From the apartment or waiting-room first described, we descend by one step into the apodyterium. (32), a large ball twelve or thirteen yards long by about ten broad. Four strong square pillars projecting from the side walls, and supporting two arches of the vaulted roof, divide the chamber into three compartments, but of very different sizes, the largest being in the middle. A stone bench with a step beneath surrounds the room, with the exception of the left side of it, as far as the second pillar. Over the bench are niches for depositing clothes, or for perfume jars, &c. They rest upon an abacus, like those in the other baths, but the intervals are not ornamented with Telamones. In other respects this apodyterium is more richly ornamented than the same apartment in the baths first excavated. The floor is of marble; the vaulted roof is tastefully adorned with ornaments in stucco, but unfortunately the greater part of it has fallen in. The ornaments consist of square or sexagonal panels, in which are rosettes, Cupids, and Bacchic figures. At the sides of the arches over the pillars are females holding dolphins which terminate in arabesques. The semicircular compartments formed by the vaulted roof in the walls of entry and exit are also richly adorned with reliefs in stucco.

A door in the further wall of the apodyterium leads into a sort of corridor or passage behind (42), whilst another door on the left conducts us into what must have been the tepidarium (34). At the bottom is a large bath, originally lined with marble, which seems to have been heated by a stove underneath. One of the slabs of marble appears to have contained a dedicatory inscription to the Emperor Augustus, bearing the date of his eleventh consulship, which fell in the second year of the Christian era. The slab was placed in the bath with the inscription downwards, which has thus left its impression in high relief in the mortar in which it was fixed. There is no basin like that just described in the tepidarium of the other baths. It was probably intended, as Overbeck remarks, for those who took a lake-warm bath, by way perhaps of preparation for the caldarium. This apartment is also adorned with reliefs in stucco. but not so richly as the tepidarium of the other baths. The floor, like that of the latter, rested on small brick pillars (suspensura), thus leaving a hollow for the circulation of the warm air. But the whole room is in a ruinous condition.

From the tepidarium a door communicates with the caldarium (36), which has also a floor like that just described. The hot air from the furnaces beyond, which circulated under this apartment, was communicated, of course in a cooler state, to the floor of the tepidarium by means of an opening under the doorway. The arrangement of the caldarium is the same as that seen in the earlier discovered baths a labrum at the circular end (35), in the middle the sudatorium, with hollow walls besides the suspended floor, and at the other end a large basin for the hot bath, having over it three niches for statues. Adjoining the northern side of the caldarium, but without any visible communication with it, was the furnace. The caldarium does not appear to have been very richly ornamented, and is now almost in ruins.

We will now proceed to describe the other set of baths, which we have ventured to assign to the women. On the northern side of the palaestra, just opposite the principal entrance from the Street of Holconius (at 17), stands a female terminal figure, with well-executed drapery. It might perhaps seem a rather strained inference to assume that this figure was intended to denote the purpose to which this part of the building was devoted; though in deductions which must in a great degree depend upon conjecture, we have sometimes seen more far-fetched arguments adduced. However this may be, it is certain that this figure stands before, one of the principal apartments of this second set of baths, and seems to mark their termination towards the west. The entrance to them is by a door near the top of the eastern side of the portico, which leads into the long corridor (44) already mentioned having a picture of a temple and snakes. A door at the end of this corridor, on the left, leads into a large oblong ball (40), having at its western or left extremity a raised basin, destined apparently for the cold bath, with steps to ascend to it. The apartment has a bench round it and niches in the wall. It was undoubtedly an apodyterium, and bears so striking a resemblance to the apodyterium of the women's baths in the Therm first discovered, as to afford no slight confirmation to the opinion that it served the same purpose here. The apartment, which is well preserved, is much more simply decorated than the apodyterium of the men's baths. The walls between the bench and the abacus of the niches are red, and the remainder white. The vaulted roof has two round openings or windows, and there is another over the bath. The floor is paved with opus Signinum. There are two other entrances to this apodyterium, on the right and left, from a long and narrow passage or corridor which runs along the whole northern side of the establishment. The passage on the right (41) leads from the Street of Stabi , that on the left (48, 48), which is much longer, from the Street of the Lupanar. It may be observed that these passages lead only into that part of the establishment which we have assigned to the women's baths, thus ensuring their privacy on this side. The apartment marked 39 in the plan has no communication whatever with the Baths. It has an opening into the Strada Stabiana, and was probably a shop.

A door in the right-hand corner of the apodyterium, close to that by which it is entered from the corridor, leads into the tepidarium (38). This apartment is very simply decorated. The floor, which rests on suspensuroe, is paved with coarse white mosaic; the walls are also hollow in order to circulate the hot vapour; and even its vaulted roof seems to have had a hollow coating of stucco, which, however, has now fallen in. A door in the middle of the right-hand side of the tepidarium leads into the caldarium (37). This apartment, except that it is not so large, corresponds precisely with the caldarium already described in the men's baths and with that of the previously discovered Therm . On one of its smaller sides, on the left, is a large oblong bath of white marble, in a perfect state of preservation, having at the bottom of one of its sides a large semicircular aperture for the admission of hot water, and above it a bronze tube, capable of being closed with a cock, to let in cold water. At the opposite end of the hall is the semicircular laconicum, with its labium, or large round vase of white marble, having a pipe in the middle to fill it with hot water. The floor and walls of this apartment are also hollow. It is more elegantly decorated than the rooms just described. The walls are red, and are picked out with little stucco pilasters painted yellow, with white capitals, and springing from a narrow marble border. The wall of the laconicum is richly adorned with stucco, and has a window lighted from the corridor leading into the pal stra. The floor is of fine white mosaic. Between this caldarium and that of the other set, or men's baths, is situated the furnace for heating both.

Behind the left or western half of the northern side of the pal stra lies another set of rooms, the destination of some of which is sufficiently obvious, while that of others is difficult to be explained. This suite of apartments is entered by a long passage (21) from the Street of the Lupanar, leading to a room (22) abutting upon the western end of the women's apodyterium, and communicating with the pal stra by a door on the right. At the further end of this room is a staircase (24), which led to an upper story. On the left-hand side of the passage, coming from the street, are four rooms (28) adjoining one another, fitted up as private baths, or what the ancients called solia. Beyond these, a passage on the left (25) leads into a good-sized room (26), having round it a sort of channel or canal. It is supposed to have been a latrina. The room beyond, already mentioned as adjoining the apodyterium and having an entrance into the pal stra, has a small compartment, or cabinet (23), the use of which it is not easy to determine. On the left was a steep staircase leading to an upper story. The space marked 27 appears to have been unoccupied.

On the right-hand side of the long passage leading from the Via del Lupanare, and close to the entrance, are three rooms, the destination of which is uncertain. The first may possibly have been the lodge of the ostiarius or porter. The second has steps leading down to what appears to be a sort of cellar, but is thought to have given admission to the canal or drain by which the water of the baths was carried off. The destination of the third room (20) cannot even be conjectured.

Before concluding this account of the Stabian baths, we should mention that under the portico, near the entrance to the men's baths, was found a sun-dial, consisting as usual of a half circle inscribed in a rectangle, and with the gnomon in perfect preservation. It was supported by lion's feet and elegantly ornamented. On its base was an Oscan inscription, which has been interpreted as follows by Minervini : the Qu stor M. Atinius, in accordance with a decree of the assembly, caused it to be made out of money levied by fines. The title of " Qu stor " seems to show that this inscription must have been written after the occupation of Pompeii by the Romans, but at the same time at a period when the Oscan tongue continued to be generally spoken. The fines alluded to were probably levied for breaches of the rules to be observed in the palaestra.

Figure with a mask, from a painting in Pompeii.