Waters and spas in the classical world.

So wrote the Elder Pliny in Book XXXI of his Natural History, a section devoted entirely to water, which was the element he considered "lord over all the others".' In Pliny's day the major spas were termed aquae, of which around one hundred are recorded. Many remain unlocated; at some the springs are now dry; at others, due to continued usage, the ancient installations are sealed, or partially or wholly destroyed by subsequent structures. The archaeological investigation of spas is thus a difficult and painstaking process, usually opportunistic as alterations are made to existing buildings. Before turning to the physical remains of the spas themselves, however, I shall briefly survey Greek and Roman medicinal uses of water. In Homeric times baths were employed primarily to cleanse and refresh, and the provision of washing facilities for a visitor appears to have been a part of aristocratic hospitality.2 Already by the time of Hippocrates, however, bathing was regarded as more than a simple hygienic measure. To the cleansing and tonic effect of baths had been added both general and specific healthful and healing properties. Using a combination of hot and cold baths as part of a wider regimen the bodily humours could be adjusted-heating, cooling, moistening, and drying as deemed necessary-to bring them into harmony. Bathing was therefore considered beneficial for most patients.3 Like the humoral doctrine itself, this therapeutic use of baths was remarkably long-lived, spanning the entire classical period. Such popularity was no doubt partly due to the fact that baths were both pleasant and, by the Roman imperial period at least, comparatively freely available. More specifically, warm baths were credited with an indirect nutritive role, whereby a softening of the bather's body prepared it for assimilation of nutriment from food, a Hippocratic notion that was developed by Galen-in the second century AD and Oribasius in the fourth.4 Thermal baths were also recommended in the treatment of particular maladies as, for instance, for soothing chest and back pains in pneumonia, promoting good respiration, relieving fatigue, relaxing joints, curing