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It is also believed that poor people who could not afford their own oils used lentils ground down into a kind of flour as a cheap substitute, this would be like us using talcum powder today. The oils like thyme or lavender would be obtained by squeezing the plant in a press, and the oil residue would be collected in a tray or container underneath. These precious oils would be kept most often in glass or metal bottles and be taken to the bath house by the bather themselves along with their own strigil's, often on a special carrier. A cheaper method was to infuse the oil, an example would be to add some thyme to some olive oil, and then gently boil the oil up to get the scent and essence from the thyme. Very little is actually known about the Roman massage technique itself, one reference that comes down to us from Seneca who when writing to a friend complains about the noise from the bath house below his flat, and "There's a lazy chap happy with a cheap massage: I hear the smack of the hand on his shoulders, the sound varying with whether it strikes flat or cupped". This implies that the massage was rather rigorous to be heard above all the other noise from a public bath house. It is quite likely, and I must admit there is no direct evidence to support this, that the Roman style massage, which they in turn took from the Greeks, is nearer to the Turkish massage still practiced today, as opposed to the Swedish massage. Add to this the similarity between the Turkish and Roman bath houses and the way they function as well, and the logical assumption is easy to make. Sources:- Daily life in Ancient Rome, by Jerome Carcapino. |
