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Baths of Constantine

The Baths of Constantine are on the summit of the Quirinal, extending over the ground now covered by the Consulta, the Palazzo Rospigliosi, and [the Villa Aldobrandini. They were erected about AD 326, and, according to an inscription in the Rospigliosi Palace, were restored by Petronius Perpenna, a praefect of the city, in the 4th century, after they had been long neglected. Considerable remains of them existed until the 16th century, when they were removed by Paul V. to build the Rospigliosi Palace. The most interesting parts now remaining are some bas-reliefs, busts, inscriptions, and statues, collected together in the Casino of the Eospigliosi Palace.

Despite the emperor's fame, the size of Constantine's baths was rather small, if compared to the other ones extant in Rome. Possibly Constantine's establishment aimed to become more exclusive, for a selected public of rich citizens. They were built in the irregular space between the vicus Longus, the Alta Semita, the clivus Salutis and the vicus laci Fundani, and as this was on a side-hill, it was necessary to make an artificial level, beneath which the ruins of houses of the second, third and fourth centuries have been found. Because of these peculiar conditions these thermae differed in plan from all others in the city. Enough of the structure was standing at the beginning of the sixteenth century to permit of plans and drawings by the architects of that period, and these are the chief sources of knowledge of the building. As the main structure occupied all the space between the streets on the east and west, the ordinary peribolus was replaced by an enclosure that extended across the front and was bounded on the north by a curved line, an area now occupied by the Palazzo della Consulta. The frigidarium seems to have had its longer axis north and south instead of east and west, and behind it were tepidarium and caldarium both circular in shape. Because of the comparative narrowness of the building, the ordinary arrangement of the anterooms on each side of the caldarium was not carried out.

In the time of Clement XII the remains of a portions, painted with historical subjects, and an ornamented ceiling, were discovered. The colossal horses before the Quirinal palace, and the statues of the Nile and the Tiber at the foot of the stairs leading to the Palace of the Senator at the Capitol, were discovered among their ruins. In 1877-78 a lofty stratum of these rains, with constructions of an earlier date underneath, was cut through, to level the soil for the V. Nazionale, near its junction with the V. del Quirinale.

Constantine erected on the Quirinal some baths, the Therms Constantinians, the last apparently erected at Rome. From the somewhat disparaging way in which they are mentioned by Aurelius Victor, it may be concluded that they did not equal in splendour the baths of Diocletian or Caracalla. Some remains of them appear to have been extant in the sixteenth century at the Palazzo Rospigliosi. The colossal figures now on the Quirinal, supposed to be the work of Pheidias, appear to have stood before these baths till they were removed to their present position by Pope Sixtus V.

The Thermae of Constantine were situated on the site now occupied by the Rospigliosi palace, and many of the ruins were destroyed when, under the pontificate of Paul V, the modern edifice was erected. Among the ruins were found many valuable objects of sculpture, and particularly the statues of Constantine and of his sons, which confirm the locality of these thermee. Before the destruction of these ruins they had been seen by Serlio and Palladio, who made designs that have come down to us. The plan of these thermee, which is in the book of the antiquities of Serlio, who erroneously called them the thermee of Titus, is less exact than the plan given by Palladio in the book of the Roman thermee, published by Burlington. There still exist some few remains of these thermee in the subterranean parts of the Rospigliosi palace.

These remains, being now mixed with modern constructions of various epochs, it becomes very difficult to discern their precise disposition, but on examining some walls built in a good style of reticulated work, it seems that Constantine had made use of part of another building, anterior by many centuries, to erect his own thermee. Around these, similar to other baths we have of the ancients, was an enclosure of buildings. In some gardens situated towards the Villa Aldobrandini, traces are still found of the middle part of this wall, which formed a large semi-circle, as was indicated by Palladio. The large niches designed by Serlio and by Palladio near the front of the Temple of the Sun, and in which were found the statues of the Nile, and of the Tiber now on the Capitol, also formed part of this enclosure.

The baths of Diocletian show a falling off, not only in style, but in construction, which rapidly deteriorated ; in the basilica of Constantine, erected on the Via Sacra, in the time of Maxentius, and the baths of Constantine, on the Quirinal, there was still greater negligence in the selection of materials, with an inferiority of workmanship.