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Temple of Sulis Minerva, Bath
About
Classical temple raised around 60-70 CE over Britain's only natural hot spring, merging the Celtic goddess Sulis with Rome's Minerva into a hybrid deity. Only one other truly classical temple existed anywhere else in Roman Britain, Claudius's shrine at Colchester. Visitors dropped curses etched on lead sheets into the sacred spring, some naming thieves who stole their bath towels. By 117 CE the temple had been drawing pilgrims to Aquae Sulis for roughly half a century.
What happened here
The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.
In ancient writing
- Solinus, Collectanea rerum memorabilium 22.10
Britain's hot springs, fitted out for bathing and set under the protection of Minerva, where the fire in the temple burns coal rather than wood.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →