The Senate concluding this Island to be the Place chosen by the God, decreed that a Temple should be built for Æsculapius there—whereupon the Plague ceased. The Temple grew famous for rich Offerings, in Consideration of their Deliverance from the Plague by that Deity[[400]].
[400]. Livy. lib. xi. Quære, Whether the Historian’s Faith kept pace with his Pen?
VALERIUS MAXIMUS says, that the Priests looking into the Sibyls Books, observed there was no other way to restore the City to its former Health, but by bringing the Image of Æsculapius from Epidaurus ... upon which Ambassadors were sent[[401]].
[401]. Val. Maxim. lib. i. cap. 8. See Ovid. Metamorph. lib. 25.
The Poets and Mythologists, in order to shew there was no Distemper but Æsculapius could cure, said, he raised the Dead. Thus at the Request of Diana, he restor’d Hippolytus to Life, who had been torn to pieces by his Horses. We can’t doubt of the Credulity of the People in thinking him rank’d among the Gods, after so many Temples, Inscriptions, and Medals dedicated to his Memory.
The most famous Temples consecrated to Æsculapius, were that of Epidaurus[[402]], that in the Isle of Co, that of Cyrene, that of Pergamos, that in the Isle of Tyber[[403]].
[402]. Pliny Nat. Hist. lib. 4. c. 5.
[403]. For these, see Strabo, Val. Maximus, Herodot., Livy.
As to the Inscriptions in honour of Æsculapius, Gruterus has these following, viz.
Æsculapio, Hygeæ, & ceteris Diis & Deabus.