They were carried out to satisfy the specific hygienic needs and to improve the generic mental and bodily wellness. The thermae became centres of physical exercise and spiritual education and had a multi recreational function, true wellness temples, health oases, meeting places, glorious artistic and cultural areas where one could listen to body and soul.
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Physical Exercises
The spa games were various: a widely popular one was the trigon, in which the players standing at the corners of a triangle had to throw a hard ball with a hand and contemporarily catch the others thrown at him, quickly and without notice: two balls could be in play simultaneously.
Then there was a kind of volleyball in which the hand palm was substituted by a the racquet; there were other ball games such as the harpastum in which players in a kind of rugby scrum had to catch the harpasta a bouncing hand ball. The ball was filled of various materials such as flour, sand, feathers or even water. All these games were preceding the proper bath and in case one did not want to join the games could jog or chase the thochus a metal ring, much loved by women, controlled by a forked implement.
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Per fare la lotta invece bisognava svestirsi completamente e ungersi con il ceroma, una mistura di olio e di cera, per sgusciare meglio dalle mani dell'avversario o aggiungere polvere sulle mani per migliorare la presa. La lotta, che si svolgeva nelle palestre dell'edificio centrale, aveva proseliti sia tra gli uomini che tra le donne. Una volta terminato lo sport prescelto, l'atleta sudato o impolverato entrava nei sudatoria, poi nel calidarium, dove, asciugatosi, si recava nel tepidarium ed infine nel frigidarium.
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