roman World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 18.
2. Amanda Claridge, Rome (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 393.