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Thetepidarium was the warm (tepidus) bathroom of theRoman baths heated by ahypocaust orunderfloor heating system. The speciality of atepidarium is the pleasant feeling of constant radiant heat, which directly affects the human body from the walls and floor.
There is an interesting example atPompeii; this was covered with a semicircularbarrel vault, decorated withreliefs instucco, and round the room a series of square recesses or niches divided from one another bytelamones. Thetepidarium was the great central hall, around which all the other halls were grouped, and which gave the key to the plans of thethermae. It was probably the hall where the bathers first assembled prior to passing through the various hot baths (caldarium) or taking the cold bath (frigidarium). Thetepidarium was decorated with the richest marbles and mosaics; it received its light throughclerestory windows on the sides, the front, and the rear, and would seem to have been the hall in which the finest treasures of art were placed.[1]
In theBaths of Caracalla, theFarnese Hercules and theFarnese Bull (now in theNational Archaeological Museum, Naples), the two gladiators, the sarcophagi of green basalt, and numerous other treasures were found during the excavations byPope Paul III.[1]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tepidarium".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 636.