Sinuessa - Baths

Baths

At a short distance from Sinuessa were the baths or thermal springs called Aquae Sinuessanae which appear to have enjoyed a great reputation among the Romans. Pliny tells us they were esteemed a remedy for barrenness in women and for insanity in men. They are already mentioned by Livy as early as the Second Punic War; and though their fame was eclipsed at a later period by those of Baiae and other fashionable watering-places, they still continued in use under the Empire, and were resorted to among others by the emperor Claudius. It was there, also, that the infamous Tigellinus was compelled to put an end to his own life. The mild and warm climate of Sinuessa is extolled by some writers as contributing to the effect of the waters (Tacitus Annals xii. 66); hence it is called Sinuessa tepens by Silius Italicus, and mollis Sinuessa by Martial. The site of the waters is still called I Bagni, and the remains of Roman buildings still exist there.