Qualla: Baths of Antoninus https://qualla.com/baths-of-antoninus en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/3/baths-of-antoninus-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Baths of Antoninus https://qualla.com/baths-of-antoninus Baths of Antoninus: Introduction https://qualla.com/baths-of-antoninus/ Photo credit Tico at Romanian Wikipedia, Public domain. A single column stands at the Baths of Antoninus, re-erected during a UNESCO campaign in the 1980s. It is one column from the frigidarium, the cold-water hall, and it reaches high enough to suggest what has been lost: vaults that once soared 29 meters overhead, the height of a six-story building. The ruins stretch more than 200 meters along the Carthage shoreline, and even in their ruined state they constitute the largest Roman bathing complex ever built on the African continent -- a structure so massive that centuries of quarrying could not entirely erase it.

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Image: Tico at Romanian Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/3/baths-of-antoninus-wp/snx3-baths-of-antoninus-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Baths of Antoninus: Engineering Against the Earth https://qualla.com/baths-of-antoninus/ Photo credit Emnamizouni, CC BY-SA 3.0. Roman bathhouses typically placed their service areas -- furnaces, water channels, slave quarters -- in basements beneath the bathing halls. At Carthage, the soft Mediterranean clay along the shoreline made this standard approach impossible. The foundation could not support under...

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Image: Emnamizouni | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/3/baths-of-antoninus-wp/snx3-baths-of-antoninus-engineering-against-the-earth.mp3 0:06 2 full Baths of Antoninus: Imperial Ambition in Africa https://qualla.com/baths-of-antoninus/ Photo credit Benreis, CC BY 3.0. Construction began under Emperor Hadrian and the baths were completed during the reign of his successor, Antoninus Pius, whose name they bear. An inscription dates their active use from 133 to 139 AD, though they were expanded in the 3rd century as Carthage grew into one of the w...

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Image: Benreis | CC BY 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/3/baths-of-antoninus-wp/snx3-baths-of-antoninus-imperial-ambition-in-africa.mp3 0:06 3 full Baths of Antoninus: Centuries of Use and Destruction https://qualla.com/baths-of-antoninus/ Photo credit User:SvenZ, CC BY-SA 2.5. The baths served the population of Roman Carthage for nearly three centuries, surviving until the Vandal invasion of 439 AD brought their active use to an end. Even after the Vandals, the building endured in some form -- damaged, repurposed, gradually dismantled. An earthquake in...

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Image: User:SvenZ | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/3/baths-of-antoninus-wp/snx3-baths-of-antoninus-centuries-of-use-and-destruction.mp3 0:06 4 full Baths of Antoninus: What Remains https://qualla.com/baths-of-antoninus/ Photo credit Jana vargova, CC BY-SA 3.0. Archaeological excavations began during the Second World War and led to the creation of an archaeological park around the monument. Today, only the ground-floor service spaces near the shore survive from the original structure -- a labyrinth of vaulted corridors and chambers that...

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Image: Jana vargova | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/3/baths-of-antoninus-wp/snx3-baths-of-antoninus-what-remains.mp3 0:06 5 full