The bathhouse changing room has vibrant red walls, a mosaic floor and stone benches. Tony Jolliffe/BBC
The BBC has an interesting story about Pompeii. Archaeologists have disvovered a "sumptuous" private bathhouse that provides insight into the luxurious life of some of the residents. The bathhouse had hot, warm and cold rooms, exquisite artwork, and a huge plunge pool. It was left as if people left just a few minutes ago. Pompeii, an ancient city in southern Italy, was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79CE.
Dr Sophie Hay describes the private bathhouse complex as a once-in-a-century discovery, which also sheds more light on a darker side of Roman life.
Just behind the hot room is a boiler room. A pipe brought water in from the street - with some syphoned off into the cold plunge pool - and the rest was heated in a lead boiler destined for the hot room. The valves that regulated the flow look so modern it's as if you could turn them on and off even today.
With a furnace sitting beneath, the conditions in this room would have been unbearably hot for the slaves who had to keep the whole system going.
"The most powerful thing from these excavations is that stark contrast between the lives of the slaves and the very, very rich. And here we see it," says Dr Sophie Hay.
"The difference between the sumptuous life of the bathhouse, compared to the furnace room, where the slaves would be feeding the fire toiling all day.