not obstruct the light. Niches
for washbowls must be made so roomy that when the first comers have
taken their places, the others who are waiting round may have proper
standing room. The bath basin should be not less than six feet broad
from the wall to the edge, the lower step and the "cushion" taking up
two feet of this space.

5. The Laconicum and other sweating baths must adjoin the tepid room,
and their height to the bottom of the curved dome should be equal to
their width. Let an aperture be left in the middle of the dome with a
bronze disc hanging from it by chains. By raising and lowering it, the
temperature of the sweating bath can be regulated. The chamber itself
ought, as it seems, to be circular, so that the force of the fire and
heat may spread evenly from the centre all round the circumference.

CHAPTER XI

THE PALAESTRA

1. Next, although the building of palaestrae is not usual in Italy, I
think it best to set forth the traditional way, and to show how they are
constructed among the Greeks. The square or oblong peristyle in a
palaestra should be so formed that the circuit of it makes a walk of two
stadia, a distance which the Greeks call the [Greek: diaulos]. Let three
of its colonnades be single, but let the fourth, which is on the south
side, be double, so that when there is bad weather accompanied by wind,
the drops of rain may not be able to reach the interior.

2. In the three colonnades construct roomy recesses (A) with seats in
them, where philosophers, rhetoricians, and others who delight in
learning may sit and converse. In the double colonnade let the rooms be
arranged thus: the young men's hall (B) in the middle; this is a very
spacious recess (exedra) with seats in it, and it should be one third
longer than it is broad. At the right, the bag room (C); then next, the
dust room (D); beyond the dust room, at the corner of the colonnade, the
cold washing room (E), which the Greeks call [Greek: loutron]. At the
left of the young men's hall is the anointing room (F); then, next to
the anointing room, the cold bath room (G), and beyond that a passage
into the furnace room (H) at the corner of the colonnade. Next, but
inside and on a line with the cold bath room, put the vaulted sweating
bath (I), its length twice its breadth, and having at the ends on one
side a Laconicum (K), proportioned in the same manner as above
described, and opposite the Laconicum the warm washing room (L). Insid