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Everyone in Herculaneum tried, as far as their means would allow, to make time for leisure activities. Possibly as much as 10 percent of the town was given over to sports and entertainment facilities - exercise grounds, a theatre and two public baths. In addition the town had a number of taverns and inns.
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Taverns and Inns
Taverns offered simple meals of cheese, bread, sausages and wine - either cold or mulled - which made agreeable accompaniments to games of dice or board games similar to draughts.
Public Baths
Those that could, spent most afternoons at the public baths. The Central Thermae (pictured), with facilities for both men and women, sat on the lower decumanus between Cardo III and Cardo IV.
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Unlike the fevourish activity in modern health clubs, Roman baths promoted a more relaxed approach.
Beginning around noon, patrons would enter to bathe, swim or simply relax.
After undressing in the apodyterium, patrons would proceed though a series of increasingly hotter rooms, from the warm
tepidarium through to the hot caldarium, with perhaps a visit to a laconicum (sauna), if present.
In the baths, slaves served as masseurs, rubbing patrons with olive oil after they had visited the caldarium, then scraping
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the oil and accumulated dirt back off with a strigil (a curved tool of bone or metal). In the age before soap, this was the best way to wash. After this, a final dip in the frigidarium sealed the pores and envigorated the body.
The Suburban Thermae differed from the Central Baths in that they were not segregated and were probably used alternately by both sexes.
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Palaestra
More serious athletes may have gone to the Palaestra next to the Forum. This open area, with central pool, was surrounded by a portico with four arcades. Here, athletes of various shapes and sizes could practice their choice of sport - running, jumping, wrestling, boxing, javelin, and so on. Certain types of sport had a more military flavour; running in full armour, for example.
Theatre and Amphitheatre
The citizens of Herculaneum must have enjoyed watching plays and other entertainments. The theatre, with a capacity of about 2,500, could hold about half the population. Besides plays, there were performances marking the town's many religious festivals, concerts, readings and orations.
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For the action seekers, a trip to Pompeii, a matter of a few miles away, provided the Amphitheatre, a place of institutionalised violence, where fighting was not unknown to spill over into the stands. In AD 59 a riot took place that caused the Senate to vote to close the amphitheatre for 10 years.
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The amphitheatre at Pompeii
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