Roman women regularly attended public baths, since bathing "was a recreational activity enjoyed by people of all ages, sexes, and social classes." There were often separate baths for women and men, but if not, the women bathed in the morning and the men in the afternoon. This was an integral part of the lives of most Romans, and for the upper classes, so were dinner parties. Women were able to accompany their husbands to these affairs, which could vary from quite ordinary functions to wildly fantastic ones like the kind Trimalchio presented. In Petronius', book The Satyricon, one notes that women were present for the festivities and that Scintialla arrived with her husband Habinnas, having just left another banquet.

Taking a bath was not a simple chore. There was not one bath to use in a large complex such as the one at Bath. A visitor could use a cold bath (the frigidarium), a warm bath (the tepidarium) and a hot bath (the caldarium). A visitor would spend some of his time in each one before leaving. A large complex would also contain an exercise area (the palaestra), a swimming pool and a gymnasium. One of the public baths at Pompeii contains two tepidariums and caldariums along with a plunge pool and a large exercise area.

Peeling back the layers of time with Digital Art.