The Roman Baths
Romans came to Bath to bathe, but also to post curses: more than 130 messages begging a goddess to punish thieves were thrown into the hot spring.
Published
Quick Facts
- Location
- Bath, Somerset, in the heart of the city beside Bath Abbey
- Roman name
- Aquae Sulis, 'the waters of Sulis'
- Built
- Temple and baths begun in the later 1st century AD and developed over the following centuries
- Spring output
- About 1.1 million litres of water a day, at around 46°C
- Goddess
- Sulis Minerva, a blend of a local Celtic deity and the Roman goddess of wisdom
- Rediscovered
- The Great Bath was uncovered in the 1870s and 1880s under city architect Major Charles Davis
- Coins recovered
- About 12,000 from the Sacred Spring, excavated in 1979–80
- Designation
- Part of the City of Bath World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1987
The only hot spring in Britain you can't ignore
Britain has plenty of warm springs, but Bath's is something else. Around 1.1 million litres of water rise here every day at roughly 46°C, and it has done so for as long as anyone has been counting. The water began as rain on the Mendip Hills, then sank deep underground, where it was heated by the earth before forcing its way back to the surface through a fault in the rock. The rain you can see falling on Somerset today is a distant relative of what bubbles up in the Roman Baths. To the Romans, who arrived in the AD 40s, steaming water pouring out of a boggy valley was clearly the work of a god.
A goddess with two names
The Romans were practical about religion. Rather than sweep away the local deity, they merged her with one of their own. The spring belonged to Sulis, a Celtic goddess, and the Romans paired her with Minerva to create Sulis Minerva. The town took its name from her: Aquae Sulis. A grand temple rose beside the spring, with an altar in a courtyard and a pediment carrying one of Roman Britain's strangest images. The so-called Gorgon's Head has snaky hair, but also a moustache and beard, and looks distinctly male. Nobody can say for certain why the sculptor made that choice, and it has puzzled visitors since it was found in 1790. Around the spring grew a complex of bathing halls, heated rooms and a huge lead-lined Great Bath, which was once covered by a vaulted roof.
Dear Sulis, please punish my thief
The most human objects from Aquae Sulis are small, rolled-up sheets of lead and pewter. More than 130 of these 'curse tablets' have been recovered from the spring, scratched with requests for the goddess to punish wrongdoers. Most deal with theft: stolen cloaks, missing gloves, and other everyday losses. The writers name the suspects, or sometimes list every kind of person who might be to blame, and promise the goddess a share if justice is done. They are priceless for historians because they preserve ordinary names and ordinary grudges, and they show how many different people, from local Britons to incomers, were drawn to the same sacred water. The spring also gave up around 12,000 coins when it was excavated in 1979–80. Visitors threw them in as offerings, making it one of the largest hoards of Roman coins found at a single British site.
King Bladud and his pigs: the myth
Bath has a founding legend that has nothing to do with Rome. It tells of Bladud, a prince who caught leprosy and was banished, and who became a swineherd. His pigs, also sick, wallowed in the warm mud of the spring and were cured. Bladud copied them, was healed, and later became king, founding the city. The story was written down in the Middle Ages and has been repeated ever since. It is a lovely tale, but there is no evidence behind it. The real history is just as impressive. Romans did bathe here for centuries, but after Roman rule ended the buildings decayed, flooded and were slowly buried under later buildings in the growing medieval town.
Buried under later Bath
After Roman rule ended, the baths and temple were buried beneath later buildings in central Bath, and for centuries they were known only in fragments. Chance finds in the 18th century uncovered the Gorgon's Head and parts of the temple. The big discovery came in the Victorian era. Major Charles Davis, Bath's city architect, led the excavations that revealed the Great Bath. The grand terrace above it, with its statues of Roman emperors and governors looking down on the water, was designed by John McKean in the late 19th century. The statues are Victorian additions, not Roman originals. That is worth remembering when you visit: the stonework at the water's edge and the lead lining beneath it are largely Roman, while the pillars and balustrades above are largely 19th-century. The green colour of the Great Bath is caused by algae, because the Victorians' open-air arrangement lets sunlight in. In Roman times the water was hidden under a high roof.
What to look for when you go
Start at the Great Bath, but then look for the smaller details. The lead lining of the bath, laid by Roman workers, is still in place. Beside it is the spring itself, where steaming water rises into a reservoir that was built in Roman times. In the museum, find the Gorgon's Head and the gilded bronze head of Sulis Minerva, which is one of the best-known Roman finds in Britain. Look for the curse tablets too, and read the translations of the cases they record. Leave time for the Pump Room, built in the 1790s, where visitors can taste the warm, mineral-rich spring water. Many people find it unpleasant, which is part of the experience.
Notable people
- Major Charles Davis
- John McKean
- Bladud
- Sulis Minerva