In the peaceful hinterland of Epidaurus, with its mild climate and abundant mineral springs, is the sanctuary of the god-physician Asklepios, the most famous healing centre of the Greek and Roman world. The sanctuary belonged to the small coastal town of Epidaurus, but its fame and recognition quickly spread beyond the limits of the Argolid. It is considered the birthplace of medicine and is thought to have had more than two hundred dependent spas in the eastern Mediterranean. Its monuments, true masterpieces of ancient Greek art, are a precious testimony to the practice of medicine in antiquity. Indeed they illustrate the development of medicine from the time when healing depended solely on the god until systematic description of cases and the gradual accumulation of knowledge and experience turned it into a science.
Continuous warfare and misery in the fourth and third centuries BC led people to seek even more the protection and help from Asklepios, the philanthropist god, making the sanctuary one of the richest of its time. Several important buildings were erected in both the mountain and plain sanctuaries during this period: the Classical temple, the altar of Apollo, the Great Stoa, the priests' residence and the Temenos of the Muses in the former; the temple of Asklepios, the Abaton, the Tholos, the theatre, the stadium, the Banqueting Hall and the hostel in the latter. The Asklepion suffered from the raids of Sulla and of Cilician pirates in the first century BC, but flourished again in Imperial times and particularly in the second half of the second century AD, when the Roman consul Antonine financed the refurbishment of old buildings and the construction of new ones. Pausanias visited the sanctuary and admired its monuments, which he described in detail (2, 26), during this period. In the following centuries the sanctuary was razed several times and suffered particularly under the Goths in 267 AD. In the mid-fourth century BC, the plain sanctuary was refurbished one last time and a portico connecting many of the existing buildings was constructed at its centre according to Roman fashion. Despite the 426 AD official ban on ancient pagan religions, worship continued in the sanctuary until it was abandoned following the destructive earthquakes of 522 and 551 AD.
The Asklepion of Epidaurus was first investigated by the French Scientific Expedition of the Peloponnese in 1829. P. Kavvadias of the Greek Archaeological Society excavated the site in 1870-1926, uncovering the sanctuary's most important monuments. Limited excavations were conducted by G. Roux of the French School at Athens in the area of the Abaton and in Buildings E and H in 1942-43, and by I. Papadimitriou of the Greek Archaeological Service in 1948-1951. A. Orlandos undertook the restoration of the theatre in 1954-1963. New excavations by the Archaeological Society are in progress at the sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas under Professor V. Lambrinoudakis since 1974, while a special committee of the Ministry of Culture founded in 1984 under the name of Work Group for the Restoration of the Monuments of Epidaurus (currently Committee for the Restoration of the Monuments of Epidaurus) oversees the conservation and presentation of the monuments in both sanctuaries. Recent work at the Asklepieion has both radically altered the aspect of the archaeological site and provided new evidence for the spatial organization, chronology and use of several buildings.
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