The city of Aix-en-Provence owes its origin and a large part of its reputation to its thermal waters. The beneficent virtues known since Roman times of the cold or hot waters of the sources of Étuves, Bagniers or of the fountain of the current Cours Mirabeau prompted General Caïus Sextius Calvinus to establish there the Roman legions he commanded. Rich in calcium bicarbonate and little alkaline, the waters of Aix-en-Provence have long been used in drinks or in baths to treat nervous system or blood circulation disorders, but also the fertility problems of women as well as goiters and ganglionic abscesses.