Overview

• The interdisciplinary research integrates ethnobotanical fieldwork and classical textual analysis to argue that Caligula possessed extensive knowledge of medicinal plants, especially hellebore.
• Drawing on Suetonius’s account, the study shows that Caligula understood treatment timelines and referenced bloodletting when a senator’s hellebore cure at Antikyra failed.
• The findings establish Antikyra as a premier Roman‐era medical spa renowned for white hellebore potions for neurological ailments and black hellebore purgatives.
• Researchers highlight ancient challenges in identifying hellebore species due to shifting botanical classifications across time and geography.
• YAPP scholars now plan phytochemical analyses of modern Greek hellebore specimens to test the efficacy and biochemical interactions of ancient remedies.