Changing attitudes towards bathing and baths in late antique Antioch

What is it about?

With the rise of Christianity, the already fraught social position of baths (both as a public utility and a place for particular types of recreation) underwent a series of parallel transitions. Baths became smaller and less ornate as the role of bathing changed to focus predominantly on their healing properties.

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Why is it important?

This study considers the archaeological evidence in tandem with a wide range of written sources (saints' lives, histories, letters, speeches and sermons) that are concentrated on the practices of bathing in and around Antioch. Tracing them together allows for the correlation of changing building types with decline of baths as a perceived luxury by some and place of vice by others and the rise of bathing as an activity, often sanctioned by saints, that provided health and relief to the ill and injured.