Ricerc@Sapienza

The paper addresses some issues on water and the water supply system of two cities of the Lycus Valley (Asia Minor) in the imperial age: Hierapolis of Phrygia and Laodicea on the Lycus. Many authors testify to the phenomenon of Hierapolis’ springs of hot waters. Vitruvius witnesses the use of water for the construction of fences in the first century BCE. So does Strabo more or less in the same time span, while the jurist of Augustan age, Antistius Labeo, refers precisely to the case of Hierapolis when treating the interdictum de aquis frigidis.

In recent times the excavations of the Italian Archaelogical Mission in Hierapolis of Phrygia (Pamukkale -Turkey) have focused on two main areas: the central sacred area, including the temenos of Apollo and the adjacent Plutonium, attested by several ancient literary souces; and the the slopes of the hill that bordered the urban centre to the east, where a church was built, incorporating a first century CE tomb. From the second century CE onwards the tomb was venerated as that of the Apostle Philip.