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 the second part of the article, some inscriptions of Laodicea referring to fountains and the water supply system are studied.