AQUAE IASAE
(Varaždinske Toplice) Croatia, Yugoslavia.
A spa ca. 12 km S-SE of Varaždin
is in the territory of the Illyrian tribe of Iasi where there
developed an important settlement in the 1st and 2d c.
A.D. Being at a crossroads the hot springs attracted many
visitors, who left votive monuments especially to the
Nymphs and to Silvanus. In the 2d c. A.D. the respublica
Poetoviensis, to whose territory Aquae Iasae belonged,
built a sanctuary to the Nymphs there. Constantine the
Great reconstructed the bath buildings after a fire and
built porticos.
Systematic excavation has uncovered the bath complex, forum, and capitolium, where a fine statue of
Minerva was discovered. The earlier architecture was
mainly wooden and large oak beams were found preserved by layers of mineral. The pottery was imported
from Italy, Germania, and Gallia, but local production
kept the native traditions. M. Fabius Fabullus, legatus
Augusti provinciae Africae, came here as a patient in
the middle of the 1st c. A.D. The settlement was destroyed
in the end of the 4th c.
The finds are preserved in a local collection and in the
Archaeological Museum at Zagreb.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. Hoffiller & B. Saria,
Antike Inschriften aus Jugoslawien, I (1938) 205-11; B. Vikić-Belančić
& M. Gorenc, “Arheološka istraživanja antiknog kupalištra u Varaždinskim Toplicama,”
Vjesnik Arheološkog muzeja u Zagrebu 1-3 (1958-68).
M. ZANINOVIĆ
