The Theatre Gymnasium

     This is the Bath-Gymnasium stucrute lying North of the Theatre Court, at the begining of Arcadius Street. It has a 70×30 m. palaedtra (wrestling) court surrounded on three sides by stoa, whose podiums were covered in marble. A tribüne, consisting of four rows of seating stairs was constructed on the northern side of the Gymnasium. A slightly pitched area was added to the tribüne, constructed for the standing audience on the side facing the Baths. Because it was very close tothe theatre and its palaestra had a stadium, this structure is thought to have been used to train the theatre actors; and in consequence it was named “ The Theatre Gymnasium”. There was a bath complex just behind the tribüne North of the Gymnasium. The excavation of this baths has begun but remains incomplete. There were lines of rooms on the southern and northern sides of this bath complex. The rooms on the southern side of the Bath were dressing rooms (Apodyterium); a hot bathing section (Calidarium) and hot water pools. The rooms were slightly larger than the order rooms, which were in the middle of the Baths. The Bath had a long U-shaped area (warm section- Tepidarium), which was for recreation and visiting in the outer area of the northern and southern rooms of the Baths. The second U shaped area inside the Bathwas called the cold section (Frigidarium) and in the middle section there was a swimming pool (Nation). The Baths was heated through the hot air that circulated under the paved floor, the system termed a “Hypocaust”.