The baths were built in the Hadrianic period (AD 117-138) and transformed in the late 2nd century AD. A service corridor leads into a large courtyard that also functioned as a frigidarium (room for cold baths) (A). Another corridor (B), connected to the courtyard, has a mosaic floor with a personification of Sicily, or Trinacria, represented as a female bust with three legs on her head. It gives access to the heated rooms, which are in the south part of the complex. One of the rooms has a mosaic floor with marine motifs (C), whilst it is thought that the adjacent room was used by male sex workers given the presence of an inscription on the mosaic floor. Finally, the tepidarium (room for warm baths) has a mosaic with a scene of athletes receiving prizes (D).
Mosaic with a representation of Trinacria (room B)
Reconstruction of the water wheel
(A. Pascolini)
Mosaic with a sea scene (C)
Axonometric reconstruction of the suspensurae and the praefurnium
(G. Pascolini, 1958)
Reconstruction of the operation of the noria
(G. Pascolini, 1960)
View of the mosaic of the room providing a passageway between the frigidarium and the heated environments, with erotic writing