The Temple
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In the 60s AD, the great Temple of Sulis Minerva was built. The temple precinct, including thermal healing baths, used the Hot Springs for worship, health and social interaction. The engineering feat the Romans achieved is astonishing for until the Temple was built the Springs bubbled up out of open marshes. A lead lined reservoir was built where the Springs rose and a sluice gate arrangement was put in place to cope with the amount of sand brought to the surface by the water. The spring overflow can still be seen today in the Roman Baths Museum, stained bright orange by the oxidised iron salts. The reservoir formed the sacred pool of the temple, near to the sacrificial altar which was in the courtyard of the great Classical temple building.
The ancient world marvelled at Minerva's great temple in Bath. Shrouded in steam, pilgrims approached the mysterious sacred spring at the heart of the temple believing it to be the actual residing place of Sulis Minerva, whose healing cult had spread from Britain throughout the Empire. Not only was Minerva's water renowned for its healing powers; by throwing their offerings into the spring, pilgrims believed that they could communicate directly with the Underworld. Almost 20,000 coins and several gold and silver artefacts have since been recovered. The visual and symbolic focus of the temple was the sacrificial altar. The great mass of stone stood nearly 2m high; its top was chiselled smooth and slightly dished to hold the animals that were slaughtered for augury.
HISTORY
Ancient Bath was founded by Bladud, the eldest son of the Celtic king Lud, so legend tells. As a young man, he contracted leprosy and was exiled to be a swineherder at Swainswick - a village on the outskirts of today's Bath. One day as he watched the pigs, he saw some wallowing in black mud and went to investigate. The mud was hot he found that the marsh was fed by a hot spring. Noticing that the pigs' scurvy had been cleared by the bath. Bladud himself tried bathing in the mud and his leprosy was cured. He returned to his father's court and in time became king.
In gratitude he built a temple by the hot spring and founded the city of Bath. Legend remembers Bladud as a good and learned king. It is said he established the first university in Britain. Bladud was the father of the famous King Lear; legend lends him a death leaping from the roof of Sul's temple by the spring.
CELTIC SUN GOD
Among the most remarkable Celtic works of art of Roman Europe is the outstanding sun god's head that welcomed pilgrims to the temple of Sulis Minerva in Bath. Within its garlands of druids' oak leaves and framed by great serpentine locks of hair, the head of the Celtic sun god glowered all-seeing from its Roman temple pediment, transfixing Roman and Briton alike.
Celtic culture in region was at its height when romans arrived. In a druids' grove by the hot steaming spring, the goddess Sul was worshipped as the guardian to the gateway to the Underworld. It was through major gateways such as Bath's hot spring, that the Celts believed that deities and ancestors could be approached.
Curses.
In the Great Bath, many suppliants left votive offerings.
Amongst the most remarkable and revealing artefacts recovered from the Roman baths are the written dedications, vows and curses that centuries of pilgrims cast into the hot spring. As well as appealing to Sulis Minerva for health or wealth, the pilgrims inscribed curses on thin pewter sheets which were then usually rolled up and placed in the water. Typically, each curse stated a lost love or piece of stolen property; numerous suspects 'whether pagan or Christian' were often listed with an appeal that the guilty should meet some foul end. Common are spells to counter others' curses; writing backwards was thought to imbue the magic with extra potency.
One of them lists the names of some people who seem to have abducted a girl called Vilbia. Archaeologists can use these tablets to find out the names of people who lived in Roman Britain; one of Vilbia's abductors was apparently named Catusminianus. Basilica's curse tablet demands that whoever stole her silver ring, or even knows anything about it and has not told, should be cursed in their blood, eyes, and every limb, and have all intestines eaten away.
'May he who has stolen VILBIA from me become as liquid as water... who has stolen it or her. Velvinna, Exsupereus, Verianus, Severinus, A(u)gustalis, Comitianus, Minianus, Catus, Germanilla, Jovina.' (Bath)
'To Minerva the goddess of Sulis I have given the thief who has stolen my hooded cloak, whether slave or free, whether man or woman. He is not to buy back this gift unless with his own blood.' (Bath)
'Uricalus, Docilosa his wife, Docilis his son and Docilina, Decentinus his brother, Alogiosa: the names of those who have sworn at the spring of the goddess Sulis on the 12th of April. Whosoever has perjured himself there you are to make him to pay for it to the goddess Sulis in his own blood' (Bath)
'I curse him who has stolen, who has robbed Deomiorix from his house. Whoever stole his property, the god is to find him. Let him buy it back with his blood or his own life.' (Bath)
