The carbon-sulphur springs of Acque Albule in Guidonia Montecelio arise from Regina and Colonelle lakes and were often mentioned by Latin writers and celebrated for their therapeutic and medicinal qualities.
Pliny the Elder said that "the battle wounded soldiers were brought to Acque Albule as the best place for treatment, whence they returned healed" (Hist. Lib XXXI, 6).
The doctor Archigenes from Apamea, living under the Emperor Trajan, indicated the waters to be effective in the treatment of diseases of the stomach, in the treatment of wounds and ulcers.
Virgil spoke of them in the Aeneid. Nero had them flowing to his Domus Aurea using the Marcio Aqueduct. The emperor Hadrian used them in the numerous pools of his villa in Tivoli. Caesar, who suffered from gout, had the architect Agrippa built a house here to make sulphurous baths architect Agrippa.
In the Renaissance, Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, used the Waters Albule to cure his gout. He requested and obtained approval from the government of the city of Tivoli to build the very famous Villa d'Este, in the hills, to get away from the marshy area surrounding the springs.
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