and personal hygiene. Greek mythology specified that certain natural springs or tidal pools were blessed by the gods to cure disease. Around these sacred pools, Greeks established bathing facilities for those desiring to heal. Supplicants left offerings to the gods for healing at these sites and bathed themselves in hopes of a cure. The Spartans developed a primitive steam bath. At Serangeum, an early Greek balneum (bathhouse, loosely translated), bathing chambers were cut into the hillside into the rock above the chambers held bathers' clothing. One of the bathing chambers had a decorative mosaic floor depicting a driver and chariot pulled by four horses, a woman followed by two dogs, and a dolphin below. Thus, the early Greeks used natural features, but expanded them and added their own amenities, such as decorations and shelves. During the later Greek civilization, bathhouses were often built in conjunction with athletic fields. There is little to no evidence that bathhouses originated in Greece at all or even a public washing area or fountains. Roman bathhouses The Romans emulated many of the Greeks' bathing practices and surpassed them in the size of their baths. As in Greece, the Roman bath became a focal center for social and recreational activity. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the idea of the public bath spread to all parts of the Mediterranean and into regions of Europe and North Africa. By constructing aqueducts, the Romans had enough water not only for domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses but also for their leisurely pursuits. Aqueducts provided water that was later heated for use in the baths. Today, the extent of the Roman bath is revealed at ruins and in archaeological excavations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. These Roman baths varied from simple to exceedingly elaborate structures, and they varied in size, arrangement, and decoration. Many historians construct a specific path which bathers would have taken through a Roman bath, but there is no fixed evidence that confirms any of these theories or that there even was a specific order to bathing practices. However, one of the most commonly interpreted sequences is shown next. Most baths contained an apodyterium— a room just inside the entrance where the bather stored their clothes. This would often be the first room somebody visiting the baths would enter. Next, the bather progressed into the tepidarium (warm room), then into the caldarium (hot room)