Medical Hydrology and Balneology: Environmental Aspects

Thermal resorts of the Roman world according
to the Tabula Peuteriana
Tabone W (1)
(1) AFRETH General Delegate. Paris. France
w.tabone@wanadoo.fr
Introduction and Objectives
The Roman expansion at the height of the empire covered a large part of Europe
and Mediterranean Basin. During all the Roman domination, circulation of legions,
administration of territories, and the trades put a multitude of travelers on Roman
ways.
Since the end of the Republic, guides were elaborated to help them : routes, lists
of stages to go from a city to the other one, often on hundreds of kilometers. The
only representation of these “guidebooks” in the form of map which is known is
Tabula Peuteriana.
Elaborated in the first century and updated until the fourth, this map is known by
a copy on parchment dating of the thirteenth century and today preserved in National
library of Vienna. This document, which covers the totality of the imperial
Roman world, reproduces all the main routes by detailing the stages and the distances.
Among 555 mentioned cities, about 10 % are specified as thermal resorts.
We wonder about the reasons of the presence of these health resorts on routes.
Then, by drawing up the inventory of these about fifty thermal resorts, we can
determine those which preserved a thermal identity until our days, and those which
are always active.
The examination of Tabula Peuteriana, an ancestor of our guides of thermal
towns, shows that thermal resorts very early participated to structure territories.
This examination also allows to confirm the durability of people attachment in
thermal springs.
Materials and Methods
Examination and comments of an ancient map : Tabula Peuteriana
Results
not concerned
Conclusions
see introduction
Keywords: History, Thermal Resorts, Roman World
Balnea
2012, núm. 6, 277
277
ISBN: 978-84-669-1887-0
978-84-669-3482-4