Aquae Cutiliae (where Vespasian died, AD 79)

Cold springs in the Sabine country, near Reate, where Vespasian was born; today Terme di Cotilia. The emperor spent every summer here. In AD 79, already ill, he came here from Rome and drank the cold local water, and his illness grew worse. He received embassies in bed, and according to Dio he told the doctors who scolded him for it that an emperor ought to die standing. He died here on June 23, AD 79, in the arms of those who were helping him to his feet (Suetonius, Vespasian 24). In September AD 81 his son Titus died in the same place: Suetonius speaks of the same house, Dio of the same spa. The place appears in the Vespasian and Titus episodes.