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Home > Magazines > Archaeology Odyssey > March/April 2004

Augustus Takes the Cure

To heal his ailing liver, the emperor bathed in “icy water”

By David Soren

In 3 B.C. the Roman emperor Augustus should have felt on top of the world. He had conquered most of western Europe, and the might of his Roman legions stretched deep into North Africa and the Near East. Culturally, he was presiding over a golden age, represented by some of the greatest poets who ever lived: Horace, Virgil and Ovid. The empire was largely at peace, too, with the emperor busily transforming Rome into a new Athens. And he was no longer to be called Octavian but Augustus, the revered one. But Augustus wasn’t happy. Doubled over with pain […]

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Footnotes

1.

These sites, recently studied by Italian archaeologist Annalisa Calapa, include Pasticcetto di Magione, Mandoleto and Colle Arsiccio near Perugia, in the province of Umbria, and a temple, spring and pool complex at Stigliano, in the province of Lazio. In the area of Chianciano, traces of a spring and temple have been uncovered at the site of Fucoli. However, the pool in Mezzomiglio is by far the largest found to date.