Chapter Nine. Pilgrimage To The Spas In The Eastern Mediterranean During The Later Roman And Byzantine Periods

Abstract

This chapter highlights the objectives and activities of central personages in the Christian tradition. It examines the position of the Church toward baths, bathing, and mixed bathing, and bathing as a medical measure. The chapter also highlights the contribution of Christian epigraphic finds to the special nature of the therapeutic baths in Christian public consciousness in everyday life in the Late Roman Empire and Byzantine periods. Many Christian sources mentioned traditions about Jesus and his resurrection in connection with Emmaus-Nicopolis. The place had become a focus of pilgrimage in the Christian world. A magic amulet was discovered in a tomb at Emmaus-Nicopolis and dated to the third century CE, inscribed with an incantation in Aramaic to clear up the affictions of the patient from his head, muscles, phallus and ears.Keywords: Byzantine periods; Christian epigraphicfinds; Emmaus-Nicopolis; pilgrimage; Roman Empire; therapeutic baths