Tiber Island
Island sacred to healing since Roman times, shaped like a ship, with a still-operating hospital.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Tiber Island in Rome opens in 293 BCE, as plague grips the city and the Senate sends envoys all the way to Greece to fetch a sacred serpent from a temple of the healing god Aesculapius. It follows what happened when the ship carrying the snake reached this island, and how Romans came to treat the spot as a sanctuary for the sick, who slept there hoping the god would visit their dreams. Patients lay down in the temple grounds hoping the god would visit them in a dream and reveal a cure.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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