ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Thermae Romae

Thermae Romae is a story about a man named Lucius, who is an architect in ancient Rome. Lucius is having trouble designing public bathhouses that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing. One day, while relaxing in a bath, Lucius is mysteriously transported to modern-day Japan where he discovers new and innovative ways to create bathhouses. He brings these ideas back to ancient Rome and impresses everyone with his designs.

Okay, so imagine you were a really good builder in ancient Rome. You were in charge of making big and fancy bathhouses for people to clean themselves and relax in. But it was getting harder and harder to come up with new designs that were both helpful and looked nice.

One day, while you were taking a soak in the bath, you were zapped into the future and suddenly found yourself in Japan! In this new place, you saw all kinds of amazing new ideas for bathhouses that you had never even thought of before.

You were really excited to bring these new ideas back to Rome and show everyone what you had learned. When you got back, people were amazed by your designs and your bathhouses became really popular!

So basically, Thermae Romae is just a story about a man who needed some new ideas and found them in a really unexpected way.