In Rome, "when there was at first much less freedom in this
matter than in Greece, the bath became common to both sexes, and
though each had its basin and hot room apart, they could see each
other, meet, speak, form intrigues, arrange meetings, and
multiply adulteries. At first, the baths were so dark that men
and women could wash side by side, without recognizing each other
except by the voice; but soon the light of day was allowed to
enter from every side. 'In the bath of Scipio,' said Seneca,
'there were narrow ventholes, rather than windows, hardly
admitting enough light to outrage modesty; but nowadays, baths
are called caves if they do not receive the sun's rays through
large windows.' ... Hadrian severely prohibited this mingling of
men and women, and ordained separate lavaera for the sexes.
Marcus Aurelius and Alexander Severus renewed this edict, but in
the interval, Heliogabalus had authorized the sexes to meet in
the baths." (Dufour, _Histoire de la Prostitution_, vol. ii, Ch.
XVIII; cf. Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_,
Art. Balneæ.)

In Rome, according to ancient custom, actors were compelled to
wear drawers (_subligaculum_) on the stage, in order to safeguard
the modesty of Roman matrons. Respectable women, it seems, also
always wore some sort of _subligaculum_, even sometimes when
bathing. The name was also applied to a leathern girdle laced
behind, which they were occasionally made to wear as a girdle of
chastity. (Dufour, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 150.) Greek women also
wore a cloth round the loins when taking the bath, as did the men
who bathed there; and a woman is represented bathing and wearing
a sort of thin combinations reaching to the middle of the thigh.
(Smith's _Dictionary_, loc. cit.) At a later period, St.