Letters

were of iron. But people of rank generally had their own strigiles, as appears from this line in Persius Satire 5, line 126..

Go, boy, and carry Crispinus’s scrapers to the baths.

These were often made of silver, and sometimes of gold. They scraped the skin with so much force that, through frequent use, Augustus See Suetonius in the life of Augustus, chapter 80. developed several callous growths on his chest and belly. To temper the roughness of these instruments, they dipped them in oil before use.

The calidarium.

The calidarium was a principal part of the balnea; it was large and placed so as to receive all the advantages of both light and heat from the sun. The great bathing vessel was called by the Greeks lytron, and by the Latins lavacrum or labrum. It was large enough to contain many people, and the edge of the lavacrum was so broad that they could sit upon it. In the public baths, they were rubbed down with sponges, which were also called strigiles. However, in private baths, their bodies were generally cleansed (before they were anointed) with wash-balls, the principal ingredient of which was the nitrum or aphronitrum (natron) of the ancients, which was held in great esteem. Hence, Jeremiah Chapter 2, verse 22. says: "Though you wash yourself with nitre, and take you much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord God." And Susannah, before she bathed, directed her maids to bring oil and washing balls. The nitre of the ancients, which was found chiefly in Egypt, had one remarkable property that modern nitre does not possess: it constantly effervesced when mixed with acids. This explains a very beautiful passage in Proverbs, where Solomon Proverbs, chapter 25, verse 20. compares a man who sings songs to a heavy and afflicted