Further sources are Strabo, Herodotus, Diodorus, Justinus.

[jacktellslies]

Sybaris was situated on the western rim of the bay that is incised into the sole of Italy's boot. It is barely 150 miles westward from the island of Corfu. Framed by a chain of hills, the city lay in the coastal plain between the Sybaris and Crathis rivers like a gigantic theatre open to the sea. Back of it the mountains rose like terraces to a height of seventy-five hundred feet. It is a lovely portion of this earth, a richly blessed land.

The fertile soil returned the seed to the sower with hundredfold increase. The grapes clung to the vines until the first frost, affording a splendid late vintage; moreover, the crop was so big that vast cellars had to be dug to house it. Some of the wine was taken to the city by cart, for home consumption; but the rest, according to Athenæus, was sent by earthenware pipeline directly to the coast, where huge clay vessels were filled and loaded aboard the ships...

The citizenry of Sybaris... were truly masters of refined luxury and comfort. Thermæ were still unknown to them; it took Roman engineering to develop these great baths with their waters of different temperatures and their heated walls and floors. In the sixth century B.C. a gentleman was still content with an ordinary bathtub filled with hot water by slaves; to keep the temperature even, more hot water was constantly added. A slave might be too hasty, of course, and scald his master. In Sybaris a solution was found to this problem: the bath slaves had their feet tied together so that they could not run too fast with the jugs of water.

Once again, from Vanished Cities,
by Hermann and Georg Schreiber,
translated from the German by Richard and Clara Winston, 1957



(Reading this to friends, most have suggested that I post an advertisement somewhere.)

Comments

[swirl-girlx.livejournal.com]

Now that you have a bathtub, there's no reason not to.

your birthday is coming up quite soon. teehee.