Image Details

Corbis

A DEVOTEE OF THE BATHS. Emperor Caracalla (211–217 A.D.), officially Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, was both fervently religious and chronically ill, making him a regular at temples, baths and religious festivals throughout the empire. Coins with his image bear depictions of the healing god Aesculapius and his daughter Hygieia, the personification of health. In Germany Caracalla visited the shrine of the Celtic healing-god Grannus, and at the temple of Aesculapius in Pergamum he took the incubation cure (see sidebar).