The Cult of Sulis-Minerva at Bath: The Religious Ritual of the Patron Goddess at Bath

<p>The Roman City of Bath, also known as Aqua Sulis, lies in the modern British county of Somerset in the south-east of England. During the Roman occupation of ancient Britain, Bath became a significant Roman town centred on a large religious complex. As the Roman city lies underneath the modern city Bath, excavation of both the temple complex has been difficult. To add further problems, Bath was only mentioned in one ancient source, Solinus. Consequently, there is a large gap in the knowledge we have about Roman Bath and its patron goddess. As such a large Romano-Celtic temple complex, Sulis’ cult has important contributions to religion in Roman Britain. Subsequently, studying and understanding Sulis’ cult is important to the study of Roman Britain. This thesis discusses features of Sulis’ cult and what this may tell us about the goddess’s attributes as well as how her cult functioned. The large Romano-Celtic temple was functional from c.65 to c.400 CE. However, there is evidence which would suggest that Sulis was worshipped by the ancient Britons before the Romans had a permanent presence in Britain. This thesis will place Roman Bath within the wider context of Romano-British history, outlining how it functioned through architecture and evidence for the temple’s gradual decline. Scholarship has agreed that Sulis is a Celtic deity who was worshipped by the Celts before the Romans arrived in Britain. Through Roman religious sensibilities, Sulis was conflated with the Roman goddess Minerva. Most of the physical remains at Bath are architectural features, votive offerings and altars. Many links have been drawn between Sulis and her thermal spring. For example, Sulis-Minerva has been regarded as an important healing divinity and her temple complex a place people can go for healing. This thesis will discuss Sulis and her connection to the goddess Minerva as well as what the goddess’s relationship was to the Romans and Britons. Attention has been drawn to a large cache of 130 Latin defixiones, or curse tablets, discovered in Sulis’ spring. The curses most commonly beseech Sulis to hunt down a culprit and punish them. The defixiones constitute an important source of evidence regarding to Sulis’ attributes. There has been some debate as to the nature of these curse tablets as there have been suggestions that they read more as ‘prayers for justice’. This thesis will explore the idea that the tablets acted as a medium for a devotee to ask the goddess for retribution against a perceived wrong. A comparison will be drawn between Bath’s curse tablets and other forms of Roman prayers comparing the two. As of now, the defixiones contribute a large portion of evidence towards religious life at Bath. Sulis represents hybridization between two ancient civilizations. On the one hand, Sulis had strong roots to ancient British religion but after Roman occupation her cult became predominantly Roman in form. I will discuss the remaining aspects of Celtic religion at Bath, such as in the Gorgon pediment, and how this was changed under Roman rule.</p>

The Cult of Sulis-Minerva at Bath: The Religious Ritual of the Patron Goddess at Bath

<p>The Roman City of Bath, also known as Aqua Sulis, lies in the modern British county of Somerset in the south-east of England. During the Roman occupation of ancient Britain, Bath became a significant Roman town centred on a large religious complex. As the Roman city lies underneath the modern city Bath, excavation of both the temple complex has been difficult. To add further problems, Bath was only mentioned in one ancient source, Solinus. Consequently, there is a large gap in the knowledge we have about Roman Bath and its patron goddess. As such a large Romano-Celtic temple complex, Sulis’ cult has important contributions to religion in Roman Britain. Subsequently, studying and understanding Sulis’ cult is important to the study of Roman Britain. This thesis discusses features of Sulis’ cult and what this may tell us about the goddess’s attributes as well as how her cult functioned. The large Romano-Celtic temple was functional from c.65 to c.400 CE. However, there is evidence which would suggest that Sulis was worshipped by the ancient Britons before the Romans had a permanent presence in Britain. This thesis will place Roman Bath within the wider context of Romano-British history, outlining how it functioned through architecture and evidence for the temple’s gradual decline. Scholarship has agreed that Sulis is a Celtic deity who was worshipped by the Celts before the Romans arrived in Britain. Through Roman religious sensibilities, Sulis was conflated with the Roman goddess Minerva. Most of the physical remains at Bath are architectural features, votive offerings and altars. Many links have been drawn between Sulis and her thermal spring. For example, Sulis-Minerva has been regarded as an important healing divinity and her temple complex a place people can go for healing. This thesis will discuss Sulis and her connection to the goddess Minerva as well as what the goddess’s relationship was to the Romans and Britons. Attention has been drawn to a large cache of 130 Latin defixiones, or curse tablets, discovered in Sulis’ spring. The curses most commonly beseech Sulis to hunt down a culprit and punish them. The defixiones constitute an important source of evidence regarding to Sulis’ attributes. There has been some debate as to the nature of these curse tablets as there have been suggestions that they read more as ‘prayers for justice’. This thesis will explore the idea that the tablets acted as a medium for a devotee to ask the goddess for retribution against a perceived wrong. A comparison will be drawn between Bath’s curse tablets and other forms of Roman prayers comparing the two. As of now, the defixiones contribute a large portion of evidence towards religious life at Bath. Sulis represents hybridization between two ancient civilizations. On the one hand, Sulis had strong roots to ancient British religion but after Roman occupation her cult became predominantly Roman in form. I will discuss the remaining aspects of Celtic religion at Bath, such as in the Gorgon pediment, and how this was changed under Roman rule.</p>

BLACK SWAN DOWN: BRITAIN’S ROMAN PAST AND A NEW BARBARITY

В центре статьи — интернет-скандал, вызванный образовательным мультфильмом о жизни в римской Британии, подготовленным по заказу BBC. Бурное обсуждение цвета кожи главных героев, начатое консервативным публицистом Полом Уотсоном, довольно быстро переросло в своеобразное столкновение в общественном дискурсе двух образов Рима и его наследия: мультикультурного, противоречивого, глобалистского мира и цивилизованной империи белых людей, несущих свет культуры диким варварам. В этом столкновении, как представляется автору статьи, ярко проявляет себя «новое варварство», невежественное с точки зрения современной науки и оперирующее историческими стереотипами. Его характерная черта — попытка присвоить себе наследие римской цивилизации (и шире — всю Античность), чтобы оправдать несправедливость и неравенство современного общества. Это, в свою очередь, вызывает резкую реакцию со стороны западного (не только британского) академического сообщества, которое активно борется за гегемонию в общественном дискурсе. Таким образом, Рим (а точнее — образ римской цивилизации) оказывается одновременно триггером появления варварства и способом его преодоления. A paper is focused on the twitter storm started because of the BBC educational cartoon about life in Roman Britain. The heated debate was provoked by the issue of the skin color of main character of the cartoon, but soon the discussion transformed into a collision between two images of Rome and her legacy. One image depicts Rome as a multicultural, complex, globalized world, another — as a civilized empire of white people who bring the torch of culture to savage barbarians. This collision makes ‘a new barbarity’, ignorant and armed with stereotypes, visible. One of the specific features of this barbarity is that it tries to seize the legacy of Roman civilization (and of all Classical world) and use it to justify injustice and inequality of modern society. It provokes a reaction from western (not British exclusively) academic community, actively fighting for the hegemony over the public discourse. Therefore, an image of Roman civilization becomes a trigger for the appearance of the barbarism as well as the way to overcome this barbarism.

Second Century Defences around Small Towns in Roman Britain Structured by Road Network Connectivity

The large-scale provision of defences around small towns in Roman Britain during the second century is without parallel in the Roman Empire. Whilst the relationship between defended small towns and the Roman road network has been noted previously, provincial-level patterns remain to be explored. Using network analysis and spatial inference methods, this paper shows that defended small towns in the second century are on average better integrated within the road network, as well as located on road segments important for controlling the flow of information, than small towns at random. This research suggests that the fortification of small towns in the second century was structured by the connectivity of the Roman road network and the functioning of the cursus publicus