rooms, including a nymphaeum with a water cascade, providing an alternative route to the existing one of the tepidarium followed by the caldarium. The entrance to the bathhouse is through a long corridor that leads into the apodyterium. The bathers would also have had access to a latrine, seating between six and eight people. The piscina calida (hot pool) used an innovative heating system called a samovar, a domed metal plate which was part of the pool floor above the furnace to heat the pool water directly. Only one apodyterium has led to speculation by archaeologists that both men and women shared this facility, or that it was male-only or time-shared. The apodyterium contains the erotic wall paintings. Erotic art in the Suburban Baths The erotic wall paintings in the Suburban Baths are the only set of such art found in a public Roman bath house. Explicit sex scenes (such as group sex and oral sex) are depicted in these paintings that cannot be easily found in collections of erotic Roman art. As the sexual acts portrayed are all considered "debased" according to the customs of ancient Rome, it is possible that the intention behind their reproduction was to provide a source of humour to visitors of the building. The paintings are in the apodyterium and each scene is above a numbered box. These boxes are thought to have functioned as lockers in which bathers put their clothes. It is speculated that the paintings possibly served as way for the bathers to remember the location of their box (in lieu of numbering). The presence of these paintings in a public bathhouse shared by men and women gives some insight into Roman culture and suggests that people would not have found this offensive, and possibly humorous. The images are as follows: two images showing generic male-female coital scenes woman performing fellatio on a man man performing cunnilingus on a woman one lesbian duo with a phallus-shaped sexual aid or dildo one threesome one foursome naked man with deformed, huge testicles See also Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum Homosexuality in ancient Rome Sexuality in ancient Rome Notes References Berry, J. (2007) The Complete Pompeii, London: Thames & Hudson Ltd. Fagan, G. G. (1999) Bathing in Public in the Roman World, United States of America: The University of Michigan Press. Garret G. Fagan, "The Genesis of the Roman Public Bath: Recent Approaches