2.2 Baths in the ancient world

At the top of many lists of benefits brought by the Romans you will find the baths. Both private and public bathhouses existed, and mixed the use of hot and cold rooms, dry heat and plunge baths. But what were they really about? How did a strigil and oil substitute for soap, and was the bath experience only about keeping clean?

In Video 3, Helen King asks Dr Patty Baker to explain the remains of the bathhouse that was part of the Roman presence at Caerleon.