A Republican Healing-Sanctuary at Ponte Di Nona Near Rome and The Classical Tradition of Votive Medicine

Abstract

Excavations in 1975 and 1976 at a Republican healing-sanctuary, situated on the Via Praenestina, nine Roman miles to the east of Rome, yielded more than eight thousand terracotta ex-votos. The great majority represented parts of the body. Quantitative and medical studies suggest that the sanctuary specialised particularly in the cure of foot and hand injuries, and in the main served a rural population. Some other sanctuaries also appear to have had their areas of medical specialisation. The origins of the practice of dedicating votives in Italy are examined, as is the apparent demise of the cult in the second to first centuries B.C.

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