Definitions for "Balneator"
Keywords:  bath, frg, cloakroom, cael, collecitng
The "bath-man," broadly defined. His role and duties are most unclear and appear to have varied from place to place. In some instances, the balneator seems to be the manager of a facility ( CGL 2.569 §34), in others he is a minister performing a host of tasks: collecitng money at the door (Cic. Cael. 62), pouring water over customers ( CGL 2.561 §38), anointing (Plaut. Poen. 703-4), keeping the cloakroom ( Dig. 16.3.1.8), and even stoking the furnaces (Pliny HN 18.156) and procuring ( Dig. 3.2.4.2). What all of these notices take for granted, however, is that the balneator is very much on-the-spot, a visible representative of the management, if not the actual management. A fragment of Petronius (Frg. 2) makes mention of a balneatrix, a female balneator, but this is probably little more than a joke.
bathmen, sometimes managers of the bathing establishments