Underwater archaeologists announced the discovery of well-preserved thermal baths in the submerged city of Baiae, within the Bay of Naples’ Portus Iulius. About three meters below the surface, the complex was located in 2023 and later documented as a network of rooms, pools, and service corridors that once served Rome’s elite.
The bathhouse centered on a mosaic floor supported by brick columns, part of a hypocaust that carried hot air beneath the pavement. Researchers also saw a suspensura, in which hollow bricks sent heat up the walls, transforming one chamber into a dry-heat sauna. Fresco fragments still cling to the walls; conservators planned to clean the mosaics and stabilize the paintings before the autumn dive season.
Ceramic sherds collected from the seabed are being cataloged to establish the structure’s construction date, period of use, and reason for abandonment. The study could even identify the original owner, a prospect the team called “tantalizing.”
Some scholars argued that the baths might belong to the villa of Marcus Tullius Cicero, who kept a residence in Baiae, according to Newsam. From the 2nd century BCE the town’s sulfuric springs drew Roman aristocrats, and by the 1st century BCE it had become a lavish resort. If confirmed, the find would provide the first archaeological link to Cicero’s coastal estate.
Baiae’s reputation as a pleasure ground was well known. Julius Caesar, Nero, and Augustus vacationed there; Gaius Marius, Lucullus, and Cicero combined senatorial business with thermal leisure. Poet Sextus Propertius called the resort a “whirlpool of luxury” and a “port of vices,” reported Scienze Notizie.
Imperial patronage deepened the allure. Nero built a palace overlooking the lagoons, Augustus converted shoreline sections into an imperial residence, and Hadrian reportedly died in the local baths in 138 CE. The same volcanic forces that heated the waters later dragged parts of the city underwater, and by the Middle Ages malaria and invasions emptied the settlement.
Twentieth-century interest revived the site. Canal workers in the 1920s raised marble statues, a military pilot in the 1940s described a “ghost city” below the waves, and Benito Mussolini even proposed draining the bay. Today Baiae forms one of the world’s largest underwater archaeological parks, popular with divers and glass-bottom boats.
The new baths likely functioned as a private laconicum, offering insight into how wealthy Romans integrated therapeutic technology into domestic life. “The discovery not only highlights the daily life of the Roman elite but also enhances our understanding of the social and cultural structure of that era,” said the Parco Archeologico Campi Flegrei team.
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