Description of the Baths (Outside the Marina Gate) The Suburban Baths were built around the end of the first century BC on an artificial terrace facing the sea, just outside Pompeii's Marina Gate. They were originally discovered in 1958 and have since been excavated and restored. .. .. Another possibility (Michael Shanks, Stanford) is that, as these baths are located outside the city walls, they were meant for male travellers looking for 'rest and recreation'. .. .. The complex has two storeys, the bottom floor being used as public baths while the upper floor consists of three apartments. .. The entrance to the Baths is via a long corridor that leads into the apodyterium. Like the Suburban Thermae in Herculaneum there is only one set of dressing rooms. Men and women probably shared these facilities, using the baths at different times of the day or different days of the week. .. .. The apodyterium contains an unusual fourth style fresco for a public building: 16 panels showing erotic scenes, including one involving two women, unique in Roman painting. .. .. The erotic scenes, one of which is pictured right, are located above a set of numbered boxes which probably functioned as lockers for the patrons use. If indeed the baths were used by both sexes, the existence of these frescoes gives some insight into Roman culture and suggests that the public in general would not have found these images offensive. The dressing room leads to the tepidarium followed by the caldarium. The rooms of the baths are sumptuously decorated throughout. The nymphaeum has a niche in the form of a cave (top left) from which a waterfall cascades to a pool below, while the ceiling of the frigidarium is richly decorated with stucco squares.

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