Reviews

The Roman Baths of Hammat Gader: Final Report

Yizhar Hirschfeld, ed. (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1997) 504 pp., $90

In a passage from the Babylonian Talmud, three rabbis debate the achievements of the Roman Empire. One of the rabbis praises Roman architecture—the empire’s great markets, bridges and baths. The second rabbi stays silent, but the third raises an objection: “All that they have instituted they have instituted for their own needs. They have instituted market places to place harlots in them; baths, for their own pleasure; bridges, to collect toll.”